All hail! Unfurl the Stripes and Stars!
The banner of the free!
Ten times ten thousand patriots greet
The shrine of Liberty!
Come, with one heart, one hope, one aim,
An undivided band,
To elevate, with solemn rites,
The ruler of our land!
Not to invest a potentate
With robes of majesty,—
Not to confer a kingly crown,
Nor bend a subject knee.
We bow beneath no sceptred sway,
Obey no royal nod:—
Columbia's sons, erect and free,
Kneel only to their God!
Our ruler boasts no titled rank,
No ancient, princely line,—
No regal right to sovereignty,
Ancestral and divine.
A patriot,—at his country's call,
Responding to her voice;
One of the people,—he becomes
A sovereign by our choice!
And now, before the mighty pile
We've reared to Liberty,
He swears to cherish and defend
The charter of the free!
God of our country! seal his oath
With Thy supreme assent.
God save the Union of the States!
God save our President!
Francis DeHaes Janvier.
CHAPTER II
THE GAUNTLET
In the fall of 1860 Major Robert Anderson was selected to command the little garrison at Fort Moultrie, in Charleston harbor. In spite of his entreaties, no reinforcements were sent him, and on the night of December 26 he abandoned Fort Moultrie, which his little force was incapable of defending, and moved to Fort Sumter, where he remained in spite of the state's protests.
BOB ANDERSON, MY BEAU