Columbia's genius heard the strain,
And proudly raised his drooping crest;
His sons impatient fill'd the plain,
While panted high each patriot's breast:
Their fetters they indignant spurn'd,
They waved their faulchions in the air,
And where the goddess' altar burn'd,
From kneeling warriors rose the prayer—
To die be ours, if thou art free,
Columbia-land of liberty.
War blew the clarion loud and long;
Oppression led his legions on;
To battle rush'd the patriot throng,
And soon the glorious day was won-
Each bleeding freeman smiled in death;
Flying he saw his country's foes,
And, wafted by his latest breath,
To heaven the cheerful pæan rose-
Content I die, for thou art free!
Columbia-land of liberty.
And shall we ever dim the fires
That flames on Freedom's hundred shrines ?
Shall glory's children shame their sires?
Shall cowards spring from heroes' loins?
No, by the blood our fathers shed,
O, Freedom! in thy holy cause,
When streaming from the martyr'd dead,
It seal'd and sanctified thy laws-
We swear to keep thee great and free!
Columbia-land of liberty.
THE PRAISE OF COLUMBIA.
To no monarch, no tyrant in robes will we sing The pension-bought sounds from a heart of deceit; Let love give the harmony, friendship the string, Bright joy strike the chord, and the muses repeat: 'Tis the praise of Columbia awakens the song, And the loud trump of Fame shall re-echo the strain;
America's freedom the theme shall prolong,
And the world shall repeat it again and again.
For oppression no altar, no temple we raise,
Where the proud sons of indolent power might rest;
'Tis the goddess of Freedom we honour and praise,
Whose temple is found in each patriot's breast:
Then let the praise of Columbia, &c.
Independence we fought for, that blessing we gain'd, Trade, commerce, and plenty still add to our store; These rights shall by valour be ever retain❜d,
And peace, love, and friendship still dwell on this shore :
Then in praise of Columbia, &c.
May the true sons of Freedom still form a proud band, And e'er guard the shore where bright Liberty reigns;
May Heaven in unity link heart and hand,
And smile on the host that no slavery stains:
Then in praise of Columbia, &c.
OLD Homer!-but what have we with him to do?
What are Grecians or Trojans to me or to you?
Your heathenish heroes no more I'll invoke ;
Choice spirits, assist me; attend, hearts of oak.
Perhaps my address you may premature think,
Because I have mentioned no toast, as I drink;
There are many fine toasts; but the best of them all
Is the toast of the times, my lads, LIBERTY HALL.
This fine British building by Alfred was framed ;
Its grand corner-stone Magna Charta was named;
Independency came at Integrity's call,
And rear'd the grand pillars of LIBERTY HALL.
Independence our forefathers bought with their blood, And their sons and their sons' sons will make their deeds good:
By this title we stand; by this title we fall;
For life is not life, out of LIBERTY HALL.
See Columbia triumphant; her ships sweep the sea;
Her standard is Justice, her watchword, "be free."
Our Congress is chosen, our countrymen all,
God bless them, and bless us, in LIBERTY HALL.
O, where is this hall? Lord North fain would know; "Tis neither at London, St. James's, nor Kew;
"Tis a palace of no mortal architect's art,
For LIBERTY HALL'S an American's heart.
WHEN Columbia arose from the wide-spreading flood,
All alone from the isles and the nations she stood;
The voice of her angel was heard through her clime,
And he sung this sweet strain in the morning of time :
"Columbia, all hail! happy world of the west!
Most spacious thy climes-in thy station most bless'd;
Though the last on the map of the nations to stand,
Thy fame shall be first, and the fairest thy land.
"Here the scenes which the future so bright shall unfold,
The nations unborn shall with wonder behold;
For lo! where the brute and the savage both roam,
With towns and vast cities the deserts shall bloom.
O'er the thrones of the east, here an empire shall rise,
Whose base shall be Freedom, and glory the prize,
As firm as the chains of thy mountains to be,
Or thy bounds which the shores of two oceans decree.
"Here tyrants no longer mankind shall enslave,
Nor pamper the base on the spoils of the brave-
The fiend of oppression shall struggle in vain,
To torture thy sons with the lash and the chain :
Nor here shall ambition, more honour'd than God,
Reap laurels and kingdoms from conquest and blood;
Its honour shall flow from a source more refined,
E'en the glory and welfare of millions combined.
“With a world in thyself, in thy soil and thy clime,
And the means of improvement more vast and sublime;
On a scale more enlarged man's existence shall rise,
And the faults of the past make the future grow wise :-
New laws and new systems more perfect shall grow,
And plenty and peace like thy rivers shall flow;
And the road to distinction, all equal shall find,
Where virtue and talents ennoble mankind.
"While the groans of sad Europe are heard from afar,
And the nations are wreck'd on the billows of war,
And the fate of their slaves, by their tyrants decreed
By thousands to toil, and by thousands to bleed;
To this land of repose, lo! the sufferers shall come,
Where the stranger shall find both a refuge and home;
Here millions, more bless'd, future ages shall see,
In the bosom of ease, independent and free.
"Thy heroes and sages, when freedom is born,
Like the stars without number, thy States shall adorn;
As high as the Greek or the Roman's proud name,
Unrivall❜d to shine in the temple of fame.
Here genius, with science, united shall soar,
New plans to unfold, and new fields to explore;
As the arts in progression, advancing shall find
The means to supply all the wants of mankind.
"With union and light, in sweet triumph to blend,
Their freedom invaded, thy sons shall defend;
At their voice so commanding, their foes shall be dumb,
Both their tyrants abroad and their traitors at home:
While virtue and knowledge more strength shall
command
Than their fleets on the seas, or their walls on the land,
And thine eagle the olive and quiver shall bear,
Till the lions of Europe shall roar in despair.
"Here, the gospel of peace, more divinely display'd, No laws shall pervert, and no tyrant invade;
|