Oh, say! did you hear, 'mid the tempest of War,
That swept like a blight through the heart of our Nation,
The soft whisper of Peace as it floated afar,
Like an angel of Love, amid strife's desolation?
Did you catch up the sound
As it floated around ?
The word that from hill-side to vale should resound ?
If so, hasten on to our grand Jubilee,
And rally in peace round the Flag of the Free.
'Neath its wide-spreading wing did the dauntless go forth,
Where the fife and the drum drowned their hearts' muffled beating;
Left the fagots ablaze on the love-hallowed hearth,
A Father's kind care for their dear ones entreating.
For they sprang at the cry,
Without pause or reply,
That bade them go forward to conquer or die.
And, with colors afloat, on the land and the sea,
They fought for their rights and the Flag of the Free.
Oh! grandly they stood, 'neath the Stripes and the Stars,
Undaunted by those who their Freedom rejected;
And proudly it waved, 'mid the conflict of Wars,
Untrailed and upheld, as by Heaven protected.
For dead patriots were there,
Bending o'er them in air,
And guarding our banner with tenderest care.
And 'twas these held the standard, that faint hearts might see
The heaven-mirrored blue in the Flag of the Free.
Then, Sons of Columbia, in concert come forth,
And kneel where was purchased your Country's salvation;
From the wide-spreading West to the life-teeming North
Let 'Many in One' be the pledge of our Nation.
Oh ! heed, one and all,
This Centennial call,
' United we stand but divided we fall.'
And our Country's proud Banner in triumph will wave
O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
