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MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
Content to find where'er her flag shall wave 
 Thy glory or thy grave ! 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 BY 
 
 FRANCES NIMMO GREENE 
 
 /( 
 AUTHOR OF "AMERICA FIRST " 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
 
 CHICAGO NEW YORK SAN FRANCISCO 
 

 Copyright, 1918, by 
 CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS 
 
 Copyright, 1887, 1915, by THE CENTURY CO. 
 Copyright, 1906, by HARPER & BROTHERS 
 Copyright, 1911, by T. Y. CROWELL & CO. 
 
 AUG -7 19(8 
 
 A 
 
 .so 
 
 ©Cl.Ar)()'.{039 
 

 ACKNOWLEDGMENT 
 
 u'' For the use of copyrighted material, the pubhsher 
 
 /n and author extend grateful acknowledgment to the fol- 
 
 ^ lowing publishers : Thomas Y. Crowell Company for 
 
 America the Beautiful, by Katherine Lee Bates; the Cen- 
 tury Company for the extracts from General Horace 
 Porter's account of the surrender of Lee at Appomattox, 
 from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War ; Doubleday, 
 Page & Company for Captain, My Captain and Pioneers! 
 Pioneers! by Walt Whitman; Harper & Brothers for 
 the extract from The Americanism of Washington, by 
 Henry van Dyke; the Neale Publishing Company for 
 the letter from The Life and Letters of Robert E. Lee, Sol- 
 dier and Man, by the Reverend J. William Jones, D.D.; 
 and to Henry Holcomb Bennett, the author, for The Flag 
 Goes By. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 To THE Young American 1 
 
 A Bit of History 4 
 
 Warren's Address to the American Soldiers . 11 
 
 Henry's Appeal to Virginia 12 
 
 English Defense of the Colonies .... 16 
 
 The Minuteman of the Revolution .... 19 
 
 The Concord Hymn 27 
 
 George Washington 28 
 
 Washington 29 
 
 Lafayette — The Friend of America .... 29 
 
 Spirit of the Declaration of Independence — 
 
 Liberty — Justice 33 
 
 The Story of a Flag 42 
 
 How TO Treat the Flag 45 
 
 About Our Constitution — The Foundation of 
 
 Our Laws 48 
 
 The Story of a Song 53 
 
 vii 
 
viii CONTENTS 
 
 PAGB 
 
 America the Beautiful 58 
 
 The Opportunities of Democracy .... 59 
 
 The Monroe Doctrine 60 
 
 Pioneers ! O Pioneers ! 63 
 
 A Nation of Pioneers 66 
 
 The Bivouac of the Dead 70 
 
 Disunion and War 74 
 
 To Save the Union 79 
 
 Little Giffen 81 
 
 Gettysburg Address 83 
 
 About the Battle Hymn 86 
 
 The End of the Brothers' War 90 
 
 O Captain! My Captain! 99 
 
 Repledging the South to the Union . . . 101 
 
 The Blue and the Gray 104 
 
 "Old Ironsides" 106 
 
 Lincoln — The American 109 
 
 Lee — The American Ill 
 
 America for Me 112 
 
 "A Precedent" 114 
 
CONTENTS ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 For Cuba 117 
 
 High Points 118 
 
 True Americanism 122 
 
 The Homes of the People 123 
 
 Home, Sweet Home 127 
 
 America Wakes 129 
 
 Germany's Sins Against America 131 
 
 The War Message 132 
 
 Old Ties Renewed 137 
 
 The Ship of State 142 
 
 Soldiers of Freedom 143 
 
 A Toast 145 
 
 Loyalty 146 
 
 The Nation in Arms 150 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 " Content to find where'er her flag shall wave 
 Thy glory or thy grave ! " Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PAGE 
 
 Patrick Henry before the House of Burgesses .... 14 
 
 The fight on Lexington Common ........ 20 
 
 The signing of the Declaration of Independence, July 4, 
 
 1776, at Philadelphia 38 
 
THE AMERICAN CREED 
 
 I BELIEVE in the United States of America 
 as a government of the people, by the people, 
 for the people; whose just powers are derived 
 from the consent of the governed; a democracy 
 in a republic; a sovereign nation of many 
 sovereign States; a perfect union, one and in- 
 separable; established upon those principles 
 of freedom, equality, justice, and humanity 
 for which American patriots sacrificed their 
 lives and fortunes. 
 
 I therefore believe it is my duty to my 
 country to love it; to support its constitution; 
 to obey its laws; to respect its flag, and to de- 
 fend it against all enemies. 
 
 William Tyler Page. 
 
TO THE YOUNG AMERICAN 
 
 Did you ever try to think just what we 
 mean when we say that our country is the land 
 of the ''free?" 
 
 This morning you jumped out of bed and 
 drew in deep, deep drafts of the sweet Hfe- 
 giving air which flows all about us. You did 
 not think about the air, because you are so 
 used to it. You did not, for one moment, re- 
 member that to it you owe that joyous impulse 
 to run and shout — that strength to do your 
 tasks well — which awoke with you. 
 
 The freedom which your country gives you 
 is like the air, in that it surrounds you always. 
 And because it surrounds you always, because 
 your young spirit breathes deep of its life- 
 sweetening, joy-giving draft at every moment, 
 you forget that it is there. 
 
 This little book is to help you remember. 
 
 This morning you waked up in a home that 
 is free — freer than the same home would be 
 
2 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 in any other country in the whole round world. 
 Every man twenty-one years of age in that 
 home helps to make the laws which he must 
 obey. 
 
 Every person there has the right to choose 
 what trade or profession he will follow. 
 
 Each one there has the right to worship God 
 according to his own conscience, and none is 
 taxed by law to help support any church. 
 What church he will support, if any, is left 
 entirely with each. 
 
 Any person in that home of yours has the 
 right to win for himself a position in the highest 
 society in the land. 
 
 In other words, each person in your Amer- 
 ican home has the right, and is aided in ob- 
 taining the opportunity, to grow and develop 
 to his highest; and if he fails to do this, it is 
 because he himself has not worked and studied 
 as he should. 
 
 And you ? 
 
