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TEXAS STATE LIBRARY
State where we know his talents are duly appreciated by the people and his honor patriotism and chivalry have always been themes of their un- measured eulogy. We have met with some of the Georgia papers and fi,nd in them no other notice of the Verse Memorials than that it is a beautifully printed volume, and a recommendation that Booksellers would do well to supply themselves with copies for the market. Not one word has been said with respect to the merit of the author, the character of his productions, or the rank which he is entitled to assume among the poets of his Country. Not even a solitary piece has been admitted into their papers, while the poet's corner is filled with the productions of foreign writers, not of the first rank, but bearing the endorsement of Harper's Magazine and other similar publications. Had the most indifferent piece of Lamar appeared in that Monthly, with- out doubt it would have been copied throughout the South; but want- ing that stamp, no Georgia Editor, so far as we have noticed, has ven- tured to assume the responsibility of giving to the public any specimen of the contents of the Book or opinion of its value. That which his native State has neither the pride nor magnanimity to do, we have at- tempted in our feeble way, and while we would not offend the author by an over estimate of his achievements we have endeavored to do him justice by assigning to him the merit of being one of the most natural, · melodious and genial poets of America-a verdict which we have no doubt time will sanction and confirm.- In conclusion we think fit to do an act of justice to South Carolina, the noblest of all the Southern States-the very noblest so far as re- gards the chivalry of her character-the jealousy of her rights-the nobility of her statesmen and her fostering care of talents, virtue genius and literature. We find in that little State less demagogism and a higher appreciation of the pure and lofty sentiments of patriotism among her public men than is to be found in any of her sister con- federates of the South. She is the Bulwark and protector of the Amer- ican Constitution-the bold, consistent and uncorrupted defender of its original and unperverted principles; and at the same time she is almost the only State of the South which has manifested any dispo- sition to protect her own literature-to emancipate herself from the dogmatism of the North, and to build up a character of her own. Vir- ginia has seconded her efforts in this respect so far as regards the pub- lication of the Southern Literary Messenger-a noble endeavor· to re- deem the South from its degrading dependence upon antagonistic sis- ters for its mental aliment and the luxuries of genius, taste and fancy. But even this publication, in spite of all the talents with which (it] has been conducted, has long languished for the want of proper pride and patriotism in the South to sustain it, and is still struggling for existence with comparatively and insignificant patronage while its more presumptuous and arrogant, yet less meritorious rival, "Harper's Mag- azine boasts of its two or three hundred thousand circulation and is to be found in almost every dwelling in the South. It is time that those who pretend to be Southern patriots should look to this matter and consider whether it is not a part of their duty to foster the genius and literature of its own section as well as to be everlastingly brawling about whigery, Democracy, Know-Nothingism and all the demagogical struggle of office. Without a literature of our own, we can haYe neither
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