On the sixth day of August in the year 1888, the dear old lady peacefully resigned her soul into the hands of her Maker. She was buried in the family vault of Dr. Charles Townsend Harris at Ocean Hill, Greenwood.

Among her papers we have found an account of the exhumation of the body of her father's old and valued friend, James Madison, the fourth President of the United States.1 The account contains a moral good for us to learn, the nothingness of all that is created, and that God alone is great.

--

"In digging for the foundation for the monument erected over the grave of President Madison the coffin was exposed to view. The appearance of the remains is thus described: 'The board placed above the coffin had decayed, but no earth had fallen in upon it, and everything appeared to be as when the coffin was deposited there, except that the coffin was slightly out of place, allowing a partial view of the interior. As there was no fastening to prevent it, the part of the lid covering the superior portion of the body was raised, and several gentlemen present looked in upon the remains of the great Virginian. The coffin itself, of black walnut, was in perfect preservation and the interior was nearly filled with a species of moss, which adhered tenaciously to the wood. Beneath this, and partially hidden by it were a few of the largest and hardest bones. The lower jaw had fallen away, the bones of the breast and ribs were gone and the only parts of the skeleton which remained were the skull and portions of the cheek bones, the vertebræ of the neck, the spine and the largest bone of the arms. All else of the upper part of the body had returned to the dust whence it was taken, and in a few years more every trace of the body will disappear, until the trump of the resurrection shall unite the scattered particles.""

Mors ultima linea rerum est. HORACE.

1 James Madison died in the year 1836, and was exhumed twenty-one years after burial.

THE RISING GLORY OF AMERICA

[Poem composed and recited by the poet at his graduation, Class of 1771.]

Venient annis

Sæcula feris, quibus oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Typhisque novos
Detegat orbes; nec fit terris
Ultima Thule.

ARGUMENT. The subject proposed

SINICA, MED. Act. III. v. 375.

- The discovery of America by Columbus A philosophical enquiry into the origin of the savages of America The first planters from Europe - Causes of their migration to America - The difficulties they encountered from the jealousy of the natives Agriculture descanted on- - Commerce and navigation Science Future prospects of British usurpation, tyranny, and devastation on this side of the Atlantic-The more comfortable one of Independence, Liberty, and Peace - Conclusion.

Acasto

Now shall the adventurous Muse attempt a theme
More new, more noble, and more flush of fame

Than all that went before

Now through the veil of ancient days renew

The period fam'd when first Columbus touch'd
These shores so long unknown-through various toils,
Famine, and death, the hero forc'd his way,
Thro' oceans pregnant with perpetual storms,
And climates hostile to advent'rous man.

But why, to prompt your tears, should we resume

The tale of Cortez, furious chief ordain'd
With Indian blood to dye the sands and choak,
Fam'd Mexico, thy streams with dead? or why
Once more revive the tale so oft rehears'd
Of Atabilipa, by thirst of gold,

(All conquering motive in the human breast)
Depriv'd of life, which not Peru's rich ore
Nor Mexico's vast mines could then redeem?
Better these northern realms demand our song,
Design'd by nature for the rural reign,

-

For agriculture's toil. No blood we shed
For metals buried in a rocky waste.

Curs'd be that ore, which brutal makes our race,
And prompts mankind to shed a brother's blood!

Eugenio

But whence arose

That vagrant race who love the shady vale,
And choose the forest for their dark abode ?
For long has this perplext the sages' skill
To investigate. Tradition lends no aid
To unveil this secret to the mortal eye

When first these various nations, north and south,
Possest these shores, or from what countries came?-
Whether they sprang from some primeval head
In their own lands, like Adam in the east,-
Yet this the sacred oracles deny,

And reason, too, reclaims against the thought:
For when the general deluge drown'd the world
Where could their tribes have found security,
Where find their fate, but in the ghastly deep?
Unless, as others dream, some chosen few
High on the Andes 'scap'd the general death,
High on the Andes, wrapped in endless snow,
Where winter in his wildest fury reigns,
And subtile aether scarce our life maintains.
But here philosophers oppose the scheme :