 In your home this morning you were under 
 no restraint whatever, except that which your 
 loving parents threw about you for your own 
 good. You took the freedom of the street as 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 3 
 
 you took its sunshine, and if the policeman 
 watched, it was to see that you met with no 
 harm. 
 
 You came to a school which is free — whose 
 opportunities, the finest in the world, are offered 
 equally to every child who comes. Before as- 
 signing you to a place with the others, the 
 teacher did not take into consideration whether 
 you were native-born, or whether you were of 
 Russian, Greek, German, Italian, or any other 
 foreign blood. She merely smiled you a wel- 
 come, and at once placed you on an equal foot- 
 ing with all those other little Americans in her 
 school of wonderful opportunities. 
 
 Such, then, are some of the reasons why 
 America is called '*the land of the free." 
 
 Now, what are you going to give to your 
 country in return for all the good gifts she has 
 showered upon you ? She asks of you one thing 
 only — the making of one loyal, efficient citizen 
 — the citizen you are capable of becoming. 
 
 The first step toward loyalty is understand- 
 ing. America does not ask of her citizens a 
 blind, unreasoning partisanship — she asks their 
 
4 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 intelligent co-operation. Your first duty, then, 
 is to understand America. 
 
 In this little volume an attempt has been 
 made to show the growth of the American spirit 
 from its first struggling awakening to the pres- 
 ent time, by bringing together the best expres- 
 sions of the faith that is hers. It will be one 
 act of service to your country to give intelligent 
 heed to what her wise and gifted men have to 
 say. 
 
 A BIT OF HISTORY 
 
 In order to understand America, we must 
 first understand the beginning of America. 
 The United States was settled mainly by the 
 English, and the history of our thirteen original 
 colonies is properly but a chapter out of Eng- 
 lish history. The Colonists were merely Eng- 
 lishmen who, having been denied rights which 
 other Englishmen enjoyed, moved on to find a 
 larger freedom, the ideal of which, they brought 
 with them, England, then, is "the mother of 
 our faith, our law, our lore." 
 
 Virginia, the first New World settlement 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 5 
 
 made by the English, became the Great Ad- 
 venture for fortune's younger sons. Wealth, 
 power, happiness beckoned from the West, 
 and the daring and ambitious Cavalier an- 
 swered. 
 
 The history of the colony of Virginia is one 
 chapter in the history of the American spirit. 
 Virginia became the first battle-ground for 
 civil liberty in the New World. Though a 
 ** royal colony," and subject to rulers appointed 
 by the King, these first Americans made things 
 interesting for their royal oppressors from the 
 beginning. And one year before the Puritan 
 Mayflower touched at Plymouth, their repre- 
 sentatives met in the first law-making body 
 in America — the Virginia House of Burgesses. 
 From that moment, the fight for American 
 liberty was on. And the right of these first 
 Americans to make [^laws for themselves was 
 never again yielded, not even to a jealously 
 repentant king. 
 
 If the opening battle of the fight for civil 
 liberty was waged on Virginia soil, the great 
 struggle for religious freedom had its first and 
 surest triumph in New England. -.-rA, ^ > - : 
 
6 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 It is an old and beautiful story, how the 
 persecuted Puritans of England fled to the 
 rock-bound coast of Massachusetts for freedom 
 to worship God according to their own con- 
 sciences. 
 
 But the American spirit in the making was 
 evidenced in the Puritans by characteristics 
 other than their desire for religious freedom. 
 They brought with them to the New World 
 ideals of justice and equality and obedience 
 to law. While at anchorage in Massachusetts 
 Bay, and before their weary feet had yet touched 
 the soil of their promised land, the Pilgrims on 
 the little Mayflower drew up a constitution of 
 government — the first of its kind in America. 
 
 In quaint phrases they set down the simple 
 doctrine which they were afterward to seal 
 with their blood: 
 
 **In ye name of God. Amen. We . . . doe 
 by these presents solemnly & mutualy in ye 
 presence of God, and one of another, convenant 
 & combine our selves togeather into a civill 
 body politick, for our better ordering & pres- 
 ervation & furtherance of ye ends aforesaid; 
 and by vertue hereof to enacte, constitute, and 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 7 
 
 frame such just & equall lawes ... as shall 
 be thought most meete & convenient for ye 
 generall good of ye Colonic, unto which we 
 promise all due submission and obedience." 
 
 But it was left to William Penn and his 
 Quaker colony of Pennsylvania to furnish the 
 ideal of a gentler, sweeter freedom. Untouched 
 alike by the lordly pride of the Cavalier and 
 the austerity of the rock-ribbed Puritan, Wil- 
 liam Penn greeted his "vassals and subjects" 
 as friends, and assumed his rule over them as 
 might have done an elder brother. His procla- 
 mation to them reads: 
 
 "My Friends: I wish you all happiness 
 here and hereafter. These are to lett you know, 
 that it hath pleased God in his Providence to 
 cast you within my Lott and Care. It is a busi- 
 ness, that though I never undertook before, 
 yet God has given me an understanding of my 
 duty and an honest minde to doe it uprightly. 
 I hope you will not be troubled at your chainge 
 and the king's choice; for you are now iBxt, 
 at the mercy of no Governour that comes to 
 make his fortune great. You shall be governed 
 by laws of your own makeing, and live a free, 
 
8 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 and if you will, a sober, and industreous People. 
 I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress 
 his person. God has furnisht me with a better 
 resolution, and has given me his grace to keep 
 it. In short, what ever sober and free men can 
 reasonably desire for the security and improve- 
 ment of their own happiness, I shall heartily 
 comply with — I beseech God to direct you in 
 the way of righteousness, and therein prosper 
 you and your children after you. I am your 
 
 "The Historians' History of the World " thus 
 describes Penn's "first grand treaty with the 
 Indians": 
 
 "Under the shelter of the forest, now leaf- 
 less by the frosts of Autumn, Penn proclaimed 
 to the men of the Algonquin race the same 
 simple message of peace and love. . . . The 
 English and the Indian should respect the same 
 moral law, should be alike secure in their pur- 
 suits and their possessions, and adjust every 
 difference by a peaceful tribunal, composed 
 of an equal number of men from each race. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 9 
 
 *We meet' — such were the words of WilHam 
 Penn — 'on the broad pathway of good faith 
 and good will; no advantage shall be taken on 
 either side, but all shall be openness and love. 
 I will not call you children, for parents some- 
 times chide their children too severely; nor 
 lirothers only, for brothers differ. The friend- 
 ship between me and you I will not compare 
 to a chain; for that the rains might rust, or 
 the falling tree might break. We are the same 
 as if one man's body were to be divided into 
 two parts; we are all one flesh and blood.' 
 
