“Display who gave you birth,”
And save the priceless treasure, won
By your brave fathers' worth,--
One country, free, united,
Called by one glorious name;
One banner floating o'er them,
From Lakes to Gulf, the same.
Leave shop, and bench, and counter;
Leave forge, and desk, and field;
Leave axe, and spade, and hammer,
For weaker hands to wiel
Come from Penobscot's pine-clad banks,
Where the hardy woodman's axe
Hurls crashing down the giant tree
Upon the bear's fresh tracks;
From the clustered hills of granite,
Crowned with the noble name
Of him, whose home dishonored
Has left to us his fame;
From where Ticonderoga
Looks out on blue Champlain;
From the green shores of Erie,
The field of Lundy's Lane;
From Bennington and Plattsburg,
From Saratoga's plain,
From every field of battle
Where honored dead remain.
Up, Massachusetts! seize the sword
That won calm peace and free ;1
'Tis thine, still thine, to lead the way
Through blood to Liberty.
On Narragansett's busy shores,
Remember gallant Greene;
And ye, whose fathers oft he led,
Bold Putnam's courage keen.
Through the broad Western prairies,
The mighty river pours
Its swollen floods resistless
On subject Southern shores.
So, freemen of the prairies,
Pour your resistless flood;
And, as the rushing river
Whirls down the drifting wood,
So, let your armies marching,
O'erwhelm the traitorous band,
That dared their country's flag to touch
With sacrilegious hand.
Kentucky! “Why in slumbers
Lethagic dost thou lie” ?
“Wake, join with” Massachusetts,
Thy true and “old ally.”
In East and West, in North and South,
Let every patriot rise,
Till North and South, till East and West,
Shall share the glorious prize,--
One country, undivided,
Called by one glorious name,
One banner floating o'er us,
From Gulf to Lakes the same.
Boston, May 18, 1861.
G. S. H.
--Boston Daily Advertiser, May 25.
