From Wachuset, lone and bleak, Ó! for God and duty stand, Whoso shrinks or falters now, Freedom's soil hath only place Perish party - perish clan ; Like that angel's voice sublime, With one heart and with one mouth, “ What though Issachar be strong ! Ye may load his back with wrong Overmuch and over long : Patience with her cup o'errun, Make our Union-bond a chain, Vainly shall your sand-wrought rope Give us bright though broken rays, Take your land of sun and bloom ; Take your slavery-blackened vales ; Boldly, or with treacherous art, Work the ruin, if ye will ; With your bondman's right arm bare, dare ! Onward with your fell design ; Deeply, when the wide abyss ye your helplessness. By the hearth, and in the bed, And the curse of unpaid toil, Our bleak hills shall bud and blow, And when vengeance clouds your skies, We but ask our rocky strand, Valleys by the slave untrod, TO FANEUIL HALL. (WRITTEN in 1844, on reading a call by "a Massachusetts Freeman” for a meeting in Faneuil Hall of the citizens of Massachusetts, without distinction of party, opposed to the annexation of Texas, and the aggressions of South Carolina, and in favor of decisive action against Slavery.] MEN ! - if manhood still ye claim, If the Northern pulse can thrill, Freely, strongly still : Shut the mill-gate — leave the stall — Throng to Faneuil Hall ! Wrongs which freemen never brooked Dangers grim and fierce as they, On your fathers' way ; Shaking with their earthquake-call Ho, to Faneuil Hall ! From your capes and sandy bars From your mountain-ridges cold, Through whose pines the westering stars Stoop their crowns of gold – Echoes from that holy wall : Rock your fathers' hall ! Up, and tread beneath your feet Every cord by party spun; As the heart of one. Let them rise or let them fall : Up, to Faneuil Hall ! Up, and let each voice that speaks Ring from thence to Southern plains, Sharply as the blow which breaks Prison-bolts and chains ! Speak as well becomes the free Dreaded more than steel or ball, Shall your calmest utterance be, Heard from Faneuil Hall ! Have they wronged us ? Let us then Render back nor threats nor prayers ; Have they chained our free-born men ? LET US UNCHAIN THEIRS ! Up! your banner leads the van, Blazoned "Liberty for all !” Up, to Faneuil Hall ! TO MASSACHUSETTS. WRITTEN DURING THE PENDING OF THE TEXAS QUESTION. What though around thee blazes No fiery rallying sign ? Give heaven the light of thine ! The statesman stands apart, From Mammon's crowded mart ? Still let the land be shaken By a summons of thine own! Why, stand with that alone ! With the best is always hope ; God holds the right side up ! But when, with thine uniting, Come voices long and loud, Thy fire-words on the cloud : A deep response is heard, Rolls back thy rallying word ; |