The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1883-08-01
OUR COUNTRY.
READ AT RosELAND PARK, wooDsroCK
CONN, July 4, 1883.

READ AT ROSELAND PARK, WOODSTOCK,
CONN, July 4, 1885,
We give thy natal day to hope,
o, country of our love and prayerl .-
Thy way is down no fatal slope,
But up to freer sun and airl
Tried as by furnace-fres, and yet
By Gods grace only stronger made,
To meet new tasks before thee set
Thou shalt not lack the old-time aid.
The fathers sleep; but men remain
Z 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 defytng space and time
Comes TO US on the accusing wires:
While of thy wealth of noble deeds,
Thy homes of peace, thy votes unsold,
The love that pleads for human needs,
The wrong redressed, but half Is toldi
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, II on daily scandals 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 nowers, Los Angeles
Basks in the semi-tropic air,
To where Katahdin'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,
That, With es them. f through a r Thy open door, door,
Tho old worlds evil outcasts came.
But, thy Just and equal rule,
And labors need and breadth of lands,
Free press and rostrum, church and school,
Thy sure, If slow, Transforming hands
Shall mold even them to thy design,
Making a blessing of the ban;
And Freedoms chemistry combine
The alien elements of man.
The power tina. broke their prison bar
And set the dusky millions free,
And welded in the fame of war
The Union fast to Liberty,
Shall it not deal with other ills,
Redress the red mans grievance, break
The Circean cup which shames and kills,
And Labor full requital maker
Alone to such as ftly 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, unstained with blood, mail
| tained
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 Pyramidsl
| Well have thy later years made good
4 Thy brave-said word q century back,
The pledge of human brotherhood,
The equal claim Of white and black
| That word still echoes round the world,
1 ANT all who hear 1t turn to 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,
| Earths farthest mountain-tops shall burn
With watch-ires 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,
4 So runs our loyal dream of thee;
1 God of our fathers!-make 1t truei
| o, land of lands to thee we give
l Our prayers, our hopes, our service free;
For thee thy sons shall nobly live,
And at thy need shall die for theei
John q. Whittier