The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1883-07-18
OUR COUNTRY.
BY JOHN GREESLEAF WHITTIER.
We give thy natal day to hope.

We give thy natal day to hope,
o Country of our hope and prayer
Thy way is down no fatal slope,
But up TO ireer sun and air
Tried as by furnace fires, and yet
BY Gods grace only stronger made,
To meet new tasks before thee set
Thou shalt not lack the old-tirne aid.
The fathers sleep but men remain
As wise, rs true and brave as they.
Why count the cost 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 u OH the accusing wires
While of thy wealth of noble deeds,
Thy homes of peace, thy votes unsoid,
The love that pleads for human need,
The wrong redressed. but half is told
Each poor wretch, in his prison cell
OR gallows-noose, Is interviewed
We know the single sinner well.
And not the nine and ninety good.
Yet, if on daily scandal fed,
We seem at times to doubt thy worth,
We know thee still when all is said
The best and dearest spot on earth.
From the warm Mexic Gulf. or where
Belted with flowers, Los Angeles
Basks in the semi-tropic air.
To where katahdln's cedar trees
Are dwarfed and bent by northern winds,
Thy plenty's horn is yearly filled
Alone the rounding century finds
Thy liberal soil by free hands titled.
A refuge for the wronged and poor,
Thy generous heart has borne the blame
That, with them, through thy open door.
The old worlds evil Outcasts came.
But, with thy just and equal rule,
And iabors need and breadth of lands,
Free press and rostrum, church and schoo
Thy sure, if slow, transforming hands
Shall mold even them TO thy design,
Making blessing of the ban;
And freedoms chemistry combine
The alien elements OF man.
The power that broke their prison bar
And set the dusky millions free,
And welded in the flame Of war
The Union fast To Liberty.
Shall ii not deal with other ills.
Redress the red mans grievance, break
The Circean cup which shames and kills,
And labor full requital make?
Alone to such as fifty bear
Thy civic honors bid them fall.
And call thy daughters forth TO share
The rights and duties pledged to all ?
No lack was in thy primal stock.
No weakling 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 unstaind with blood mainiaint
The swordless commonwealth OF Penn
And thine shall be the power of all
To DO the work which duty bids,
And make the peoples council hall
As lasting as the Pyramids
Well have thy later years made good
Thy hrave-said word q 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 il turn 10 thee,
And read upon thy flag unfurled
The prophecies Of destiny.
The great world lesson all shall learn,
The nations in thy school shall sit,
Earth's farthest monntain-tops shall burn
With watch-iires 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;
90 runs our loyal dream OF thee:
God of our fathers-make II true
} Land Of lands to thee we give
Our prayers. our hopes, our service free
For thee thy sons shall nObly live,
And at thy need shall die for thee