AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 81
Once loved America! what can atone
For the pure blood of innocence thou'st sown?
Were all thy streams in teary torrents shed,
To mourn the fate of those illustrious dead,
How vain the tribute for the noblest worth,
That graced thy surface, O degraded earth!
Vile, wretched murderers, fierce for human blood,
You've slain the Prophets of the living God;
Who've borne oppression from their early youth,
To plant on earth, the principles of truth.
Shades of our patriot fathers! Can it be,
Beneath your blood-stained flag of liberty,
The firm supporters of our country's cause,
Are butchered while submissive to her laws?
Yes, blameless men, defamed by hellish lies,
Have thus been offered as a sacrifice,
T' appease the ragings of a brutish clan,
That has defied the laws of God and man!
'Twas not for crime or guilt of theirs, they fell:
Against the laws they never did rebel.
True to their country, yet her plighted faith
Has proved an instrument of cruel death.
Great men have fallen, mighty men have died—
Nations have mourned their fav'rites and their pride;
But, two so wise, so virtuous and so good,
Before on earth, at once, have never stood
Since the Creation—men whom God ordained,
To publish truth where error long had reigned;
Of whom the world itself unworthy proved;
It knew them not, but men with hatred moved,
And with infernal spirits have combined
Against the best—the noblest of mankind.
0, persecution! shall thy purple hand
Spread utter desolation through the land?
Shall Freedom's banner be no more unfurled?
Has peace, indeed, been taken from the world?
