[65]
No despot ever saw such forces,
High-souled, free-willed, together come;
No empire witnessed such resources
Evoked by the recruiting drum.
Resistless as our rivers' courses,
Enough to strike the Old World dumb!
Heroes in fight.
Their gathering cry a thunder hum.
Would banded Europe's legions come
To dare their might?
To foreign tyrants fearful warning,
This strife 'twixt Freedom's children stands,
Once more united, meet we'd scorning
The leagued wrath of king-ruled lands;
With Freedom's flag our hosts adorning,
Upheld and fenced by Freemen's hands.
Urge on the fight!
True to ourselves, a brighter morning,
Without a cloud, is swiftly dawning
Upon our night.
Then, brothers, fearful though the toil be,
Strain every nerve to bear the weight;
Think what reward will a free soil be,
Beyond the battle's lurid strait;
Though unexampled, long, the moil be,
Joys just as vast your labors wait:
To arms and fight!
Though fierce and strong the war-whirl's boil be,
True to the end there can no foil be:
We war for right.
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Van Nostrand. New York, New York. 1862.
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