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

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[368] Whate'er of folly, shame, or crime,
     Within thy mighty bounds transpires,
With speed defying space and time
     Comes to us on the accusing wires;

While of thy wealth of noble deeds,
     Thy homes of peace, thy votes unsold,
The love that pleads for human needs,
     The wrong redressed, but half is told!

We read each felon's chronicle,
     His acts, his words, his gallows-mood;
We know the single sinner well
     And not the nine and ninety good.

Yet if, on daily scandals fed,
     We seem at times to doubt thy worth,
We know thee still, when all is said,
     The best and dearest spot on earth.

From the warm Mexic Gulf, or where
     Belted with flowers Los Angeles
Basks in the semi-tropic air,
     To where Katahdin's cedar trees

Are dwarfed and bent by Northern winds,
     Thy plenty's horn is yearly filled;
Alone, the rounding century finds
     Thy liberal soil by free hands tilled.

A refuge for the wronged and poor,
     Thy generous heart has borne the blame
That, with them, through thy open door,
     The old world's evil outcasts came.