Particularly noteworthy was the growing sentiment of friendship between England and America. Not so many years before, the two countries had seemed on the verge of war, but all such clouds had long since been swept away.
BRITANNIA TO COLUMBIA
What is the voice I hear
On the wind of the Western Sea?
Sentinel, listen from out Cape Clear,
And say what the voice may be.
"'Tis a proud, free people calling aloud to a people proud and free.
"And it says to them, 'Kinsmen, hail!
We severed have been too long;
Now let us have done with a wornout tale,
The tale of an ancient wrong,
And our friendship last long as love doth last, and be stronger than death is strong!'"
Answer them, sons of the selfsame race,
And blood of the selfsame clan,
Let us speak with each other, face to face,
And answer as man to man,
And loyally love and trust each other as none but free men can.
Now fling them out to the breeze,
Shamrock, thistle, and rose,
And the Star-Spangled Banner unfurl with these,
A message to friends and foes,
Wherever the sails of peace are seen and wherever the war wind blows.
A message to bond and thrall to wake,
For wherever we come, we twain,
The throne of the tyrant shall rock and quake
And his menace be void and vain,
For you are lords of a strong young land and we are lords of the main.
Yes, this is the voice on the bluff March gale,
"We severed have been too long;
But now we have done with a wornout tale,
The tale of an ancient wrong,
And our friendship shall last long as love doth last and be stronger than death is strong."
Alfred Austin.
Within the United States a similar change was taking place. The old sectional lines of North and South were being forgotten, as a new generation arose, and the proposal to return to the South her captured battle flags—a proposal which, a few years before, had met with frenzied protest from fire-alarm patriots—received general and hearty approval.