 "The children of the forest were touched 
 by the sacred doctrine, and renounced their 
 guile and their revenge. They received the 
 presents of Penn in sincerity; and with hearty 
 friendship they gave the belt of Wampum. 
 *We will live,' said they, 'in love with William 
 Penn and his children, as long as the moon and 
 the sun shall endure.' 
 
 "This treaty of peace and friendship was 
 made under the open sky, by the side of the 
 Delaware, with the sun and the river and the 
 forest for witnesses. Penn came without arms; 
 he declared his purpose to abstain from violence; 
 
10 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 he had no message but peace; and not a drop 
 of Quaker blood was ever shed by an Indian." 
 
 Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania 
 were three of thirteen English colonies in 
 America, and were typical of all the rest. In 
 each and every one the love of liberty became 
 deeply rooted. 
 
 Yet it must not be claimed for America 
 that she sprang into being, the champion of 
 an ideal liberty. Those old Cavaliers, those 
 old Puritans, those various others who came 
 after, were not saints, but were men swayed 
 at once by human virtues and human failings. 
 Neither had they conceived of an ideal liberty. 
 They made many mistakes as have their de- 
 scendants. They stumbled, surely, but they 
 stumbled toward the light ! 
 
 Being Englishmen — though living on this 
 side of the Atlantic — these Colonists came more 
 and more to claim the rights enjoyed by other 
 British subjects. 
 
 But Great Britain was at that time ruled 
 by a king of foreign blood who was not in sym- 
 pathy with the true British love of liberty, so 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 11 
 
 the Colonists were denied the rights for which 
 they appealed. Worse followed, and still worse, 
 colony after colony resisting — and then the 
 storm of revolution broke. 
 
 Massachusetts defied the King. 
 
 The King despatched an army to compel 
 Massachusetts to obedience. 
 
 The news flew. And though these colonies 
 had no connection with each other, Patrick 
 Henry of Virginia declared: "An attack on 
 Massachusetts is an attack on Virginia!" In 
 that declaration the Union which was to he found 
 prophetic voice. 
 
 WARREN'S ADDRESS TO THE 
 AMERICAN SOLDIERS 
 
 BY JOHN PIERPONT 
 
 Stand ! the ground's your own, my braves ! 
 Will ye give it up to slaves ? 
 Will ye look for greener graves.^ 
 
 Hope ye mercy still .^ 
 What's the mercy despots feel.^ 
 Hear it in that battle-peal ! 
 Read it on yon bristling steel ! 
 
 Ask it, — ye who will. 
 
12 
 
 MY COUNTRYS VOICE 
 Fear ye foes who kill for hire? 
 Will ye to your homes retire? 
 Look behind you ! they're afire ! 
 
 And, before you, see 
 Who have done it 1-From the vae 
 
 On they come '.-And will ye quail ?- 
 Leaden rain and iron hail 
 Let their welcome be ! 
 
 In the God of battles trust ! 
 Die we may,-and die we must; 
 But, oh, where can dust to dust 
 
 Be consigned so well, 
 As where Heaven its dew shall shed 
 On the martyred patriot's bed. 
 And the rocks shall raise their head, 
 Of his deeds to tell ! 
 
 HENRY'S APPEAL TO VIRGINIA 
 
 In spite of the fact that Virginia had been 
 J totlt the oppression of the King, she 
 wa slower than Massachusetts to sprmg to 
 Zs in revolution against him. It was whde 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 13 
 
 she hesitated, that Patrick Henry made in the 
 Virginia Convention this thrilHng speech on 
 behalf of putting that colony in a state of de- 
 fense: 
 
 "Mr. President, it is natural for man to 
 indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt 
 to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and 
 listen to the song of that siren till she trans- 
 forms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise 
 men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle 
 for liberty .^ 
 
 "Are we disposed to be of the number of 
 those who, having eyes, see not, and, having 
 ears, hear not, the things which so nearly con- 
 cern their temporal salvation .^ For my part, 
 whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am 
 willing to know the whole truth, to know the 
 worst, and to provide for it. 
 
 "I have but one lamp by which my feet are 
 guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I 
 know of no way of judging of the future but by 
 the past. And, judging by the past, I wish to 
 know what there has been in the conduct of 
 the British ministry, for the last ten years, to 
 justify those hopes with which gentlemen have 
 
14 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 been pleased to solace themselves and the 
 house? . . . 
 
 " Are fleets and armies necessary to a work 
 of love and reconciliation? Have we shown 
 ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled, that 
 force must be called in to win back our love? 
 Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are 
 the implements of war and subjugation, — the 
 last arguments to which Kings resort. . . . 
 
 "They are meant for us: they can be meant 
 for no other. 
 
 "They are sent over to bind and rivet upon 
 us those chains which the British ministry have 
 been so long forging. . . . 
 
 "Shall we resort to entreaty and humble 
 supplication ? What terms shall we find, which 
 have not been already exhausted? Let us not, 
 I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves longer. 
 
 "Sir, we have done everything that could 
 be done, to avert the storm which is now coming 
 on. . . . 
 
 "If we wish to be free, if we mean to pre- 
 serve inviolate these inestimable privileges for 
 which we have been so long contending, . . . 
 we must fight. I repeat it, sir, we must fight. 
 
Patrick Henry before the House of Burgesses 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 15 
 
 An appeal to arms, and to the God of hosts, 
 is all that is left us. 
 
 '*'They tell us, sir, that we are weak, — unable 
 to cope with so formidable an adversary. But 
 when shall we be stronger ? Will it be the next 
 week, or the next year.'^ Will it be when we 
 are totally disarmed, and when a British guard 
 shall be stationed in every house .^ . . . 
 
