Massachusetts

Massachusetts

And they have spurned thy word,

Thou of the old THIRTEEN?

Whose soil, where Freedom's blood first poured,

Hath yet a darker green?

Tread the weak Southron's pride and lust,
Thy name and counsels in the dust!

And have they closed thy mouth,

And fixed the pad-lock fast -

Slave of the mean and tyrant South,

Is this thy fate at last?

Old Massachusetts! can it be
That thus thy sons must speak of thee?

Call from the Capitol

Thy chosen ones again -

Unmeet for them the base control

Of Slavery's curbing rein! -

Unmeet for necks like theirs to feel
The chafing of the despot's heel!

Call back to Quincy's shade

That steadfast son of thine -

Go - if they homage must be paid

To Slavery's pagan shrine-

Seek out thine own inner offering, than
The free born soul of that old man!

Call that true spirit back,

So eloquent and young -

In his own vale of Merrimack

No chains are on his tongue

Better to breathe its cold keen air.
Than wear the Southron's shackle there.

Aye, let them hasten home,

And render up their trust -

Through them the Pilgrim state is dumb -

Her proud lip in the dust!

Her counsels and her gentlest word
Of warning spurned aside unheard!

Let them come back, and shake

The base dust from their feet;

And, with their tide of outrage, wake

The free hearts whom they meet:

And show before indignant men,
The scars where Slavery's chain hath been.

Back from the Capitol -

It is no place for thee!

Beneath the arch of Heaven's blue wall,

Thy voice may still be free!

What power shall chain thy spirit there,
In Gods free sun and freer air?

A voice is calling thee,

From all the martyr graves -

Of those stern men, in death made free,

Who could not live as slaves.

The slumberings of thy honored dead,
Are for thy sake disquieted!

The curse of Slavery comes

Still nearer day by day;

Shall thy pure altars and thy homes

Become the spoiler's prey? -

Shall the dull tread of fettered slaves
Sound o'er thy old and holy graves?

Pride of the old THIRTEEN!

That curse may yet be stayed -

Stand thou, in Freedom's strength, between

The living and the dead!

Stand forth for God and Liberty -
In one strong effort, worthy thee!

Once more let Faneuil Hall

By freemen's feet be trod,

And give the [ ] of its wall

Once more to Freedom's God!

And in the midst unseen, shall stand
The mightily fathers of thy land.

Thy gathered sons shall feel

The soul of ADAMS near,

And OTIS, with its fiery zeal

And WARREN onward cheer;

And heart to heart shall thrill as when
They moved and spake as living men.

Fling from thy Capitol

Thy banner to the light,

And o'er thy Charter's sacred scroll,

For Freedom and the Right,

Breathe once again thy vows, unbroken,
Speak once again as thou hast spoken.

On thy bleak hills speak out!

A world thy words shall hear -

And they who listen round about,

In friendship or in fear -

Shall know thee still, when sorest tried,
Unshaken and unterrified!

C. Cushing

2:7, p. 28

1838.03.03

Written on learning that the Resolutions of the Legislature of Massachusetts, on the subject of slavery, presented by C. Cushing to the House of Representatives of the United States, have been laid on the table unread and unreferred, under the infamous rule of "Patton's Resolution."