Weekly Calaveras chronicle., 1866-07-14
OUR COUNTRY.

/
| Again we greet thee. with an honest pride.
Day which ell others shrink and pale beside
The day when Freedom struggled into birth,
Her peans singing to the listening earth.
The day when patriots triumphed DER their
fears. -..-z--.--..,-..--
! And said mo farther" to land of peers
Though worn and weary, honest, true and
strong,
Their firm feet planting on the neck of wrong,
With steady vision and unfaltering breath.
Their names subscribing in the face of death !;
Each glorious W tness of soul sublime,
Columbia's boast-the autographs of time.
Our Nations birthday! with joyous thrill
We e'er have blessed thee, and we bless thee
still;
Here freedoms name awakes no vain regret,
No despot holds us captive in his net; 80
Free men We work. free men we rest and rise,
Our only master Monarch of the Skies.
Content and health abound in every vale,
"Good will to man - is borne on every gale !;
Though faults we have, and ask pardoning
(Our solar monarch shines with freckled face)
No perfect man hath lived since Adam-none
No perfect laws are formed beneath the sun !;
Hence. why disturb the tenor of our verse
by calling men, or anything curses
Unfurl our banner meath smiling sky,,
And shout welcome to our Fourth July"
Ring in its morning with thousand bells
Ring out its evening with rejoicing knels.
Contrast the present with us sisters four, j
Who pensiye came and mournful passed be-
fore; .-f-.
Whose rising Day God flashed Ger lines of
Where serried squadrons tramped with iron
From frosty Maine to Cardinals meads.
The war-path Gathering with their dismal
steeds.
When Mississippi bore her brave in pride,
And warrior shadows walked Potomac's side.
When tented cities crowned the mountains
ar brow, t-le.s .i-- . .f,-.-
And fecked the pastures white as drifts of
snow,
Till dark secession. kissing as she sped,
Bought " serpent wisdom " with her myriad
dead. M s4 Y c5 ta~-3-l -:..
In fancy still we see her bullets dire,
Like ancient Sodom's rain of liquid fire;
Ger laundering walls the hell packed mis-
sive flies, fi e=ldf5 '4l-
And shot and shell speak murderous replies;
The sulphurous clouds ascend our Western
sky
At mornings breaking, and when noon is
high, adfHo IL
And evening shadows circling vale and hill,
Are blent with darkness more appalling still.
The grim faced battery rocks the lordly pines,
And shrapnel hail-storms cut the homestead
vines /; =a+
Cannon on cannon roar across the plain, Fl
Echo on echo rolls it back again;
The waiting winds, with burdened pinions
haste
70 bear the tIdings DER the watery waste:
To Europe's hills, to Iceland's frozen turf
Where shouts freeman or where ouails
serf,
Where sails cloud, where'er rainbow
bends
Triumphant havoc there her message sends.
'Tis over all. We feel the balmy wings
OF Peace that clasps us with her mystic rings,
Shut from our Heaven for many weary day,
Its azire heights she climbs. no more to stray.
lis over all. The world that held her breath
To watch our country through her dance of
death, .r... to
Is breathing free; her pulse no longer stirred
By news of victory. or by hopes deferred.
A year of peace! Oh. how. the bosom heaves
With softened gladness. even as it grieves ~
To think of years that passed. like tempest
waves. t-l rs:r
And left our country but a field of graves.
Our Country, bless thee Any. song of ours
Can add no fragrance tojmmortal flowers; 4
We cannot add by any dulcet strain
One link OF glory to perfect chain;
Though down thy records long, with gaze
f'f aslant $50 . lt 1-''- -
We count thy chiefs from Washington to
1 Grant ....
Undying souls, whose caskets sleep in dust, ..
And living heroes yet a nations trust.
Queen of all nations fixed in time afar,
With hoiier radiance burns thy morning star
Rulers and ruled, with undimnished gaze
Have watched its shining through whirlipg
maze.
Centuries shall lift their giant towers around
And vandal monarchs hurl them to the
ground; ri. -r7f.;.
Peoples on. peoples swaying to and fro n.
Shall pass as shadows. But immortal thou
Oblivion slow. and cold. and'sil mt deep
Ger PROSTATE Kingdoms comes with mighty
sweep; blEe
But thou. o country, shall forever stand
Fame holds thy records high above the sand ::
She writes thy history in the worlds great
heart, - l. 9' III
Which laughs at time, and triumphs over
-sf art. 2 -m -fisls7 70 Js4t
.7 .:t s+ 49,. Mrs. HOPKINS.