AMIDST thy sacred effigies Of old renown give place, O city, Freedom-loved! to his Whose hand unchained a race.
Take the worn frame, that rested not Save in a martyr's grave; The care-lined face, that none forgot, Bent to the kneeling slave.
Let man be free! The mighty word He spake was not his own; An impulse from the Highest stirred These chiselled lips alone.
The cloudy sign, the fiery guide, Along his pathway ran, And Nature, through his voice, denied The ownership of man.
We rest in peace where these sad eyes Saw peril, strife, and pain; His was the nation's sacrifice, And ours the priceless gain.
O symbol of God's will on earth As it is done above!
Bear witness to the cost and worth Of justice and of love.
Stand in thy place and testify To coming ages long, That truth is stronger than a lie, And righteousness than wrong.
THE JUBILEE SINGERS.
A number of students of Fisk University, under the direction of one of the officers, gave a series of concerts in the Northern States, for the purpose of establishing the college on a firmer financial foundation.
Their hymns and songs, mostly in a minor key, touched the hearts of the people, and were received as peculiarly expressive of a race delivered from bondage.
VOICE of a people suffering long, The pathos of their mournful song, The sorrow of their night of wrong!
Their cry like that which Israel gave, A prayer for one to guide and save, Like Moses by the Red Sea's wave!
The stern accord her timbrel lent To Miriam's note of triumph sent O'er Egypt's sunken armament!
The tramp that startled camp and town, And shook the walls of slavery down, The spectral march of old John Brown!
The storm that swept through battle-days, The triumph after long delays, The bondmen giving God the praise!
Voice of a ransomed race, sing on Till Freedom's every right is won, And slavery's every wrong undone
1880.
GARRISON.
The earliest poem in this division was my youthful tribute to the great reformer when himself a young man he was first sounding his trumpet in Essex County. I close with the verses inscribed to him at the end of his earthly career, May 24, 1879. My poetical service in the cause of freedom is thus almost synchronous with his life of devotion to the same cause.
THE storm and peril overpast, The hounding hatred shamed and still, Go, soul of freedom! take at last The place which thou alone canst fill.
Confirm the lesson taught of old-- Life saved for self is lost, while they Who lose it in His service hold The lease of God's eternal day.
Not for thyself, but for the slave Thy words of thunder shook the world; No selfish griefs or hatred gave The strength wherewith thy bolts were hurled.
From lips that Sinai's trumpet blew We heard a tender under song; Thy very wrath from pity grew, From love of man thy hate of wrong.
Now past and present are as one; The life below is life above; Thy mortal years have but begun Thy immortality of love.
With somewhat of thy lofty faith We lay thy outworn garment by, Give death but what belongs to death, And life the life that cannot die!
Not for a soul like thine the calm Of selfish ease and joys of sense; But duty, more than crown or palm, Its own exceeding recompense.
Go up and on thy day well done, Its morning promise well fulfilled, Arise to triumphs yet unwon, To holier tasks that God has willed.
Go, leave behind thee all that mars The work below of man for man; With the white legions of the stars Do service such as angels can.
Wherever wrong shall right deny Or suffering spirits urge their plea, Be thine a voice to smite the lie, A hand to set the captive free!
SONGS OF LABOR AND REFORM
THE QUAKER OF THE OLDEN TIME.
THE Quaker of the olden time!
How calm and firm and true, Unspotted by its wrong and crime, He walked the dark earth through.
The lust of power, the love of gain, The thousand lures of sin Around him, had no power to stain The purity within.
With that deep insight which detects All great things in the small, And knows how each man's life affects The spiritual life of all, He walked by faith and not by sight, By love and not by law; The presence of the wrong or right He rather felt than saw.
He felt that wrong with wrong partakes, That nothing stands alone, That whoso gives the motive, makes His brother's sin his own.
And, pausing not for doubtful choice Of evils great or small, He listened to that inward voice Which called away from all.
O Spirit of that early day, So pure and strong and true, Be with us in the narrow way Our faithful fathers knew.
Give strength the evil to forsake, The cross of Truth to bear, And love and reverent fear to make Our daily lives a prayer!
1838.
DEMOCRACY.
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.--MATTHEW vii. 12.
BEARER of Freedom's holy light, Breaker of Slavery's chain and rod, The foe of all which pains the sight, Or wounds the generous ear of God!
Beautiful yet thy temples rise, Though there profaning gifts are thrown; And fires unkindled of the skies Are glaring round thy altar-stone.