The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1876-07-06
THE NATIONAL ODE.
July Fourth. 1879.


Stronger, and dearer and fairer,
To smile on the love we bear her.
To live, az we dreamed her and sought her,
Liberty = latest daughter!
In the clefts OF the rocks, in the secret
We ind her traces;
ON the hills In the crash OF woods that fall,
1--WE heard her call;
When the lines OF battle broke,
We saw her face In the fiery smoke;
Through toll, and anguish, and desolation
We followed and found her
With the grace of a virgin nation
AZ sacred zone around her!
Who 81 all rejoice,
with q righteous voice,
Far.heard through ages, IL not She?
For the menace Ii dumb that defied her,
The doubt is dead that denied her,
And she stands acknowledged, and strong,
and free!
All, bark! the solemn undert0ne,
On every wind of human story blown,
A large, divinely- moulded late,
Questions the right and purpose OF
State;
And in its place sublime,
Our eras are the dust Of time.
The fur of yesterday OF power,
Creeps back with stealthy feet,
Invades the lordship OF the hour,
And at our banquet takes the unbidden
From ali unchronicled and silent ages,
Before the future first begot the past,
TIL history dared, at last,
To write eternal words on granite pages;
From Egypt's tawny DRIFT, and Assur's
mound,
And where, upliftcd white and far,
And man his manhood by the Gauges
found
fIn perial heads, of old millennial sway.
And sill by some pale splendor crowned,
Chill rs cOrpse-llght in our fnll-orbed
In ghostly grandeur rise
And say, through stony lips and vacant
eyes:
Thou that assertest freedom, power and
Declare to us thy claimw
On the shores OF Continent cast,
She won the inviolate soil
BY loss of heirloom of all the Past,
And faith in the royal right OF Toll!
She planted homes on the savage sod:
Into the wilderness lone
She walked with fearless feet,
In her hand the divining-rod,
TIL the veins of the mountains beat
With fire OF metal and force of stone!
She set the speed of the river.h, al
To turn the mills oil ner Dreaui
She drove her plowshare deep
Through the prairie's thousand-centuried
To the South, and West, and North,
She called Pathfinder forth,
Her faithful and sole companion,
Where the flushed sierra, snowy-starred,
Her way TO the sunset barred,
And the nameless rivers in thunder nnd
Channeled the terrible canyon!
Nor paused, till her uttermost home
Was built In the smile of "A softer sky
And the glory OF beauty still 10 be,
Where the haunted waves of Asia die
On the strand Of the worldwide sea!
The race, In conquering,
Some fierce Titanicjoy Of conquest knows;
whether In veins OF serf OF King,
our ancient blood beats restless I'm repoSe.
Awaits not Mans defiant answer long;
For hardship, even as wrong,
Provokes the developed, heroic mood.
This for herself she did; but that which
Az over earth the skies,
blending all forms in one benignHnt glow,
Crowned conscience, tender care,
Justice, that answers every bondmaus
Freedom whereFaith may lead or Thought
The power OF minds that know.
Passion OF hearts that feel,
Purchased by blood and woe,
Guarded by fiIe and STEEL
Hath she secured? What Dlazoh Oh her
shield,
In the clear Century's light
Shines 10 the world revealed,
Declaring nobler triumph, born Of Right?
r. reseen In the vision Of sages,
Foretold when martyrs bled,
Sn. was born of the longing cf ages,
Nv the truth of the noble dead
And the faith Of the living fed.
No blood IN her li2htest veins
Erets nj rcmembe chains,
Nor shame OF bondage has bowed her head.
I'm her form and features still
IN. unbleuching Puritan, Will,
Cavalier honor, Huguenot grace,
The Quaker truth aud sweetness,
And the strength Of the danger-giidled
OF Holland, blend in proud complete
ness.
From the homes of all, where her being
sh. look what she gave to Man.
Justice, that knew n" station,
Belief, as soul decreed,
Free air for aspiration,
Free force for Independent deed!
She takes, but To give again,
As the sea re- urns the r Vers IN ram
Aud gathers the chossu of her seed
FROM tn. hunted OF every crown and
creed.
Her Germany dwells 10y u gcntler Rhine;
Her ireland sees the odd sunburst shliie;
Her France pursIgCssuIIe cream divine;
Her Norway keeps his mountain pine;
Tier Italy Wal y by tue western brine;
And, broad based under all,
Is planted Eng Land ) oaken-hearied mood,
As rich In fotii.de
A. Ger went worldward nom the island =
wall!
Fused i'm her candid light,
To one strong race all races here unite:
Ton.u,s melt in hers, hereditary foemen
EorssI their sword auu slogan, kith and
,rw.s glory, once, Ia be Roman;
Sh. makes IL glory, now, ts be Man!
Bow down!
pptf thine @unir crown
one hour forget
The glory, and recall the debt;
Make expiation,
OF humber mood,
For the pride OF thine e1nitAuon
Ger peril conQu. red and strife suodued!
But half the right 10 wrested
When victory yields her prize,
And half the marrow tested
When old endurance dies
In the sight Of them that love thee,
Pow 10 the greater above thee!
He faileth not 10 smite
The nile ownership of Right.
Nor snares TO sinews fresh nom trial,
And Urine schooled in long denial,
The tests that wait for thee
In larger perils OF prosperity.
pew IN thy Fathers God-and thine!
Ia.
pabo,d. abe blendeth now,
HnmbIins the chaplet OF her hundred