GRANT IS DEAD.
On Hearing the University Bell at Evanston, Ill., Toll for
the Death of General Grant at Nine O’clock A.M.,
July 23, 1885.
Toll, bells, from every steeple,
Tell the sorrow of the people;
Moan, sullen guns, and sigh
For the greatest who could die.
Grant is dead.
Never so firm were set those moveless lips as now,
Never so dauntless shone that massive brow;
The silent man has passed into the silent tomb.
Ring out our grief, sweet bell,
The people’s sorrow tell
For the greatest who could die.
Grant is dead.
“Let us have peace!” Great heart,
That peace has come to thee;
Thy sword for freedom wrought,
And now thy soul is free,
While a rescued nation stands
Mourning its fallen chief—
The Southern with the Northern lands,[71] ]
Akin in honest grief.
The hands of black and white
Shall clasp above thy grave,
Children of the Republic all,
No master and no slave.
Almost “all summer on this line”
Thou steadily didst “fight it out”;
But Death, the silent,
Matched at last our silent chief,
And put to rout his brave defense.
Moan, sullen guns, and sigh
For the bravest who could die.
Grant is dead.
The huge world holds to-day
No fame so great, so wide,
As his whose steady eyes grew dim
On Mount McGregor’s side
Only an hour ago, and yet
The whole great world has learned
That Grant is dead.
O heart of Christ! what joy
Brings earth’s new brotherhood!
All lands as one,
Buckner, Grant’s bed beside,
The priest and Protestant in converse kind;
Prayers from all hearts, and Grant
Praying “we all might meet in better worlds.”
Toll, bells, from every steeple,
Tell the sorrow of the people;
So true in life, so calm and strong,
Bravest of all, in death suffering so long
And without one complaint![72] ]
Moan, sullen guns, and sigh
For the greatest who could die;
Salute the nation’s head.
Our Grant is dead.
[Illustration: “AT LAST.”]