Long raged promiscuous combat, half conceal'd,
When sudden parle suspended all the field;
Then roar the shouts, the smoke forsakes the plain
And the huge hill is topt with heaps of slain.
Stretch'd high in air Britannia's standard waved,
And good Columbus hail'd his country saved;
While calm and silent, where the ranks retire,
He saw brave Wolfe in victory's arms expire.
So the pale moon, when morning beams arise,
Veils her lone visage in her midway skies;
She needs no longer drive the shades away,
Nor waits to view the glories of the day.
Again the towns aspire; the cultured field
And crowded mart their copious treasures yield;
Back to his plough the colon soldier moves,
And songs of triumph fill the warbling groves,
The conscious flocks, returning joys that share,
Spread thro the grassland o'er the walks of war,
Streams, freed of gore, their crystal course regain,
Serener sunbeams gild the tentless plain;
A general jubilee, o'er earth and heaven,
Leads the gay morn and lights the lambent even.
Rejoicing, confident of long repose,
(Their friends triumphant, far retired their foes,)
The British colonies now feel their sway
Span the whole north and crowd the western day.
Acadia, Canada, earth's total side,
From Slave's long lake to Pensacola's tide,
Expand their soils for them; and here unfold
A range of highest hope, a promised age of gold.
But soon from eastern seas dark vapors rise,
Sweep the vast Occident and shroud the skies,
Snatch all the vision from the Hero's sight,
And wrap the coast in sudden shades of night.
He turn'd, and sorrowful besought the Power:
Why sinks the scene, or must I view no more?
Must here the fame of that young world descend?
Shall our brave children find so quick their end?
Where then the promised grace? "Thou soon shalt see
That half mankind shall owe their seats to thee."
The Saint replied: Ere long, beneath thy view
The scene shall brighten and thy joys renew.
Here march the troublous years, when goaded sore
Thy sons shall rise to change the ruling power;
When Albion's prince, who sways the happy land,
To lawless rule extends his tyrant hand,
To bind in slavery's bands the peaceful host,
Their rights unguarded and their charters lost.
Now raise thine eye; from this delusive plain;
What nations leap to life, what deeds adorn their fame!
Columbus look'd; and still around them spread,
From south to north, the immeasurable shade;
At last the central darkness burst away,
And rising regions opened on the day.
Once more bright Delaware's commercial stream
And Penn's throng'd city cast a cheerful gleam;
The dome of state, as conscious of his eye,
Now seem'd to silver in a loftier sky,
Unfolding fair its gates; when lo, within
The assembled states in solemn Congress shine.
The sires elect from every province came,
Where wide Columbia bore the British name,
Where Freedom's sons their highborn lineage trace,
And homebred bravery still exalts the race:
Her sons who plant each various vast domain
That Chesapeak's uncounted currents drain;
The race who Roanoke's clear stream bestride,
Who fell the pine on Apalachia's side,
To Albemarle's wide wave who trust their store,
Who dike proud Pamlico's unstable shore.
Whose groaning barks o'erload the long Santee,
Wind thro the realms and labor to the sea,
(Their cumbrous cargoes, to the sail consign'd,
Seek distant worlds, and feed and clothe mankind;)
The race whose rice-fields suck Savanna's urn,
Whose verdant vines Oconee's bank adorn;
Who freight the Delaware with golden grain,
Who tame their steeds on Monmouth's flowery plain,
From huge Toconnok hills who drag their ore,
And sledge their corn to Hudson's quay-built shore.
Who keel Connecticut's long meadowy tide,
With patient plough his fallow plains divide,
Spread their white flocks o'er Narraganset's vale,
Or chase to each chill pole the monstrous whale;
Whose venturous prows have borne their fame afar,
Tamed all the seas and steer'd by every star,
Dispensed to earth's whole habitants their store,
And with their biting flukes have harrow'd every shore.
The virtuous delegates behold with pain
The hostile Britons hovering o'er the main,
Lament the strife that bids two worlds engage,
And blot their annals with fraternal rage;
Two worlds in one broad state! whose bounds bestride,
Like heaven's blue arch, the vast Atlantic tide,
By language, laws and liberty combined,
Great nurse of thought, example to mankind.
Columbia rears her warning voice in vain,
Brothers to brothers call across the main;
Britannia's patriots lend a listening ear,
But kings and courtiers push their mad career;
Dissension raves, the sheathless falchions glare,
And earth and ocean tremble at the war.
Thus with stern brow, as worn by cares of state,
His bosom big with dark unfolding fate,
High o'er his lance the sacred Eagle spread,
And earth's whole crown still resting on his head,
Rome's hoary Genius rose, and mournful stood
On roaring Rubicon's forbidden flood,
When Cesar's ensigns swept the Alpine air,
Led their long legions from the Gallic war,
Paused on the opposing bank with wings unfurl'd,
And waved portentous o'er the shuddering world.
The god, with outstretch'd arm and awful look,
Call'd the proud victor and prophetic spoke:
Arrest, my son, thy parricidious hate,
Pass not the stream nor stab my filial state,
Stab not thyself, thy friends, thy total kind,
And worlds and ages in one state combined.
The chief, regardless of the warning god,
Rein'd his rude steed and headlong past the flood,
Cried, Farewel, Peace! took Fortune for his guide,
And o'er his country pour'd the slaughtering tide.
High on the foremost seat, in living light,
Resplendent Randolph caught the world's full sight.
He opes the cause, and points in prospect far
Thro all the toils that wait impending war:
But, reverend sage! thy race must soon be o'er,
To lend thy lustre and to shine no more.
So the mild morning star, from shades of even,
Leads up the dawn and lights the front of heaven,
Points to the waking world the sun's broad way,
Then veils his own, and vaults above the day.
And see bright Washington behind thee rise,
Thy following sun, to gild our morning skies,
O'er shadowy climes to pour enlivening flame,
The charms of freedom and the fire of fame.
For him the patriot bay beheld with pride
The hero's laurel springing by its side;
His sword still sleeping rested on his thigh,
On Britain still he cast a filial eye;
But sovereign fortitude his visage bore,
To meet her legions on the invaded shore.