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REVOLUTIONARY REMINISCENCES.

the reception at Trenton, and quite recently some additional and interesting particulars of the event have been furnished by a Trenton family. In addition to the usual demonstrations of respect and attachment which were given by the discharge of cannon, by military corps, and by private persons of distinction, the gentler sex prepared in their own taste a tribute of applause indicative of the grateful recollection in which they held their deliverance twelve years before from a formidable enemy. On the bridge over the creek which passes through the town, was erected a triumphal arch, highly ornamented with laurels and flowers, and supported by thirteen pillars, each entwine with wreaths of evergreen. On the front arch was inscribed in large gilt letters.

THE DEFENDER OF THE MOTHERS

WILL BE THE

PROTECTOR OF THE DAUGHTERS.

On the centre of the arch above the inscription, was a dome or cupola of flowers and evergreens encircling the dates of two memora ble events which were peculiarly interesting to New Jersey. The first was the battle of Trenton, and the second the bold and judicious stand made by the American troops at the same creek, by which the progress of the British army was arrested on the evening preceding the battle of Princeton.

At this place he was met by a party of matrons, leading their daughters dressed in white, who carried baskets of flowers in their hands, and sang, with exquisite sweetness, an ode of two stanzas, prepared for the occasion. The ode was as follows:

Welcome, mighty chief, once more, Welcome to this grateful shore; Now no mercenary foe,

Aims again the fatal blow,

Aims at THEE the fatal blow,

Virgins fair and matrons grave, Those thy conquering arms did save, Build for thee triumphal bowers; Sirew, ye fair, his way with flowers,

Strew your Hero's way with flowers.

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And at the last line the flowers were strewed before him. On passing the arch, as the choir began the song, the general turned his horse's heal towards them, took off h s hat and listened, it is said, with the deepest emotion. It was in reference to this reception, that the following characteristic note was written by the great patr ot.

"GENERAL WASHINGTON cannot leave this place without expressing his acknowledgment to the matrons and young ladies who received him in so novel and grateful a manner at the triumphal arch in Trenton, and for the exquisite sensation he experienced in that affecting moment. The astonishing contrast between his former and actual situation at the same spot, the elegant taste with which it was adorned for the present occasion, and the innocent appearance of the white-robed choir who met him with the gratulatory song, have made such impressions upon his remembrance, as he assures them will never le eliacel.

Trenton, April 21st, 1789."

The original of this note is now in the family of the late Chief-justice Ewing as a sacred relic, and is preserved with religious care. It is only lately that it has been made public through the Trenton State Gazette, to whose editor we tender our thanks for his interesting contribution.

A recent visit to some of the spots in New Jersey consecrated by revolutionary remembrances, has re-awakened our interest, as well as inspired our belief that even yet important matters of fact, touching" the times that tried men's souls," might be snatched from the current of tradition and embodied in the records of history, which otherwise must be swept away on the ever-flowing tide of time.

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THE CHRISTIAN PARLOR MAGAZINE.

THE BOW IN THE CLOUD.

POETRY BY F. C. WOODWORTH. MUSIC BY PEDRO A. ANDREU.

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THE PARLOR TABLE.

We made but a beginning last month, of the reviews of our table, and we find more upon it now than when we began.

The Life of Summerfield, by Holland, with an introductory letter by James Montgomery, has reached the sixth edition, which has recently been published by the editor of this Magazine. The name of this young man is familiarly dear to tens of thousands, and the sweetness of his seraphic spirit lingers in the memory of many as the recollections of a visit from a dweller in a better land. Not like a comet, but like the morning star, he shone for a brief season above the horizon, then melted away into the bright light of Heaven," and left behind him a memory fragrant and precious. The volume is embellished with a striking portrait.

Lady Colquhoun's treatise on "The World's Religion as contrasted with Genuine Christianity," is a little volume which we commend to all "lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God." It is not a gloomy book to repel the young; it admits the joys that spring from earthly fountains, but points to the higher, holier and sweeter pleasures at God's right hand, and that bloom all along the banks of the river of the water of life, as it flows through the wilderness of the world.

In our young days we often read Fox's Book of Martyrs, and studied the terrible pictures that, more eloquently than the text, proclaimed the sufferings of those men of God. But the taste of the present day has called for a new dress for these scenes, and the graphic pen of Charlotte Elizabeth has clothed them afresh. Her volumes of English Martyrology are now the books for the times; children should read them, and early learn the spirit of the Papacy, just what it ever was, bloody and merciless.

Who has not read Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming? But thousands who have read it, and been melted with its magic power, have never read a word of the history of the valley and the people that gave the poet his theme. W. L. Stone, Esq., has gathered the veritable facts that clothe the valley with classic interest, and in one of the choicest volumes of the season, has presented these facts to the public. We love the poet, we thank the historian. The poem and the history are in the same covers, and each adds charms to the other, that apart they lack. Thanks to any man who does justice to the poor Indian, though gone where the praise, as the censure, of men is lost upon him. We are glad to see that the ladies "on Susquehannah's side," are yearly celebrating the events that have given

such melancholy interest to the “Fair Wyoming," and in this connection we are tempted to place on our pages one of the prettiest things that we have seen from the pen of one of the most remarkable men of the age. The Ladies of Wyoming invited the Hon. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS to address them on the occasion of the Wyoming Massacre Anniversary, and the following is his characteristic letter of reply:

Mrs. SARAH H. BUTLER, President of the Ladies' Wyoming Monumental Association Wilkesbarre,

Pa.:

Washington, 18th May, 1844.

Honored Lady: I have received with deep and grateful emotions your letter of the 4th instant, inviting me, on the part of the Ladies' Wyoming Monumental Association, to attend the anniversary celebration of the missacre at that place, on the 3d of July, 1778, one of the ever memorable events of the war for Independence. Besides the profound interest which the melancholy glory of that day has stamped on the memory of every American heart of age to have received its first impression when it occurred, your letter presents other motives not less urgent to the impulses of filial affection and cherished friendship, in its gracious allusions to both my parents, and to their participation in many of the great transactions in which it was their destiny to live, and in the attractive promise which it holds out of an opportunity to meet once more a cordially venerated friend, in the person of Mr. Charles Miner, and of hearing from his lips the deeply interesting and authentic details of that historical epoch, which for a series of years he has been so indefatigably treasuring up for the instruction of

after times.

My

Nor are the genial influences of the flowery season without their stimulants to visit that happy portion of Pennsylvania, where the fascinating beauties on the surface of the soil, are but the index to the mineral riches beneath. imagination can scarcely conceive a more copious aggregate of inducements to accept, with more than cheerful eagerness, the tender of your congenial hospitality, and to secure for the enjoyment of my remaining days, the actual vision of your paradise upon earth, and the charm of personal interviews with its amiable inhabitants.

But it is yet uncertain whether the session of Congress will not be protracted beyond the anniversary day, and if it should be, an indispensable attendance upon public duties will detain me here. If it should not, a precarious state of health, and increasing infirmities, enjoin upon me to return, as speedily as possible, to the retirement and repose of my own residence at the North. But on the day of the celebration, I will be with you in the spirit; I will leave your invitation as a precious legacy to my children; and on that day, and to the end of my life, I will invoke the Father of Mercies, that the lot of the Ladies of the Wyoming Monumental Association, and of all the dwellers in that region, may hereafter be as prosperous and happy as the day of their commemoration was calamitous and afflictive.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS.

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