Columbia

“ One century scarce perform'd its destined round,
30 When Gallic powers Columbia's fury found;
And so may you, whoever dares disgrace
The land of freedom's heaven-defended race!
Fix'd are the eyes of nations on the scales,
For in their hopes Columbia's arm prevails.
35 Anon Britannia droops the pensive head,
While round increase the rising hills of dead.
Ah! cruel blindness to Columbia's state!
Lament thy thirst of boundless power too late. ”

“ The Nile, the Niger, the Amazon, the Yangtse, the Mississippi—all of the other great rivers—find their way to the sea through miasmic swamps; only the Columbia finishes in a setting worthy of that in which it takes its rise. Nay, more than that. Superlative to the last degree as is the scenery along the Columbia, from its highest glacial sources in the Rockies and Selkirks right down to the Cascades, there is not a gorge, a vista, a panorama, a cascade of which I cannot truthfully say: “That reminds me of something I have seen before.” ”

“ The Columbia, viewed as one from the sea to the mountains, is like a rugged, broad-topped, picturesque old oak about six hundred miles long and nearly a thousand miles wide measured across the spread of its upper branches, the main limbs gnarled and swollen with lakes and lakelike expansions, while innumerable smaller lakes shine like fruit among the smaller branches. ”

“ COLUMBIA
Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,
The queen of the world, and the child of the skies;
Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,
While ages on ages thy splendor unfold,
Thy reign is the last, and the noblest of time,
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime;
Let the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson thy name,
Be freedom, and science, and virtue thy fame.
To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire;
Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire;
Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend,
And triumph pursue them, and glory attend.
A world is thy realm ”

“ Columbia will crown, with the garland of fame;
If they fall, she will weep o’er their glorious scars,
And will lay them to rest ’neath her Banner of Stars;
We know the Volunteers will always be found
In the van of the host, on the blood-redden’d ground.
Three cheers for Columbia, the queen of the world,
To the wind’s every quarter her flag be unfurled ”

“ It is our own Columbia, which has been paying her Majesty's American land a short visit before it sweeps with majesty towards the Pacific. We cross this and enter upon a wealth of mountain scenery, which belittles what we have passed through, though we thought it so fine. High to the right lifts a monarch capped with snow. High to our left is a huge pair of twins, the double head of a monster.
Our iron horse pants along a rushing river cutting with foaming torrent through chasms so narrow that the father of our land could have leaped across them in the spring-tide of his manhood. ”

“ An American Imitation.
Oh, Columbia, the gem of the ocean,
The home of the brave and the free;
The shrine of each patriot’s devotion,
A world offers homage to thee.
Thy mandates make heroes assemble,
When liberty’s form stands in view ”

“ Far beyond that parallel stretches chain after chain of divisions of the great Continental Range, the Selkirks, the Gold Range, Purcell’s Range, sky-piercing heights, snow-clad and glaciated. Up and down these interlocking chains the Columbia and the Kootenai, with their great lakes and unexplored tributaries, seem to be playing at hide-and-seek with each other. ”

“ All Columbia are satisfied with my exertions: they acknowledge the worth of what I have done. Even the Emperor seems desirous of paying me attention; and, although I have not much faith in his sincerity, his conduct serves to keep up the harmony which prevails. And, by my refusal to accept power at the expense of the happiness of my fellow-citizens, I have now the gratification of seeing the country prosperous, the people enjoying a greater degree of liberty than they have known for centuries, and the whole population vying with each other to show their estimation of my services. ”

“ BILL
"Three cheers for Columbia!"
"Oh! ain't they got the nerve, though!"
"The pitcher that goes to the well once too often gets busted at last! They've carried everything with a swoop so far this year; but the dark days have come! Oh! you Columbia! I'm sorry for you!"
"Tell 'em yes, Captain Hastings! Don't keep the gentlemen in such suspense!"
"Yes, they might get cold feet if you hesitate too long. We're hungry, and we must have a bone; a Columbia bone will answer all right!"
Frank and Lanky listened to these and various other cries with amusement. ”

“ He smiles o'er all; sand in delightful strife
The pencil moves and Calls the whole to life.
So while Columbia's patriarch stood sublime,
And saw rude nature clothe the trackless clime;
The green banks heave, the winding currents pour,
The bays and harbors cleave the yielding shore,
The champaigns spread, the solemn groves arise,
And the rough mountains lengthen round the skies;
Thro all their bounds he traced, with skilful ken,
The unform'd seats and future walks of men;
Mark'd where the field should bloom, the pennon play,
Great cities grow and empires claim their sway ”

“ It was sunset on the bluffs and valleys of the Columbia. Through the tall, dark pines and firs the red west glowed like the lights in an oriel or mullioned window. The air was voiceless. The Columbia rolled silently in the shadows with a shimmering of crimson on its deep middle tides. The long, brown boats of the salmon-fishers sat motionless on the tide. Among the craft of the fishermen glided a long, airy canoe, with swift paddles. It contained an old Umatilla Indian, his daughter, and a young warrior. The party were going to the young chief's funeral. ”

“ Badinage aside, the grandeur of the Columbia, for some miles above the Cascades, is so great and overpowering that one feels little disposed to attempt description. The Hudson, which has so long been the pride of America, is but the younger brother of the Columbia. Place a hundred Dunderbergs side by side, and you have some idea of these stupendous bluffs; double the height of the Palisades, and you can form an idea of these precipitous cliffs. ”

“ The silent grandeur of the Columbia is to be made busy and vocal with the stir of human labor, and the shriek of "resonant steam eagles" that speed from ocean to ocean, bearing the good-will of the nations of the world in bales of merchandise. ”

