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Show 42 Shall outraged nature cease to feel 7 Shall mercy's tears no longer flow 7 Shall ruffian threats of cord and steel- The dungeon's gloom-th' assassin's blow, Turn back the spirit roused to save The Truth-our Country-and the Slave ? Of human skulls that shrine was made, Whereon the priests of Mexico Before their loathsome idol prayed- Is Freedom's altar fashioned so 7 And must we yield to Freedom's God, As offering meet, the negro's blood 1 Shall tongues be mute, when deeds are wrought Which well miuht shame extremes! hell7 Shall freemen lock th' indignant thought 7 Shall Mercy's bosom cease to swell7 Shall Honor bleed 7-Shall Truth succumb7 Shall pen, and press, and soul be dumb 1 No-by each spot of haunted ground, Where Freedom weeps her children's fallBy Plymouth's rock-and Bunker's moundBy Griswold's stained and shattered wallBy Warren's ghost-by Langdon's shadeBy all the memories of our dead! By their enlarging souls, which burst The bands and fetters round them setBy the FREE PILGRIM sPtntT nursed Within our inmost bosoms, yet,- 43 By all above-around-below- Be ours th' indignant answer-NO ! No-guided by our country's Jaw:!! For truth a~ d n· g 11 t, and sufferin' g man, De ours to stnve in Freedom's cause _As Christians may-as freemen ca:l.! Sttll pouring on unwilling ears That truth oppression only fears. What! shall we guard our neighbor still, Wlule woman shrieks beneath his rod And while he tramples down at will ' The image of a common God ! Shall watch and ward be round him set or northern nerve and bayonet 1 ' An~ shall we know and share with him, 1 he danger and the open shame 1 And see our Freedom's licrht grow dim Which should have filled the world wi~h flame'! And, writhing, feel where'er we turn, A world's reproach around us hum 1 Is 't not enough that this is borne 1 And asks our haughty neighbor more 7 Must fetters which his slaves have worn Clank round the Yankee farmer's do~r7 Must lte be told, beside his plough, Wt.at he must speak, and wlten, and how? |
