The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 3.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[37]
     Be ours to strive in Freedom's cause,
As Christians may, as freemen can!
     Still pouring on unwilling ears
That truth oppression only fears.

What! shall we guard our neighbor still,
     While woman shrieks beneath his rod,
And while he tramples down at will
     The image of a common God?
Shall watch and ward be round him set,
     Of Northern nerve and bayonet?

And shall we know and share with him
     The danger and the growing shame?
And see our Freedom's light grow dim,
     Which should have filled the world with flame?
And, writhing, feel, where'er we turn,
     A world's reproach around us burn?

Is 't not enough that this is borne?
     And asks our haughty neighbor more?
Must fetters which his slaves have worn
     Clank round the Yankee farmer's door?
Must he be told, beside his plough,
     What he must speak, and when, and how?

Must he be told his freedom stands
     On Slavery's dark foundations strong,
On breaking hearts and fettered hands,
     On robbery, and crime, and wrong?
That all his fathers taught is vain,—
     That Freedom's emblem is the chain?