FREEDOM’S BEACON.
‘To-day, to-day it speaks to us! Its future auditories will be the generations of men, as they rise up before it and gather round it’
Webster.
‘To-day it speaks to us!’
Of ‘the times that tried men’s souls,’
When hostile ships rode where yon bay
Its deep blue waters rolls:
When the war-cloud dark was lowering
Portentous o’er the land;
When the vassal troops of Britain came
With bayonet, sword and brand.
‘To-day it speaks to us!’
Of brave deeds nobly done,
When patriot hearts beat high with hope,
Ere Freedom’s cause was won:
Of the conflict fierce, where fell
New-England’s valiant men,
Who waved their country’s banner high,
Though warm blood dyed it then!
And will its voice be still
When the thousands of to-day,
Who have come like pilgrim-worshippers,
From earth shall pass away?
Oh no! ‘the potent orator’
To future times shall tell
Where Prescott, Brooks, and Putnam fought,
Where gallant Warren fell.
’Twill speak of these, and others—
Of brave men, born and nurst
In stormy times, on Danger’s lap.
Who dared Oppression’s worst:
Of Vernon’s chief, and he who came
Across the Atlantic flood,
To offer to the patriot’s God
A sacrifice of blood.
Long as the ‘Bay State’ cherishes
One thought of sainted sires,
Long as the day-god greets her cliffs,
Or gilds her domes and spires;
Long as her granite hills remain
Firm fixed, so long shall be
Yon Monument on Bunker’s height
A beacon for the free!