Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-11-06
LIBERTY EsI1eHrESING rHEwoR1D

| Majestic warder by the Nations gate,
Spike-crowned, flame armed, like Agony oil
Glory,
Holding the tablets of some unknown law,
| With gesture eloquent and mute as Fate
We stand about tiny feet in solemn awe
Like deserttribes who seek their Sphinx's story,
And question thee in spirit and in speech;
What art thou? Whence? What comest thou
TO teach
What vision hath those introverted eyes
of Revolutions framed in centuries?
Thy tame-what threat, or guide for sacred way?
Thy tabiet-what commandment? What Sinai
Lol as the waves make murmur at thy base,
We wa oh the sombre grandeur of thy face,
And ask thee-what thou art.
/ am LIBERTY, Gods daughter
Ny symbols-a law and torch
Not sword 10 thre aten slaughter,
Nor flame TO dazzle or scoreh
But Il light that the world may see,
And truth that shall make men free.
am the sister OF Duty,
And am the sister OF Faith
TO-d-y, ad0red for my beauty
Tomorrow led forth 10 death
] am she whom ages prayed for
Heroes suffered undismayed for;
Whom the martyrs were betrayed for
I am herald republican from a land grown
free under feet of kings.
Ny radiauce, lighting century span, a sisters
love 10 Columbia brings.
/ am beacon to ships at sea, aad warning to
watchers ashore:
In palace aud prairie and street, through ME,
shall be heard the ominous ocear roar.
am threat TO oppression's sin and pharos-
light to the weak endeavor:
Mine is the love that men may win, but lost-it
is lost forever
Mine are the lovers who deepest pain, with
weapon and word still wounding sore;
With Sangnined hands they caress and chain,
and crown and trample-and still adore
Cities have Hamed IN my name, and Death has
reaped wild harvest of joy and peace,
Till my voice is portent that stills the breath,
my advent an omen that love shall cease
In My name, timid ones craZed with terror; In
Ny name, Law with scourging rod
In Ny name, Anarchy, Cruelty, Error! l, who
am Liberty, daughter of God =
Under mine eyes are the rulers sifted,-
Ever, forever. my changeless laws
Peace BE still See my torch uplifted,
Needless of Passion or Mammon's cause
Round my feet are the ages drifted;
am Liberty. Fame of nation or praise of
statue is naught to me-
Freedom is growth and not creation; one man
suffers, one man is free.
One brain FORCES constitution but how shall
the million souls be won?
Freedom is more than a resolution-he is not
Tree who is free alone.
Justice is mine. and il grows by loving chang
ing the world like the circling SUI;
Evil recedes from the spirits, proving as mist
from the hollows when night is done.
am the test, o silent toilors, holding the scales
of error and truth
Proving the heritage held by spoilers from hard
hands empty, ard wasted youth
Hither, We bliud, from your futile banding
know the rights, and the rights are won;
Wrong shall die with the Observation-Disclosures
truth clear and the work is done.
Nature is higher than Progress or knowledge,
whose need is ninety enslaved for ten;
Ny word shall stand against mart and college
the planet belongs to its living men
And hither, ye weary ones and breathless,
searching the seas for kindly shore,
l am Liberty patient, deathless-set by Love at
the Nations door.
By JollR BOYLE OReiHy.