There fruitful valleys fair Ohio laves ;
On its smooth surface gentle zephyrs play,
The sunbeams tremble with a placid ray.
What future harvests on his bosom glide,
And loads of commerce swell the "downward tide,"
Where Mississippi joins in length'ning sweep,
And rolls majestic to the Atlantic deep.
Along our banks see distant villas spread ;
Here waves the corn, and there extends the mead :
Here sound the murmurs of the gurgling rills ;
There bleat the flocks upon a thousand hills.
Fair opes the lawn — the fertile fields extend,
The kindly flowers from smiling heaven descend ;
The skies drop fatness on the blooming vale ;
From spicy shrubs ambrosial sweets exhale ;
Fresh fragrance rises from the floweret's bloom,
And ripening vineyards breathe a " glad perfume."
Gay swells the music of the warbling grove,
And all around is melody and love.
Here may religion fix her blessed abode,
Bright emanation of creative God ;
Here charity extend her liberal hand,
And mild benevolence o'erspread the land ;
In harmony the social virtues blend ;
Joy without measure, rapture without end !
A printing-press had been established at Lexington, Kentucky, in 1787, on which a weekly newspaper was printed,[1] and, in 1793, Cincinnati had its first newspaper ;[2] but no tokens of the cultivation of the Muses in the West were given, until about the year 1815, when The Western Spy[3] occasionally published verses which were announced as original. Newspapers were then printed in Missouri, in Michigan, and in Indiana;[4] but they were mere chronicles of news, giving infrequent attention even to local business affairs. Soldiers, hunters, and boatmen had among them many songs, descriptive of adventures incident to backwoods life, some of which were not destitute of poetic merit ; but they were known only around camp-fires, or on "broad-horns,"[5] and tradition has preserved none which demands place in these pages.
In August, 1819, the initial monthly magazine of the "West was issued at Lexington, Kentucky.[6] There was then decided rivalry between Cincinnati and Lexington for literery pre-eminence. Rival institutions of learning[7] exerted powerful influence wherever social circles existed, not wholly absorbed by imperative material necessities, and the effect of that influence was the development of an active literary spirit, which found expression in The Western Review, The Western Spy, and in The
- ↑ The Kentucky Gazette, by William Bradford.
- ↑ The Sentinel of the North West Territory, by William Maxwell.
- ↑ Started, in 1799, by Joseph Carpenter, at Cincinnati.
- ↑ Established in Missouri, at St. Louis. 1808; in Michigan, at Detroit, 1810; in Indiana, at Vincennes, in 1811.
- ↑ The common name for Ohio and Mississippi flat-boats.
- ↑ The Western Review. William Gibbes Hunt, Editor. Octavo, 62 pages. Price $5.00 a year. Discontinued at the end of the fourth yolume, July, 1821.
- ↑ Transylvania University, Lexington; Cincinnati College.