 "Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper 
 use of those means which the God of nature 
 hath placed in our power. Three millions of 
 people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and 
 in such a country as that which we possess, are 
 invincible by any force which our enemy can 
 send against us. 
 
 "Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles 
 alone. There is a just God who presides over 
 the destinies of nations, and who will raise up 
 friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, 
 sir, is not to the strong alone: it is to the vigilant, 
 the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have 
 no election. If we were base enough to desire 
 it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. 
 
 "There is no retreat, but in submission and 
 slavery. Our chains are forged. Their clanking 
 
16 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 may be heard on the plains of Boston. The 
 war is inevitable; and let it come ! — I repeat 
 it, sir, let it come. It is vain, sir, to extenuate 
 the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace ! 
 but there is no peace. The war is actually be- 
 gun. 
 
 ''The next gale that sweeps from the north 
 will bring to our ears the clash of resounding 
 arms. Our brethren are already in the field. 
 Why stand we here idle.^ What is it that gen- 
 tlemen wish.f^ What would they have.^ Is 
 life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased 
 at the price of chains and slavery ? Forbid it, 
 Almighty God ! I know not what course others 
 may take; but, as for me, give me liberty, or 
 give me death !" 
 
 ENGLISH DEFENSE OF THE COLONIES 
 
 We must not let Patrick Henry's fiery elo- 
 quence lead us to believe that all our kinsmen 
 across the sea were willing to see the American 
 Colonists deprived of their just rights as British 
 subjects. 
 
 True, the Kingr— of foreign blood, by the 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 17 
 
 way — was determined to exact from America 
 all that Americans would yield, and many of 
 his subjects followed his lead. 
 
 But some of the most influential men in 
 the empire threw all their weight against the 
 oppression of these Britons in America. 
 
 William Pitt, the great Earl of Chatham, 
 caused himself to be borne from a bed of illness 
 to Parliament in order to protest to the House 
 of Lords against the existing injustice to the 
 Colonists. 
 
 "This country," he said, "has no right to 
 tax America." And again he declared that the 
 cause of America was the cause of all men who 
 were true Liberals in England. "The Colonists," 
 he thundered, "are our compatriots. I trust 
 that freemen in England do not desire to see 
 three million Englishmen slaves in America!" 
 
 In the House of Commons also America 
 had staunch friends. Edmund Burke, the bril- 
 liant orator, championed the cause of America 
 with all his passionate Irish heart. 
 
 "In this character of the Americans," he 
 declared, "a love of freedom is the predominat- 
 ing feature which marks and distinguishes the 
 
18 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 whole. . . . This fierce spirit of Hberty is 
 stronger in the Enghsh colonies, probably, than 
 in any other people of the earth. . . . The 
 people of the colonies, sir, are descendants of 
 Englishmen. England, sir, is a nation which 
 still, I hope, respects, and formerly adored, her 
 freedom. The colonies emanated from you 
 when this part of your character was most pre- 
 dominant; and they took this bias and direction 
 the moment they parted from your hands. 
 They are therefore not only devoted to liberty, 
 but to liberty according to English ideas and 
 on English principles." 
 
 But in spite of Chatham and Burke and 
 other supporters of the true British ideal of lib- 
 erty, the King's influence prevailed; and it was 
 not long before the oppressed Colonists rose in 
 arms to fight for their rights as British subjects. 
 
 It must be remembered that when the 
 American Revolution broke out, the Colonists 
 were at first merely struggling to gain their 
 just rights. And it was not until after the fight- 
 ing began, that they conceived the idea of sever- 
 ing all connection between America and the 
 mother country. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 19 
 
 THE MINUTEMAN OF THE 
 REVOLUTION 
 
 BY GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS 
 
 On Tuesday, April 18, 1775, Gage, the royal 
 governor, who had decided to send a force to 
 Concord to destroy the stores, picketed the 
 roads from Boston into Middlesex, to prevent 
 any report of the intended inarch from spread- 
 ing into the country. But the very air was 
 electric. In the tension of the popular mind, 
 every sound and sight was significant. In the 
 afternoon, one of the governor's grooms strolled 
 into a stable where John Ballard was cleaning 
 a horse. John Ballard was a Son of Liberty; 
 and when the groom idly remarked in nervous 
 English ''about what would occur to-morrow," 
 John's hand shook and, asking the groom to 
 finish cleaning the horse, he ran to a friend, 
 who carried the news straight to Paul Revere. 
 
 Gage thought that his secret had been kept, 
 but Lord Percy, who had heard the people say 
 on the Common that the troops would miss 
 their aim, undeceived him. Gage instantly 
 ordered that no one should leave the town. 
 
20 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 But Doctor Warren was before him and, as the 
 troops crossed the river, Paul Revere was row- 
 ing over the river farther down to Charlestown, 
 having agreed with his friend, Robert Newman, 
 to show lanterns from the belfry of the Old 
 North Church: 
 
 "One, if by land, and two, if by sea," 
 
 as a signal of the march of the British. 
 
 It was a brilliant April night. The winter 
 had been unusually mild and the spring very 
 forward. The hills were already green; the 
 early grain waved in the fields, and the air was 
 sweet with blossoming orchards. Under the 
 cloudless moon the soldiers silently marched, 
 and Paul Revere swiftly rode, galloping through 
 Medford and West Cambridge, rousing every 
 house as he went, spurring for Lexington and 
 Hancock and Adams, and evading the British 
 patrols, who had been sent out to stop the 
 news. 
 
 Stop the news ! Already the village church- 
 bells were beginning to ring the alarm as the 
 pulpits beneath them had been ringing for many 
 a year. In the awakening houses lights flashed 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 21 
 
 from window to window. Drums beat faintly 
 far away and on every side. Signal-guns flashed 
 and echoed. The watch -dogs barked; the cocks 
 crew. 
 