This earth, say they, nor hills nor mountains knew
Ere yet the universal flood prevail'd;

But when the mighty waters rose aloft,

Rous'd by the winds, they shook their solid base,
And, in convulsions, tore the delug'd world,
'Till by the winds assuag'd again they fell,
And all their ragged bed expos'd to view.
Perhaps, far wandering toward the northern pole,
The streights of Zembla, and the frozen zone,
And where the eastern Greenland almost joins
America's north point, the hardy tribes
Of banish'd Jews, Siberians, Tartars wild
Came over icy mountains, or on floats

First reach'd these coasts, hid from the world beside.

And yet another argument more strange,
Reserv'd for men of deeper thought, and late,
Presents itself to view:- In Peleg's1 days,
(So says the Hebrew seer's unerring pen)
This mighty mass of earth, this solid globe
Was cleft in twain, "divided" east and west,
While straight between, the deep Atlantic roll'd.
And traces indisputable remain

Of this primeval land, now sunk and lost.—
The islands rising in our eastern main
Are but small fragments of this continent,
Whose two extremities were New Foundland
And St. Helena. — One far in the north,
Where shivering seamen view with strange surprise
The guiding pole-star glittering o'er their heads;
The other near the southern tropic rears
Its head above the waves Bermuda's isles,

Cape Verd, Canary, Britain and the Azores,
With fam'd Hibernia, are but broken parts
Of some prodigious waste, which once sustain'd
Nations and tribes, of vanish'd memory,

Forests and towns, and beasts of every class,
Where navies now explore their briny way.

Leander

Your sophistry, Eugenio, makes me smile :
The roving mind of man delights to dwell
On hidden things, merely because they're hid:
He thinks his knowledge far beyond all limit,
And boldly fathoms Nature's darkest haunts
But for uncertainties, your broken isles,

Your northern Tartars, and your wandering Jews,
(The flimsy cobwebs of a sophist's brains)
Hear what the voice of history proclaims-
The Carthagenians, ere the Roman yoke
Broke their proud spirits, and enslav'd them too,
For navigation were renown'd as much
As haughty Tyre with all her hundred fleets,
Full many a league their vent'rous seamen sail'd

1 Gen. x. 25.

Thro' streight Gibralter, down the western shore
Of Africa, to the Canary isles:

By them call'd Fortunate; so Flaccus 1 sings,
Because eternal spring there clothes the fields
And fruits delicious bloom throughout the year.
From voyaging here, this inference I draw,
Perhaps some barque with all her numerous crew
Falling to leeward of her destin'd port,
Caught by the eastern Trade, was hurried on
Before the unceasing blast to Indian isles,
Brazil, La Plata, or the coasts more south
There stranded, and unable to return,
Forever from their native skies estrang'd

Doubtless they made these virgin climes their own,
And in the course of long revolving years

A numerous progeny from these arose,

And spread throughout the coasts-those whom we call Brazilians, Mexicans, Peruvians rich,

The tribes of Chili, Patagon and those

Who till the shores of Amazon's long stream,
When first the power of Europe here attain'd
Vast empires, kingdoms, cities, palaces,
And polish'd nations stock'd the fertile land.
Who has not heard of Cuzco, Lima and
The town of Mexico - huge cities form'd
From Europe's architecture; ere the arms
Of haughty Spain disturb'd the peaceful soil. -
But here amid this northern dark domain
No towns were seen to rise. No arts were here;
The tribes unskill'd to raise the lofty mast,
Or force the daring prow thro' adverse waves,
Gaz'd on the pregnant soil, and crav'd alone
Life from the unaided genius of the ground,-
This indicates they were a different race;
From whom descended, 't is not ours to say

That power, no doubt, who furnish'd trees and plants,
And animals to this vast continent,

Spoke into being man among the rest,

But what a change is here! what arts arise!

1 Hor. Epod. 16.