Poem for Independence Day by Marcia Jane Eaton 1876
HOW shall we celebrate the day
To which our freedom owes its birth;
When firm, yet seeking no display,
The patriots stood in proud array,
Before the mighty ones of earth?
Trusting in God, they stood alone,
With dauntless front and unquelled eye,
No servile fear, no sorrowing moan,
As thus they braved high England's throne,
And Liberty or Death," their cry.
Heaven smiled propitious on the hour,
And nerved with hope the little band
They bade farewell to beauty's bower,
And armed with justice, clothed in power,
Fought boldly for their native land.
They fought against the tyrant king,
Led on by freedom's chosen son-
With clash of arms the valleys ring,
Till loud their triumph-song they sing,
Of victory and Washington.
Not all in vain their blood so free
Was spilled like rain-drops o'er the earth,
But gathering in one mighty sea
Waters the tree of liberty,
Which in each freeman's heart finds birth.
How shall we celebrate the hour,
Which set our own loved country free?
With joyous shout in peaceful bower,
With cannon's roar, and music's power,
We'll hail the Nation's jubilee.
Our banner, with its stripe and star,
We'll keep unstained from sire to son-
Each breeze shall waft its folds afar,
Unsullied, as when first in war
It waved o'er fields of vict'ry won.
We'll teach our children freedom's song,
To lisp in artless joyous glee,
And ever, as the strains prolong,
We'll shout the echo loud and long,
Our own America is free!
********************
INDEPENDENCE DAY
WE celebrate "a day of days,"
Which saw a nation rise
Through din of battle, clash of arms,
And severed kindred ties.
This day we draw aside the veil,
And backward take a look
On stirring scenes, brought to our view,
As in an open book.
We see the lights in "old North Church"
Those beacons burning bright
And gallop on with Paul Revere,
Throughout that fateful night.
We fight with men at Bunker Hill,
Whose aim was good and true
Nerved to the task by loyal hearts,
'Neath coats of buff and blue.
With praying Washington we wait
At Valley Forge, in snow and sleet,
And see the blood-prints on the ground
From shoeless soldiers' feet.
With thin-clad, shiv'ring, dauntless men
We cross the Delaware
To meet the foe and capture them,
And untold perils dare.
We rise with those patriots brave,
When they their names affix
To the "Declaration" broad and grand,
Of Seventeen Seventy-six.
As liberty loud it proclaims,
We hear the tones of the bell,
While echoing valley, hill and glen
The message to nations tell.
And so each year we celebrate
This day, so dear to all,
When a Nation to new life awoke,
At Freedom's earnest call.
-Mary M. North. 1909
The Greatness of the American Republic by Archbishop Ireland 1897
What is a main and most important difference between a Republic and a Democracy?
In a republic, a constitution or charter of rights protects certain inalienable rights that cannot be taken away by the government, even if it has been elected by a majority of voters. In a "pure democracy," the majority is not restrained in this way and can impose its will on the minority.
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