 Stop the news ! Stop the sunrise ! The 
 murmuring night trembled with the summons 
 so earnestly expected, so dreaded, so desired. 
 And as, long ago, the voice rang out at mid- 
 night along the Syrian shore, wailing that great 
 Pan was dead, but in the same moment the 
 choiring angels whispered, "Glory to God in 
 the highest, for Christ is born," so, if the stern 
 alarm of that April night seemed to many 
 a wistful and loyal heart to portend the pass- 
 ing glory of British dominion and the tragical 
 chance of war, it whispered to them with pro- 
 phetic inspiration, ''Good will to men; America 
 is born !" 
 
 There is a tradition that long before the 
 troops reached Lexington an unknown horse- 
 man thundered at the door of Captain Joseph 
 Robbins in Acton, waking every man and woman 
 and the babe in the cradle, shouting that the 
 regulars were marching to Concord and the 
 rendezvous was the old North Bridge. Cap- 
 
22 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 tain Robbins's son, a boy of ten years, heard 
 the summons in the garret where he lay, and 
 in a few minutes was on his father's old mare, 
 a young Paul Revere, galloping along the road 
 to rouse Captain Isaac Davis, who commanded 
 the minutemen of Acton. The company as- 
 sembled at his shop, formed, and marched a 
 little way, when he halted them and returned 
 a moment to his house. He said to his wife: 
 *'Take good care of the children," kissed her, 
 turned to his men, gave the order to march, 
 and saw his home no more. Such was the his- 
 tory of that night in how many homes ! 
 
 The hearts of those men and women of 
 Middlesex might break, but they could not 
 waver. They had counted the cost. They 
 knew what and whom they served; and, as 
 the midnight summons came, they started up 
 and answered: 
 
 "Here am I!" 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 2 
 
 PAUL REVERE'S RIDE 
 
 BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 
 
 Listen, my children, and you shall hear 
 
 Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, 
 
 On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; 
 
 Hardly a man is now alive 
 
 Who remembers that famous day and year. 
 
 He said to his friend, "If the British march 
 By land or sea from the town to-night. 
 Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch 
 Of the North Church tower as a signal light, — 
 One, if by land, and two, if by sea; 
 And I on the opposite shore will be. 
 Ready to ride and spread the alarm 
 Through every Middlesex village and farm. 
 For the country folk to be up and to arm." 
 
 Then he said, "Good night !" and with muffled oar 
 Silently rowed to the Charlestown shore. 
 
 Meanwhile, his friend, through alley and street, 
 Wanders and watches with eager ears, 
 Till in the silence around him he hears 
 The muster of men at the barrack door. 
 The sound of arms and the tramp of feet. 
 And the measured tread of the grenadiers. 
 Marching down to their boats on the shore. 
 
24 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 Then he chmbed the tower of the Old North Church, 
 By the wooden stairs, with stealthy tread, 
 To the belfry-chamber overhead. 
 
 Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride. 
 Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride 
 On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere. 
 Now he patted his horse's side. 
 Now gazed at the landscape far and near. 
 Then, impetuous, stamped the earth, 
 And turned and tightened his saddle-girth; 
 But mostly he watched with eager search 
 The belfry-tower of the Old North Church, 
 As it rose above the graves on the hill, 
 Lonely and spectral and sombre and still. 
 And lo ! as he looks, on the belfry's height 
 A ghmmer, and then a gleam of light ! 
 He springs to the saddle, the bridle he turns. 
 But lingers and gazes, till full on his sight 
 A second lamp in the belfry burns ! 
 
 A hurry of hoofs in a village street, 
 
 A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark. 
 
 And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark 
 
 Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet : 
 
 That was all ! And yet, through the gloom and the 
 
 light. 
 The fate of a nation was riding that night; 
 And the spark struck out by that steed, in his flight. 
 Kindled the land into flames with its heat. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 25 
 
 He has left the village and mounted the steep. 
 And beneath him, tranquil and broad and deep. 
 Is the Mystic, meeting the ocean tides; 
 And under the alders that skirt its edge, 
 Now soft on the sand, now loud on the ledge. 
 Is heard the tramp of his steed as he rides. 
 
 It was twelve by the village clock. 
 
 When he crossed the bridge into Medford town. 
 
 He heard the crowing of the cock, 
 
 And the barking of the farmer's dog. 
 
 And felt the damp of the river fog. 
 
 That rises after the sun goes down. 
 
 It was one by the village clock, 
 
 When he galloped into Lexington. 
 
 He saw the gilded weathercock 
 
 Swim in the moonlight as he passed. 
 
 And the meeting-house windows, blank and bare, 
 
 Gaze at him with a spectral glare, 
 
 As if they already stood aghast 
 
 At the bloody work they would look upon. 
 
 It was two by the village clock. 
 
 When he came to the bridge in Concord town. 
 
 He heard the bleating of the flock. 
 
 And the twitter of birds among the trees. 
 
 And felt the breath of the morning breeze 
 
 Blowing over the meadows brown. 
 
 And one was safe and asleep in his bed 
 
 Who at the bridge would be first to fall, 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 Who that day would be lying dead, 
 Pierced by a British musket-ball. 
 
 You know the rest. In the books you have read, 
 How the British Regulars fired and fled, — 
 How the farmers gave them ball for ball, 
 From behind each fence and farm-yard wall, 
 Chasing the red-coats down the lane. 
 Then crossing the fields to emerge again 
 Under the trees at the turn of the road, 
 And only pausing to fire and load. 
 
 So through the night rode Paul Revere; 
 
 And so through the night went his cry of alarm 
 
 To every Middlesex village and farm, — 
 
 A cry of defiance and not of fear, 
 
 A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door. 
 
 And a word that shall echo forevermore ! 
 
 For, borne on the night-wind of the Past, 
 
 Through all our history, to the last. 
 
 In the hour of darkness and peril and need. 
 
 The people will waken and listen to hear 
 
 The hurrying hoof-beats of that steed, 
 
 And the midnight message of Paul Revere. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 27 
 
 THE CONCORD HYMN 
 
 BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON 
 
 Ralph Waldo Emerson, the great phi- 
 losopher and poet of New England, has pre- 
 served in verse the dramatic moment when 
 the "embattled farmers" of Massachusetts 
 fired the first shot of the Revolution. Stern 
 for their rights, granite as New England, the 
 patriots of Concord and Lexington took the 
 first step in the struggle that made us a nation 
 and raised on high those ideals of freedom and 
 justice for which Americans have ever been 
 willing to fight and die. The hymn was sung 
 at the completion of the battle monument, 
 April 19, 1836, on the sixty-first anniversary 
 of the fight at Concord. 
 
