From each and all, if God hath not forsaken Our land, and left us to an evil choice,

BY JOHN G. WHITTIER.

Now, by our fathers' ashes! where's the spirit Of the true-hearted and the unshackled gone? Sons of old freemen, do we but inherit

Their names alone?

Is the old Pilgrim spirit quench'd within us? Stoops the proud manhood of our souls so low, That Mammon's lure or Party's wile can win us To silence now?

No. When our land to ruin's brink is verging,
In God's name, let us speak while there is time!
Now, when the padlocks for our lips are forging,
SILENCE IS CRIME!

What! shall we henceforth humbly ask as favors Rights all our own? In madness shall we barter, For treacherous peace, the FREEDOM Nature gave us, God and our charter?

Here shall the statesman seek the free to fetter? Here Lynch law light its horrid fires on high? And, in the church, their proud and skill'd abettor, Make truth a lie?

A PEOPLE'S VOICE.

Startling and stern! the Northern winds shall bear it
Over Potomac's to St. Mary's wave;

And buried Freedom shall awake to hear it
Within her grave.

Oh, let that voice go forth! The bondman sighing
By Santee's wave, in Mississippi's cane,
Shall feel the hope, within his bosom dying,
Revive again.
Let it go forth! The millions who are gazing
Sadly upon us from afar, shall smile,
And unto God devout thanksgiving raising,
Bless us the while.

Oh, for your ancient freedom, pure and holy,
For the deliverance of a groaning earth,
For the wrong'd captive, bleeding, crush'd and lowly,
Let it go forth!

Sons of the best of fathers! will ye falter
With all they left ye peril'd and at stake?
Ho! once again on Freedom's holy altar

The fire awake!

Prayer-strengthen'd for the trial, come together,
Put on the harness for the moral fight,
And, with the blessing of your heavenly Father,
MAINTAIN THE RIGHT!

And what, but more than slaves, are they,
Who're told they ne'er shall be denied
The right of prayer; yet, when they pray,
Their prayers, unheard, are thrown aside?
Such mockery they will tamely bear,
Who're fit an iron chain to wear.

The ox, that treadeth out the corn, Thou shalt not muzzle.'_Thus saith God. And will ye muzzle the free-born,

The man, the owner of the sod,— Who gives the grazing ox his meat,' And you,-his servants here,-your seat?

There's a cloud, blackening up the sky! East, west, and north its curtain spreads; Lift to its muttering folds your eye!

Beware! for, bursting on your heads, It hath a force to bear you down ;'Tis an insulted people's frown.

Ye may have heard of the Soultán,
And how his Janissaries fell!

Their barracks, near the Atmeidán,

He barred, and fired;-and their death-yell Went to the stars,-and their blood ran, In brooks, across the Atmeidán.

The despot spake; and, in one night, The deed was done. He wields, alone, The sceptre of the Ottomite,

And brooks no brother near his throne. Even now, the bow-string, at his beck, Goes round his mightiest subject's neck;

Yet will he, in his saddle, stoop,I've seen him, in his palace-yard,— To take petitions from a troop

Of women, who, behind his guard, Come up, their several suits to press, To state their wrongs, and ask redress.

And these, into his house of prayer,

I've seen him take; and, as he spreads

His own before his Maker there,

These women's prayers he hears or reads ;— For, while he wears the diadem,

He is instead of God to them.

And this he must do. He may grant,

Or may deny; but hear he must. Were his Seven Towers all adamant,

They'd soon be levelled with the dust, And public feeling' make short work,Should he not hear them,-with the Turk.

Nay, start not from your chairs, in dread
Of cannon-shot, or bursting shell!
These shall not fall upon your head,

As once upon your house they fell.
We have a weapon, firmer set,
And better than the bayonet ;-

A weapen that comes down as still
As snow-flakes fall upon the sod ;
But executes a freeman's will

As lightning does the will of God; And from its force, nor doors nor locks Can shield you ;-'tis the ballot-box.

Black as your deed shall be the balls

That from that box shall pour like hail! And when the storm upon you falls,

How will your craven cheeks turn pale! For, at its coming though ye laugh, 'T will sweep you from your hall, like chaff.

Not women, now,-the people pray.

Hear us, or from us ye will hear! Beware!-a desperate game ye play!

The men that thicken in your rear,―

Kings though ye be,-may not be scorned.
Look to your move! your stake!-YE'RE WARNED.

1837.

THE TOCSIN.

BY JOHN PIERPONT.

