Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-07-06
aancaster: 3ntelligeacer.
FRIDAY EVENING, JULY 8. 1883.

OUR COUNTRY. 4
We give thy natal day to hope, .. 4
n Country of our love and prayer!
Thy way is down no fatal slope,
But up to freer sun and air!
Tried as by yfurnace-fres. and yet
By Gods grace only stronger ma1e,
To meet new tasks before thee set
Thou shalt not lack the old-time AID.
The fathers sleep but men remain
As wise as true and brave as they.
Why count the loss and not the gain?
The best Is that we have to-day.
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,
Thy love that pleads tor human needs,
The wrong redressed, but half Is told
Each poor wretch. in his prison cell
Or gallOws moose. IS interviewed
We know the single sinner we'll,
And not the nine and ninety gooa
Yet, If on daily scandals fed,
We know thee still. when all is said,
The best and dearest spot on earth.
From the warm Mexico Gulf, or where,
Belted with flowers, Los Angeles
Basks in the semi.tropIc air,
To where Katahdin's cedar trees
Arc dwarfed and bent by Northern winds,
Thy plenty'5 horn is yearly filled;
Alone, the rounding century finds
Thy liberal soil by free hands titled.
A refuge tor the wrOnged and poor.
Thy genero IS heart has borne the blame
That, with them, through thv open doO",
The old worlds evil Outcasts came.
But with thy Just and equal rule,
And labor's need and breadth OF lands,
Free press and rostrum. church and school,
Thy sure. IT slow, transforming hands
Shall mold even them to thy design,
Making a blessing CT the ban;
And Freedoms chemistry combine
The alien elements of man.
The power that broke their prison bar
And set the dusky millions frea,
And elded I'm the flame OF war
The Union fast to Liberty.
Shall 1t not deal with other ills.
Redress the red mans grievance, break,
The Circean cup which shames and kils.
And Labor full requital make?
Alone to such as lily bear
Thy civic honors bid them fall,
And call thy daughters forth to share
The rights and duties pledge Il all?
No lack was in thy primal stock.
No weaklin founders builded here
Thine were the men of Plymouth Rock,
The Huguenot and Cavalier.
And they whose firm endurance gained
The freedom of the souls OF men,
Whose hands, unstainei with blood maintain
The swordless Comm onwealtt of Penn,
And thine shall be the power OF all
do the work which duty bids.
And make the peoples council hall
As laating as the Pyra ids
We'lI have thy later years made good
Thy brave said word a century back
The pledge of human brotherhood,
The equal claim OF white and black.
That word still echoes round the world.
And all who hear it turn to thee.
And read upon thy flag unfuried
The prophesies OF destiny.
The great worlG-esson all shall learn,
The nations in thy school shall Sit
Earth's farthest mountaintops shall burn
With watchfires from thy own uplIt.
Great without seeking TO be great
By fraud or conquest. rich in gold,
But richer In the large estate
OF virtue which thy children hold,
With peace that comes OF purity.
And strength TO simple justice due:
So runs our royal dream ofthee;
God of our fathers :-mnkc IL true.
o Land OF lands to thee VIC give
Our prayers. our service free;
For thee thy sons shall nobly live,
And at thy need shall die for thee
BY John GreenledJ Whittier. Read at Ros
idnd Park, Woodstock. Conn, Jutyk 1883