 By the rude bridge that arched the flood, 
 Their flag to April's breeze unfurled, 
 
 Here once the embattled farmers stood, 
 And fired the shot heard round the world. 
 
 The foe long since in silence slept; 
 
 Alike the conqueror silent sleeps; 
 And Time the ruined bridge has swept 
 
 Down the dark stream which seaward creeps. 
 
28 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 On this green bank, by this soft stream, 
 We set to-day a votive stone; 
 
 That memory may their deed redeem, 
 When, Hke our sires, our sons are gone. 
 
 Spirit, that made those heroes dare 
 To die, and leave their children free, 
 
 Bid Time and Nature gently spare 
 The shaft we raise to them and thee. 
 
 GEORGE WASHINGTON 
 
 BY JOHN HALL INGHAM 
 
 This was the man God gave us when the hour 
 
 Proclaimed the dawn of Liberty begun; 
 
 Who dared a deed, and died when it was done. 
 
 Patient in triumph, temperate in power — 
 
 Not striving hke the Corsican to tower 
 
 To heaven, nor Hke great Philip's greater son 
 
 To win the world and weep for worlds unwon, 
 
 Or lose the star to revel in the flower. 
 
 The lives that serve the eternal verities 
 
 Alone do mould mankind. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 29 
 
 WASHINGTON 
 
 BY HARRIET MONROE 
 
 Ah, hero of our younger race ! 
 
 Great builder of a temple new ! 
 Ruler, who sought no lordly place ! 
 
 Warrior, who sheathed the sword he drew ! 
 Lover of men, who saw afar 
 A world unmarred by want or war, 
 Who knew the path, and yet forbore 
 To tread, till all men should implore; 
 Who saw the light, and led the way 
 Where the gray world might greet the day; 
 
 Father and leader, prophet sure. 
 
 Whose will in vast works shall endure, 
 How shall we praise him on this day of days. 
 Great son of fame who has no need of praise? 
 
 LAFAYETTE— THE FRIEND OF AMERICA 
 
 No story out of romance, no legend of the 
 heroic age is more inspiring than the history of 
 Lafayette — the friend of America. 
 
 The Marquis de Lafayette was a nobleman 
 of France, and was brought up in a time when 
 
30 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 the titled classes of that country treated the 
 common people not only as vassals and slaves, 
 but as no better than mere beasts of burden. 
 Lafayette was rich, powerful, and popular, and 
 was the welcomed associate of the King and 
 all his gay court. 
 
 But this darling of fortune one day heard 
 the echo of a wondrous story from across the 
 seas — the "peasants" in far-off America were 
 fighting for liberty ! 
 
 '* Liberty !" What did a marquis of France 
 know of *' liberty"? Why, Lafayette himself 
 was free ! In the midst of all the cringing servil- 
 ity at the court, he had kept his mind free to 
 do his own thinking, his heart free to love the 
 highest. 
 
 Lafayette heard the call of liberty and an- 
 swered. 
 
 You may well believe that the King and 
 all the other high-and-mighty ones by whom 
 the young marquis was surrounded did not 
 share in his sympathy for liberty. Indeed, 
 they promptly proceeded to block his way when 
 he declared his purpose to go and fight with 
 the Americans. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 31 
 
 In the end, Lafayette had to steal out of 
 France in disguise and set sail from a Spanish 
 port in a vessel bought for the purpose with 
 his own money. 
 
 He came ! He helped us to conquer ! 
 
 When Congress refused to commission the 
 nineteen-year-old French boy an officer in the 
 American army, Lafayette volunteered to serve 
 as a private and at his own expense. 
 
 Then Congress, recognizing his sincerity, 
 gave him his commission. At twenty years of 
 age he was a major-general in the American 
 army, and the right hand of the great com- 
 mander-in-chief. 
 
 But the favored son of fortune was not seek- 
 ing ease or safety. In the terrible winter at 
 Valley Forge, he, like Washington, shared the 
 suffering and hardships of the men. 
 
 In battle he was brilliant, sometimes fling- 
 ing himself from his horse and rushing with 
 drawn sword into the thickest of the fight. 
 Wounded, he would fight on. He was fearless 
 but adroit as a commander, and wise in council 
 of war. 
 
 And it was chiefly due to him — ^who came to 
 
32 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 the help of America when he had to run away 
 to do it — that the government of France later 
 sent over a considerable land force under the 
 Count de Rochambeau, and a fleet of war- 
 ships to aid in the struggle for American liberty. 
 
 The friendship which grew up and endured 
 between the grave and reverend commander- 
 in-chief of the American army and "that red- 
 headed French boy" was one of the most beau- 
 tiful incidents in our history. But it was more 
 than an incident — it was the prophecy of a 
 friendship between their two nations which 
 was forever to compromise all threatened 
 quarrels between them, and deepen with the 
 years. 
 
 General Nathaniel Greene once wrote of 
 Lafayette: *'The marquis is determined to be 
 in the way of danger." But the truth is that 
 the marquis was determined to be in the way 
 of duty. 
 
 I write "duty" advisedly. Of course, Lafa- 
 yette owed no duty to America in the sense 
 that Washington did. But he had caught the 
 ideal of liberty for mankind, and to this his 
 duty pointed. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 33 
 
 We Americans love to remember that Lafa- 
 yette went back to France, and there helped 
 to establish — after the pattern of free x\merica 
 — the glorious Republic of France. 
 
 Vive la France! 
 
 SPIRIT OF THE DECLARATION OF 
 INDEPENDENCE— LIBERTY— JUSTICE 
 
 The American Colonists, tired of the wrongs 
 and hardships heaped upon them by the home 
 government of Great Britain, decided that their 
 colonies should be made free and independent 
 states, and that these states when free should 
 unite under a new government. Accordingly, 
 on the 4//i of July, 1776, the Continental Con- 
 gress adopted a ringing resolution — published 
 a message to all the world — called the "Decla- 
 ration of Independence." This declaration cut 
 loose the young colonial governments from 
 Great Britain and formed a new head govern- 
 ment on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, named 
 the United States of America. This explains 
 why we celebrate the Glorious Fourth — it is 
 the birthday of the United States. 
 
