Till the wolves and the catamounts troop from their caves, And the shark tracks the pirate, the lord of the waves: In vain is the strife! When its fury is past, Their fortunes must flow in one channel at last, As the torrents that rush from the mountains of snow Our Union is river, lake, ocean, and sky: Man breaks not the medal, when God cuts the die! Though darkened with sulphur, though cloven with steel, The blue arch will brighten, the waters will heal! O Caroline, Caroline, child of the sun, There are battles with Fate that can never be won! Go, then, our rash sister! afar and aloof, — But when your heart aches and your feet have grown sore, Atlantic Monthly. A PSALM OF THE UNION. I. GOD of the Free! upon thy breath Our flag is for the Right unrolled; For Honor still its folds shall fly, For Duty still their glories burn, A PSALM OF THE UNION. Where Truth, Religion, Freedom guard Together lift the Nation's psalm! II. How glorious is our mission here! We look, and lo! a continent Is crouched beneath the Stripes and Stars! Together lift the Nation's psalm! III. No tyrant's impious step is ours; And they who strike us, strike the world. Together lift the Nation's psalm ! IV. God of the Free! our Nation bless In its strong manhood as its birth; 3 And make its life a Star of Hope For all the struggling of the Earth: Thou gav'st the glorious Past to us; Oh! let our Present burn as bright, Truth's, Honor's, Freedom's holy light! Together lift the Nation's psalm! Harpers' Monthly, December, 1861. GOD FOR OUR NATIVE LAND. BY REV. G. W. BETHUNE, D. D. GOD's blessing be upon Our own, our native land! The land our fathers won By the strong heart and hand, The free, the rich, the wide: God for our native land! Up with the starry sign, The red stripes and the white! Where'er its glories shine, In peace, or in the fight, We own its high command; For the flag our fathers gave, O'er our children's heads shall wave, God for our native land! Our native land! to thee, To keep thee strong and free, And glorious as now We pledge each heart and hand; God for our native land! 5 THE FLAG.* BY HORATIO WOODMAN. WHY flashed that flag on Monday morn Why leapt the blood to every cheek, * Fort Sumter, after being occupied by Major Anderson four months with ninety men, was evacuated after bombardment on Saturday, April 14th, 1861. On the following Monday, as if by one consent, the flag of the Republic was raised throughout the Free States, so that wherever the eye turned the national colors were in sight; and the demand for flags was so great that the price of bunting quadrupled in a few days. The hero in our four months' woe, The mind of Cromwell claimed his own, Broke forth in joy, as through them glowed Old Greece was young, and Homer true, And Dante's burning page Flamed in the red along our flag, And kindled holy rage. God's Gospel cheered the sacred cause, In stern, prophetic strain, Which makes His Right our covenant, Oh, sad for him whose light went out Who could not live to feel his kin And sadder still to miss the joy From all that makes life low. Boston Transcript, April, 1861. |