if they were small in comparison with the great performances of European war,
were scarcely less important; and which, if they sometimes transcend belief,
must yet always delight the imagination. His adventures have given
a rich coloring to fable, and have stimulated its performances.
The language of song and story has been employed to do them honor,
and our children are taught, in lessons that they love,
to lisp the deeds and the patriotism of his band. "Marion" --
"Marion's Brigade" and "Marion's men", have passed into household words,
which the young utter with an enthusiasm much more confiding than that
which they yield to the wondrous performances of Greece and Ilium.
They recall, when spoken, a long and delightful series of brilliant exploits,
wild adventures, by day and night, in swamp and thicket,
sudden and strange manoeuvres, and a generous, unwavering ardor,
that never found any peril too hazardous, or any suffering too unendurable.
The theme, thus invested, seems to have escaped the ordinary bounds
of history. It is no longer within the province of the historian.
It has passed into the hands of the poet, and seems to scorn
the appeal to authentic chronicles. When we look for the record
we find but little authority for a faith so confiding, and seemingly
so exaggerated. The story of the Revolution in the southern colonies
has been badly kept. Documentary proofs are few, bald and uninteresting.
A simple paragraph in the newspapers, -- those newspapers
issued not unfrequently in cities where the enemy had power,
and in the control of Editors, unlike the present, who were seldom able
to expatiate upon the achievement which they recorded; --
or the brief dispatches of the Captain himself, whose modesty
would naturally recoil from stating more than the simple result
of his performances; -- these are usually the sum total of our authorities.
The country, sparsely settled, and frequently overrun by the barbarous enemy,
was incapable of that patient industry and persevering care,