New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1866-06-19
The Denfh Of slavery.

Ply WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT.
Thou great Wrong that, through the slowpaced YET
Ddst hold thy millions fettcred, and dds Weld
The scourge that drove the laborer TO the field,
And look with stony eye OF human tcars,
Thy cruel reign is DER;
Thy bondmcn crouch no more
In terror at the menace of thine eve;
For Re who marks the bounds of guilty power,
Long-suffering hath heard the captlyes CRY,
And touched his .hackles at the appointed hour,
And 10 they fall and he whose limbs they CALLED
Stands in bis native manhood, disenthrlled
sloui Of JOY from the redeemed is sent;
Ten thousand hamlets swell the hymn o. thanks
Our rivers roll cxulting and their banks
Send up hosannas TO the ornament.
Fields, where the bondmans toll
No more shall trench the soil,
Seem now 10 bask in a serencr day.
The mcadow-birds sing sweetcr, and the airs
OF Heaven with more caressing softness play,
Welcoming man to liberty like theirs
glory clothes the land from sea to sea,
For the great land and all its coasts are free.
Within that land vert thou enthroned oflate,
And they by whom the nations laws were made,
And they who filed its judgmcnt-seais, obe!cd
Thy mandate rigid as the will Of fate.
Fierce men at thy right hand
With gesture of command,
Gave forth the word that none might dare gainsay;
And grave and reverend ones, who loved thee not,
Shrank from Thy presence, and in blank dismay,
Clicked down, unuttercd, the rebellious thoughts
While mcaner towards, mingled with thy train,
Proved, from the book of God, thy right TO reign.
Great as thou vert and feared from shore TO shore.
mn a.. -. - Al. t,t 1,rre "a
Thou siust CHASTITY shadow by Thy side
Thy once strong arms hang nervelcss cyernoFc.
And they who quailcd but now
Before thy lowering brow
Devote thy memory to scorn and shame,
And cot at the pale, powerlcss thing thou art
And they who ruled in thine imperial name,
Subducd and standing sullenly apart,
Scowl at the hands that overthrow thy reign,
And shattered al a blow the prisoners chain.
Well was thy doom deserved thou didst not spare
Lies tenderest ties but cruelty didstpart
Husband and wife, and from the mothers heart
Ddst wrest her children deaf to shrek and prayer:
Thy inner lair became
The haunt Of guilty shame;
Thy lash dropped blood; the murderer at thy side,
Showed his red hands, nor feared the vengeance due.
Thou didst Garth with crimes, and far aud vide,
A harvest OF uncOunted miseries grew,
Until the measure Of thy sins at last
Was full, and then the avenging bolt was cast
Go then. accused OF God, and take thy place
With baleful memories of the elder time,
With many a wasting pest, and nameess crime,
And bloody war that thinncd the human race;
With the Black Death whose way
Through wang cities lay,
Worship Of Moloch, tynnnes that built
The Pyramids, and cruel creeds that taught
To ayenge a fancied guilt by deeper guilt
Death at the stake 70 those that held them not
Lo the foul phantoms. silent in the gloom
or the flown ages, part to yield thoc ROOM
| sec the better years that hasten by,
Cary thee back into tia, shadowy past
Where, in the dusty spaces, void aud vast,
The graves of those whom thou hast murdered lic
The save-pcn, through whose door
Thy victims pass no more
Is there and there shall the grim block remain
Al which the slave sold; while At thy feet
scourges ana anglo e. ~-.--t-. f-'-.
Molder and rust b. thine eternal seat.
There. mid The symbols that proclaim thy crimes,
Dwell thou, warning 10 the coming times.
Atlantic for July