If the pulpit be silent, whenever or wherever there may be a sinner, bloody with this guilt, within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust.'-D. WEBSTER. Wake! children of the men who said,

All are born free!'-Their spirits come
Back to the places where they bled

In Freedom's holy martyrdom,
And find you sleeping on their graves,
And hugging there your chains,-ye slaves!
Ay,-slaves of slaves! What, sleep ye yet,
And dream of Freedom, while ye sleep?
Ay,-dream, while Slavery's foot is set

So firmly on your necks,-while deep
The chain, her quivering flesh endures,
Gnaws, like a cancer, into yours?
Hah! say ye that I've falsely spoken,

Calling you slaves ?-Then prove ye're not;
Work a free press !-ye'll see it broken;*
Stand to defend it !-ye'll be shot.-t
O yes! but people should not dare
Print what the brotherhood' won't bear !
Then from your lips let words of grace,
Gleaned from the Holy Bible's pages,
Fall, while ye're pleading for a race

Whose blood has flowed through chains for ages;
And pray, Lord, let thy kingdom come!'
And see if ye're not stricken dumb.

Yes, men of God! ye may not speak,

As, by the Word of God, ye're bidden; By the pressed lip,-the blanching cheek,

Ye feel yourselves rebuked and chidden;‡ And, if ye're not cast out, ye fear it ;And why ?—‹ The brethren' will not hear it. Since, then, through pulpit, or through press, To prove your freedom ye're not able, Go,-like the Sun of Righteousness, By wise men honored,-to a stable! Bend there to Liberty your knee! Say there that God made all men free!

Bear witness, heights of Alton! + Bear witness, bones of Lovejoy! Bear witness, Grounds of Complaint preferred against the Rev. John Pierpont, by a Committtee of the Parish, called The Proprietors of Hollis street Meeting house," to be submitted to an Ecclesiastical Council, as Reasons for dissolving his Connexion with said Parish, July 27th, 1840: one of which runs thus: Because of his too busy interference with questions of legislation on the subject of prohibiting the sale of ardent spirits of his too busy interference with questions of legislation on the subject of imprisonment for debt;-of his too busy interference with the popular controversy on the subject of the abolition of slavery.' And this, in the eighteen hundred and fortieth year of Him whom the Lord sent to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound!'

Even there,―ere Freedom's vows ye've plighted,
Ere of her form ye've caught a glimpse,
Even there are fires infernal lighted,

And ye're driven out by Slavery's imps.*
Ah, well! so persecuted they
The prophets' of a former day!
Go, then, and build yourselves a hall,
To prove ye are not slaves, but men !
WriteFREEDOM,' on its towering wall!
Baptize it in the name of PENN;
Ard give it to her holy cause,
Beneath the Ægis of her laws;-
Within let Freedom's anthem swell;-
And, while your hearts begin to throb,
And burn within you Hark! the yell,-
The torch, the torrent of the MOB!-
They're Slavery's troops that round you sweep,
And leave your hall a smouldering heap!t
At Slavery's beck, the prayers ye urge

On your own servants, through the door
Of your own Senate,-that the scourge
May gash your brother's back no more,-
Are trampled underneath their feet,
While ye stand praying in the street!
At Slavery's beck, ye send your sons+
To hunt down Indian wives or maids,
Doomed to the lash!-Yes, and their bones,
Whitening 'mid swamps and everglades,
Where no friend goes to give them graves,
Prove that ye are not Slavery's slaves!
At Slavery's beck, the very hands

Ye lift to Heaven, to swear ye're free,
Will break a truce, to seize the lands
Of Seminole or Cherokee!

Yes,-tear a flag, that Tartar hordes
Respect, and shield it with their swords!§

Bear

* Bear witness, that large upper room,' the hay-loft over the stable of the Marlborough Hotel, standing upon the ground now covered by the Marlborough Chapel; the only temple in Boston, into which the friends of human liberty, that is, of the liberty of man as man, irrespective of color or caste, could gain admittance for the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society, January 25th, 1837. witness, too, that smaller room in Summer street, where a meeting was held the same day, by members of the same Society; where their only altar was an iron stove,--their only incense, the fumes of a quantity of cayenne pepper, that some of the 'imps' had sprinkled upon the hot stove-plates, to drive the friends of the freedom of all men out of that little asylum.

†Bear witness, ye ruins of Pennsylvania Hall !'-a heap of ruins made by a Philadelphia mob, May 17th, 1838,--and allowed to remain a heap of ruins, as I was lately told in Philadelphia, from the fear, on the part of the city government, that, should the noble structure be reared again, and dedicated again to Liberty, the fiery tragedy of the 17th of May would be encored.

+ Bear witness, Florida war, from first to last. Bear witness, ghost of the great-hearted, brokenhearted Osceola !