34 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 The Declaration of Independence proclaimed 
 the true creed of human rights, and gave a 
 splendid statement of the reasons for govern- 
 ment. In part it reads: 
 
 "We hold these truths to be self-evident, 
 that all men are created equal, that they are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain in- 
 alienable rights, that among these are Life, 
 Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That 
 to secure these rights. Governments are in- 
 stituted among Men, deriving their just powers 
 from the consent of the governed. That when- 
 ever any Form of Government becomes de- 
 structive of these ends, it is the right of the 
 People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute 
 new Government, laying its foundation on 
 such principles, and organizing its powers in 
 such form, as to them shall seem most likely 
 to effect their Safety and Happiness." 
 
 Americans believe that the Maker created 
 all men with equal rights to life, liberty, and 
 happiness. When the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence said that '*all men are created equal," 
 it simply meant that they are created with 
 the right to have equal chances in the pro tec- 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 35 
 
 tion of their lives, the exercise of their Hberties, 
 and the pursuit of happiness. And if all men 
 are created with equal rights to liberty, then 
 no man is born to he controlled by another, and 
 no one is born with tJie right to rule others. 
 
 In discussing this phrase, "all men are 
 created equal" as it is used in the Declaration 
 of Independence, Abraham Lincoln gave this 
 very definite explanation: 
 
 ''I think the authors of that notable in- 
 strument intended to include all men, but they 
 did not intend to declare all men equal in all 
 respects. They did not mean to say all men 
 were equal in color, size, intellect, moral de- 
 velopments, or social capacity. They defined 
 with tolerable distinctness in what respects 
 they did consider all men created equal — equal 
 in 'certain inalienable rights, among which 
 are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' 
 This they said, and this they meant. They did 
 not mean to assert the obvious untruth that 
 all were then actually enjoying that equality, 
 nor yet that they were about to confer it imme- 
 diately upon them. In fact, they had no power 
 to confer such a boon. The}^ simply meant to 
 
36 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 declare the right, so that enforcement of it might 
 follow as fast as circumstances should permit!" 
 
 But the tyrannical King of Great Britain 
 did not believe all men should have equal rights, 
 and our wonderful Declaration goes on to say 
 of him: 
 
 "The history of the present King of Great 
 Britain is a history of repeated injuries and 
 usurpations, all having in direct object the 
 establishment of an absolute Tyranny over 
 these States. To prove this, let Facts be sub- 
 mitted to a candid world. 
 
 "He has refused his Assent to Laws, the 
 most wholesome and necessary for the public 
 good. 
 
 "He has forbidden his Governors to pass 
 Laws of immediate and pressing importance. . . . 
 
 "He has refused to pass other Laws for the 
 accommodation of large districts of people, un- 
 less those people would relinquish the right of 
 Representation in the Legislature, a right inesti- 
 mable to them, and formidable to tyrants 
 only. . . . 
 
 "He has dissolved Representative Houses 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 37 
 
 repeatedly for opposing with manly firmness 
 his invasions on the rights of the people. . . . 
 
 "He has kept among us, in times of peace, 
 Standing Armies without the Consent of our 
 legislatures. 
 
 "He has affected to render the Military 
 independent of and superior to the Civil Power. 
 
 "He has combined with others to subject 
 us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, 
 and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his 
 Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation: 
 
 "For quartering large bodies of armed 
 troops among us: 
 
 "For protecting them, by a mock Trial, 
 from punishment for any Murders which they 
 should commit on the Inhabitants of these 
 States: 
 
 "For cutting off our trade with all parts 
 of the world: 
 
 "For imposing Taxes on us without our 
 Consent: 
 
 "For depriving us in many cases, of the 
 benefits of Trial by jury: 
 
 "For transporting us beyond Seas to be 
 tried for pretended offences. . . ., - ^ 
 
38 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 "For taking away our Charters, abolishing 
 our most valuable Laws, and altering funda- 
 mentally the Forms of our Governments: 
 
 "For suspending our own Legislatures, and 
 declaring themselves invested with power to 
 legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 
 
 "He has abdicated Government here, by 
 declaring us out of his Protection and waging 
 war against us. 
 
 "He has plundered our seas, ravaged our 
 Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the 
 Lives of our people. 
 
 "He is at this time transporting large Armies 
 of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works 
 of death, desolation and tyranny. ... 
 
 "In every stage of these Oppressions We 
 have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble 
 terms: Our repeated Petitions have been an- 
 swered only by repeated injuries. A Prince, 
 whose character is thus marked by every act 
 which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the 
 ruler of a free people. . . . 
 
 "We, therefore, the Representatives of the 
 United States of America, in General Congress 
 Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge 
 
The signing of the Declaration of Independence, July i, 1776, 
 at Philadelphia 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 39 
 
 of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, 
 do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good 
 People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and 
 declare, that these United Colonies are, and 
 of Right ought to be Free and Independent 
 States; that they are Absolved from all al- 
 legiance to the British Crown, and that all 
 political connection between them and the 
 State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally 
 dissolved; and that as Free and Independent 
 states, they have full Power to levy War, con- 
 clude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Com- 
 merce, and to do all other Acts and Things which 
 Independent States may of right do. 'And for 
 the support of this Declaration, with a firm 
 reliance on the Protection of divine Providence, 
 we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, 
 our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." 
 
 INDEPENDENCE BELL, JULY 4, 1776 
 
 There was a tumult in the city 
 In the quaint old Quaker town, 
 
 And the streets were rife with people 
 Pacing restless up and down, — 
 
 People gathering at the corners, 
 
 Where they whispered each to each, 
 
40 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 And the sweat stood on their temples 
 With their earnestness of speech. 
 
 As the bleak Atlantic currents 
 
 Lash the wild Newfoundland shore, 
 So they beat against the State-house, 
 
 So they surged against the door; 
 And the mingling of their voices 
 
 Made a harmony profound, 
 Till the quiet street of Chestnut 
 
 Was all turbulent with sound. 
 
