The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-05-01
THE VOW OF WASHINGTON
BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER.

The sword was sheathed: in Aprirs sun
Lay green the fields by Freedom won;
And severed sections, weary o. debates,
Joined hands 1t last and We're United States.
O City sitting by the Sea,
How proud the day that dawned on thee.
When the new era, long desired, began,
And. in its need, the hour had found the man
One thought the cannon salvos spoke;
The resonant bel-tOwer'S vibrant stroke,
The voiceful streets, the plaudit-echolng halls,
And prayer and hymn borne heaYenWard from
st. PauIS.
How felt the land in every part
The strong throb of a nations heart
As its great leader gave. with revecen. awe
His pledge TO Union, Liberty and Law
That pledge the heavens above him heard,
mat VOW the sleep of centuries stirred;
In worldwide wonder listening peoples bent
Their gaze on Freedoms great experiment.
Could il succeed: OF honor sold
And hopes deceived all history told.
Above the wrecks that strewed the mournful
past.
Was the long dream of ages true at last:
Thank God the people choice was Just,
The one man equal TO his trust.
Wise beyond lore, and without weakness good,
Calm in the strength Of hawless rectitude!
His rule of justice, order, peace,
Made possible the worlds release:
Taught prince and serf that power is but q trust,
And rule, alone which serves the ruled, IS JUST
That Freedom generous IS but strong
In hate of fraud and selfish wrong,
Pretense that turns her holy truths 10 lies
And lawless license masking in her guise.
Land of his love, with one glad voice
Let thy great sisterhOod rejoice:
A century'S suns DER thee have risen and set
And, God be praised We are one nation yet.
And still, we trust, the years 10 be
Shall prove his hope was destiny,
Leaving our flag with all its added stars
Unrent by faction and unstained by wars!
Lo, where with patient toll he nursed
And trained the new-Set plant at nrst, d.
The widening branches Of = stately tree
Stretch from the sunrise to the sunset sea.
And in its broad and sheltering shade,
Sitting with none to make afraid,
Were we now silent, through each mighty limb,
The winds OF heaven would sing the praise of
him.
Our first and best,-his ashes lie
Beneath his own Nirginian sky.
Forgive, forget O true and Just and brave,
The storm that swept above thy sacred grave!
For. ever in the awful strife a. III
Auddarll hours OF the nations life
the fierce tumult pierced his warning
word,
Their fathers voice his erring children heard
The change for which he prayed and sought
IN that sharp agony was wrought;
No partial interest draws its alien line
'TwiXt North and South, the cypress and the
pine!
One people now. all doubt beyond,
His name shall be our UniOn-bOnd;
We lift our hands to Heaven, and here and now,
Take on our lips the old Centennial vow.
For rule and trust must needs be ours;
ChOOSer and chosen both are powers
Equal in service as in rights; the claim
OF Duty rests on each and all the same.
Then let the sovereign millions, where
Our banner floats in sun and air,
From the warm paim-lanGS TO Alaska cold,
Repeat with us the pledge century Old!
OAK KNOLL DANvERs, MASS.
At the conclusion of the reading the as
sembly gave Whittier three cheers and a
tiger The Hon. Chauncey NJ. Depew, the
orator of the day, was next introduced, and
received 4 hearty greeting. He spoke as
follows:
1--WE celebrate to-day the centenary of our
One hundred years ago the
United States began their existence. Tie
powers of government were assumed by the
people of the republic, and they became the
sole source of authority. The solemn cere-
monial of the first inauguration, the rever-
ent oath of Washington, the acclaim Of the
multitude greeting their President, marked
the most unique event of modern times IN
the development Of free institutions. The
occasion was not an accident, but a result.
1t was the elimination of the working out
by mighty forces through many centuries
of the problem of self-government. 1t was
not the triumph of a system, the application
of a theory, or the reduction to practice of
the distractions of philosophy. The time,
the country, the heredity and environment
of the people, the folly of its enemies, and
the noble courage of its friends, gave to
liberty after ages of defeat, of trial, of eX-
pertinent, of partial success and substantial
gains, this immortal victory. Henceforth
II had refuge and recruiting station The
found free homes in this favored
land, and invisible armies marched from it by
mail and telegraph, by speech and song, by
precept and example, to regenerate the
world.
''Puritans in New England, Dutchmen in
New York, Catholics in Maryland, Hugue-
1ots in South Carolina had felt the fires of
and were welded to religious
liberty. They had been purified in the
furnace, and in high debate and on bloody
battle fields had learned to sacrifice all
material interests and to peril their lives
for human rights. The principles of con-
;titutional government had been impressed
upon them by hundreds of years of struggle,
and for each principle they could point to
The grave of an ancestor whose death at
-ested the ferocity of the fight and the
value of the concession wrung from arbi-
-rary power. They knew the limitations
If authority, they could pledge their lives
and fortunes to resist encroachments upon
their rights, but it required. the lesson of
Indian massacres, the invasion of the
armies of France from Canada, the tyranny |
If the British crown, the seven years war
Of the revolution, and the five years of
chaos of the Confederation to evolve the |
dea upon which rest the power and per |
nanency of the republic, that liberty and |
lnion are one and inseparable.
THE traditions and experience of the |
,olOnists had made them alert to discover
md quick to resist any peril TO their lib |
9rties. Above all things, they feared and |