The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-03-04
THE PATRIOTS GRAVE.
Read at the Emmett Centennial In Boston
March 4. 1873. by John BOYLE O'ReilIy.

Read at the Emmett centennial In boston
March 4, 1878, by John Boyle o'Reiiiv.
CT am going to my cold and silent
grave-my lamp of life is nearly extin-
guished. 1 have parted with everything
that was dear to me in this life for my
country's cause-with the idol of my soul,
the object of my affections; my race is
run, the grave opens to receive me, and
/ sink into it's bosom! 1 have but one re-
quest to make at my departure from this
world-it is the charity of its silence!
Let no man write my epitaph, for, as no
man who knows my motives dare now
vindicate them, let not ignorance nor
prejudice asperse them. Let them rest in
obscurity and peace! Let my memory be
left in oblivion and my tomb uninscribed.
until other times and other men can do
justice to my character. When my coun-
try takes her place among the nations of
the earth, them and not till then. let my
epitaph be written. speech of Robert
Emmett in the dock.)
Tear down the Grape from the column!
Let the shaft stand white and fair!
Be silent the wailing music-there is no
death in the air!
We come not in plant or sorrow-no tears
may dim our sight;
We dare not weep DER the epitaph we
have not dared to write.
Come hither with glowing faces. the sire.
the youth, and the child;
This grave is a shrine for reverent
hearts and hands that are undefiled.
Its ashes are inspiration; II giveth us
strength to bear,
And sweepeth away dissension and nerv-
eth the will to dare.
In the midst of the tombs, a Gravestone--
nd w fhprpOn n yy0rdt
And behold. at the head of the grave, a
gibbet, torch and a swordl
And the people kneel by the gibbet and
pray to the nameless stone
For the torch to be lit, and the name to
be writ. and the swords red work to
be done!
With pride and not with grief
We lay this century leaf
Upon the tomb, with hearts that do not
falter;
A few brief, toiling years
Since fell the nations tears,
And 10, the patriots gibbet is an altar!
The people that are blest
Have him they loved the best
To mount the martyrs scaffold when
they need him;
And vain the cords that bind
Like the needle to the pole. is true to
freedom!
Three powers there are that dominate
the world
Fraud. Force and Right-and two OPP
press the one;
The bolts of Fraud and Force, like twins
are hurled
Against them ever standeth Right alone.
CycIopian strokes the brutal allies give;
Their letters massive and their dungeon
walls:
Beneath their yoke weak nations cease to
And valiant Right itself defenceless
fallsl
Defaced is law. and Justice slain at
BIRTH
Good men are broken-malefactors
But, when the tyrants tower Ger the
earth,
Behind their wheels strong right is still
alive.
Alive. like seed that Gods own hand has
Like seeds that lieth in the lowly fur
But springs to life when wintry winds are
blown
To-day the earth is gray-'tis green to-
morrow.
The roots strike deep despite the rulers
power.
The plant grows strong with summer
sun and rain.
Till Autumn bursts the deep-red flower.
And freedom marches to the front
again!
While slept the right and reigned the
dual wrong,
Unchanged. unchecked. for half a thou
sand years.
In tears of blood we cried. "oh. Lord.
how long,"
And even God seemed deaf to Erin's
tears.
But when she lay all weak and bruised
and broken.
Her white limbs scared with cruel
chain and thorn
As bursts the cloud. the lightning word
Gods seed took root-His crop of men
was born.
With one deep breath began the lands
progression;
on every field the seeds of freedom fell:
Burke Graean. Flood and Cu-ran in the
Fitzgerald. sheares and Emmett in the
CELL
Such teachers soon aroused the dormant
nation
The voice Of Grattan smote wrongs
domination
The death Of Emmett sealed the cause
OF right