Nor stalled as cattle in a market-pen.
Praises they sang, and thanks they gave to God,
That he had loosed the chain, and broke the oppressor's rod.
They gazed o'er all the past; their vision's eye
Beheld how men in former years had groaned,
When Hope's own flame burned dim, and no light nigh
Shone to disperse the darkness; when enthroned
Sat boasting Ignorance, and 'neath its sway
Grim Superstition held its lurid lamp,
That only darkened the obstructed way
In which man groped and wandered, till the damp,
Cold, cheerless gateway of an opening tomb
Met his extended hand, and sealed his final doom.
Perchance one mind, illumined from above,
Did strive to burst the heavy bonds it wore,
Pierce through the clouds of error, and, in love
With its new mission, upward seek to soar.
Upon it shone truth's faintest, feeblest ray;
It would be free; but tyrants saw and crushed
Man's first attempt to cast his chains away,
The first aspirings of his nature hushed.
Thus back from men was Freedom's genius driven,
And Slavery's chains in ten-fold strength were riven.
In gazing o'er the past, 't was this they saw-
How Evil long had triumphed; but to-day
Man bowed to nothing but God's righteous law,