“ Now the scorn of the world—Three Millions in chains!
O! then shall Columbia’s proud flag be unfurled,
The glory of freemen, and pride of the world,
While earth’s strolling millions point hither in glee,
“To the land of the brave and the home of the free!” ”

“ Distant no more, united in a thought.
Columbia! this thy lesson, learn it well—
The comity of Nations; this the plan
Of God from time's first dawn, that man with man,
Bound in one brotherhood in peace should dwell.
Great Voyager, whose caravels outsped [15]
Man's swiftest fancy in those earlier days!
If, looking far beyond the curving bays
Of this new world thy glowing spirit read
That here there stretched a mighty continent
Where a sure haven for mankind should be,
Small didst thou count thy peril on the sea,
Well knowing what thy sufferings had meant. ”

“ The first explorer of the Columbia, even if he was a very commonplace mortal, must have passed days of the most singular exhilaration, especially if he ascended the stream in that season when the skies are bright and blue, for it seems to me one of the most magnificent sights in the world. ”

“ An Entrance A wall of terrible breakers marks the mouth of the Columbia, Achilles of rivers.
Other mighty streams may swim feebly away seaward, may sink into foul marshes, may trickle through the ditches of an oozy delta, may scatter among sand-bars the currents that once moved majestic and united. But to this heroic flood was destined a short life and a glorious one, — a life all one strong, victorious struggle., from the mountains to the sea. It has no infancy, — two great branches collect its waters up and down the continent. They join, and the Columbia is born to full manhood. ”

“ The way of approach for the Eastern tourist to a journey down the Columbia is by the Canadian Pacific Railway, a magnificent road in a gallery of masterpieces. Wonders begin before he reaches the western watershed. He will see Banff, with its hot springs, its immense hotel, its Bow River and Falls and Valley. He will see the gem of the Canadian Rockies, one of the gems of the earth, Lake Louise. ”

“ The streets of the city are wide, and of course arranged as usual to run at right angles; there has been no hurry or confusion in the building of it, the spirit of the designer is visible everywhere, and the design has been carefully carried out with harmonious effect; every vista is pleasant and refreshing to the eye. Like most other southern cities the thoroughfares are shaded with magnificent old trees, thickly planted, and of prodigious size, on both sides of the road; and yet Columbia has a character peculiarly its own. ”

“ No danger shall balk Columbia's lovers, If need be a thousand shall sternly immolate themselves for one. One from Massachusetts shall be a Missourian's comrade, From Maine and from hot Carolina, and another an Oregonese, shall be friends triune, More precious to each other than all the riches of the earth. ”

“ It has lifted us to the throne, and has set on our brow the name of the Great Republic. It has taught us to demand nothing wrong and to submit to nothing wrong; it has made our diplomacy sagacious, wary, and accomplished; it has opened the iron gate of the mountain, and planted our ensign on the great tranquil sea. It has made the desert to bud and blossom as the rose; it has quickened to life the giant brood of useful arts; it has whitened lake and ocean with the sails of a daring, new, and lawful trade ”

“ A sky-line of brown [Pg 327] mountains, with a double-turreted butte as their most conspicuous feature, marks the point where the Columbia finally turns west for its assault on the Cascades and its plunge to the Pacific. That bend is the boundary of the fertile plains extending from the Yakima to the Walla Walla, and the beginning of a new series of gorges, in some respects the grandest of all. The matchless panorama of the Cascade gorges is a fitting finale to the stupendous scenic pageant that has been staged all the way from the glacial sources of the Columbia. ”

“ O hush thee, my baby, the time soon will come,
When thy sleep shall be broken by trumpet and drum;
Then hush thee, my darling, take rest while you may,
For strife comes with manhood, and waking with day.
Sir Walter Scott.
HAIL, COLUMBIA! Hail, Columbia! happy land!
Hail, ye heroes! heaven-born band!
Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause,
Who fought and bled in Freedom's cause,
And when the storm of war was gone,
Enjoyed the peace your valor won. ”

“ I hope each tar will smile,
And as we have obtain'd a peace,
may plenty crown our isle.
Hoping Columbia's sons will never
oppose our future joy
Or if they do, may we courage find
our enemy to annoy. ”

“ Declining therefore a dissertation on the principles of civil polity, you will indulge me in slightly sketching on those events, which have originated, nurtured, and raised to its present grandeur the empire of Columbia.
As no nation on the globe can rival us in the rapidity of our growth, since the conclusion of the revolutionary war—so none, perhaps, ever endured greater hardships, and distresses, than the people of this country, previous to that period.
We behold a feeble band of colonists, engaged in the arduous undertaking of a new settlement, in the wilds of North America. ”

“ It would have been so natural to give the name of Columbus to the new world which he gave to Castile and Leon, that much wonder has been expressed that America was not called Columbia, and many efforts have been made to give to the continent this name. The District of Columbia was so named at a time when American writers of poetry, were determined that “Columbia” should be the name of the continent. The ship Columbia, from which the great river of the West takes that name, had received this name under the same circumstances about the same time. ”

“ Squads of students were in waiting ready to snatch the members of that gallant crew out of their boat, regardless of protests, and carry them in triumph through the main streets of the town in procession, with a thousand cheering persons following in their wake.
Loud swelled the Columbia yell, and every dear old song so precious to the hearts of those who had attended the famous seat of learning was brought forth to do duty again and again.
Dignified men with gray hair seemed to throw off their sedate manner as though it were a mantle. ”

“ While I have not time to elaborate this thought, the slightest consideration will disclose the magnificent possibilities that await the proper improvement of the Columbia and Snake Rivers. When it is accomplished, as in the not distant day it will be, the Inland Empire will be an empire in fact as well as in name—an empire of industry, of commerce, of manufacture and agriculture; and the valleys of the Columbia and the Snake will have become one vast garden, full of happy homes and contented and industrious people. ”