 " Will they do it .? " " Dare they do it ? " 
 
 " Who is speaking .? " " What's the news ? " 
 " What of Adams V " What of Sherman .? " 
 
 "Oh, God grant they won't refuse !" 
 "Make some way there!" "Let me nearer!'* 
 
 " I am stifling ! " " Stifle, then ! 
 When a nation's life's at hazard, 
 
 We've no time to think of men !" 
 
 So they surged against the State-house, 
 
 While all solemnly inside 
 Sat the "Continental Congress," 
 
 Truth and reason for their guide. 
 O'er a simple scroll debating. 
 
 Which, though simple it might be, 
 Yet should shake the cliff's of England 
 
 With the thunders of the free. 
 
 Far aloft in that high steeple 
 Sat the bellman, old and gray; 
 
 He was weary of the tyrant 
 And his iron-sceptred sway, 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 41 
 
 So he sat, with one hand ready 
 
 On the clapper of the bell, 
 Where his eye could catch the signal, 
 
 The long-expected news, to tell. 
 
 See ! See ! The dense crowd quivers 
 
 Through all its lengthy line, 
 As the boy beside the portal 
 
 Hastens forth to give the sign ! 
 With his little hands uplifted. 
 
 Breezes dallying with his hair. 
 Hark ! with deep, clear intonation, 
 
 Breaks his young voice on the air: 
 
 Hushed the people's swelling murmur. 
 
 Whilst the boy cries joyously : 
 *'Ring !" he shouts, "Ring ! grandpapa, 
 
 Ring ! oh, ring for liberty !" 
 Quickly, at the given signal 
 
 The old bellman lifts his hand, 
 Forth he sends the good news, making 
 
 Iron music through the land. 
 
 How they shouted ! What rejoicing ! 
 
 How the old bell shook the air. 
 Till the clang of freedom ruffled 
 
 The calmly gliding Delaware ! 
 How the bonfires and the torches 
 
 Lighted up the night's repose. 
 And from the flames, like fabled Phoenix, 
 
 Our glorious liberty arose ! 
 
 That old State-house bell is silent, 
 Hushed is now its clamorous tongue; 
 
42 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 But the spirit it awakened 
 
 Still is living, — ever young; 
 And when we greet the smiling sunlight 
 
 On the fourth of each July, 
 We will ne'er forget the bellman 
 
 Who, betwixt the earth and sky. 
 Rang out, loudly, "Independence;" 
 
 Which, please God, shall never die ! 
 
 THE STORY OF A FLAG 
 
 As Mistress Betsy Ross sat at the little 
 window of her upholstery shop in Philadelphia, 
 one hundred and forty-two years ago, she saw 
 three elegant gentlemen pass and repass on the 
 street outside, and she was quite *' flustered" 
 when a gentle tap at the door informed her 
 that they had stopped and were knocking for 
 admittance. She rose, opened the door, and 
 courtesied to General George Washington, Mr. 
 Robert Morris, and Colonel George Ross. 
 
 The three had called to ask if she would 
 make a flag for them. 
 
 Colonel Ross, her husband's uncle, knew that 
 she had helped her husband make covers for 
 fine furniture, and that since his death she had 
 carried on the business by herself. So he nat- 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 43 
 
 urally thought that the capable Httle fingers 
 of the capable little lady could fashion a pen- 
 nant for the war-swept colonies. 
 
 General Washington had made several de- 
 signs which he thought might be suitable, and 
 these he now spread out before the eyes of the 
 skilful seamstress. 
 
 Yes, she was sure that she could fashion a 
 flag from the designs, but suggested' several 
 improvements — one of which was the use of 
 five-pointed stars instead of the six-pointed 
 ones in the General's designs. 
 
 The gentlemen agreed that this would be 
 an improvement, but thought that the five- 
 pointed star would be too difficult to cut. They 
 were very much astonished and pleased, then, 
 when the lady folded a slip of paper and, with 
 one snip of the scissors, produced a five-pointed 
 star. 
 
 Mistress Betsy was then commissioned to 
 make a sample banner, and the one which she 
 submitted was later adopted by Congress as 
 the symbol of America. 
 
 This flag was the one on the field of which 
 the stars were arranged in a circle. It floated 
 
44 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 over the colonies in revolution, and led them 
 to a glorious victory at Yorktown. 
 
 In 1795 Vermont and Kentucky were ad- 
 mitted to the Union, and Congress decided to 
 alter the flag in order to have the same number 
 of stripes and the same number of stars as there 
 were States. This made fifteen of each. 
 
 The flag remained thus till 1818, and was 
 the '* Star-Spangled Banner" which Francis 
 Scott Key strained his aching eyes to see through 
 that long night of battle. 
 
 By the time five new States were added, it 
 was seen that if the number of stripes was to 
 be increased with the increasing number of 
 States, they would soon be too narrow to be 
 discernible at a distance. By an act of Con- 
 gress, then, the original thirteen stripes were 
 returned to, and it was decided to add in future 
 only a new star for each new State. Of course, 
 the design of stars in a circle could not be ad- 
 hered to, so they were arranged much as we 
 have them now. 
 
 General Washington said of the design for 
 the flag: 
 
 **We take the stars from heaven, the red 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 45 
 
 from the mother country . . . and the white 
 stripes shall go down to posterity representing 
 liberty." 
 
 TWO PLEDGES TO THE FLAG 
 
 I give my head and my heart to God and 
 my country — one country, one language, one 
 flag! 
 
 I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the 
 Republic for which it stands — one nation, in- 
 divisible, with liberty and justice for all. 
 
 HOW TO TREAT THE FLAG 
 
 During times of peace, the flag is displayed 
 on national holidays and on special occasions. 
 
 When our country is at war, however, it is 
 proper to fly the flag every day, but it should 
 be lowered at night, and should, as far as pos- 
 sible, be protected from bad weather. 
 
 The flag should not be hoisted before sun- 
 rise nor allowed to remain up after sunset. 
 
 It should never be allowed to touch the 
 ground while being hoisted or lowered. 
 
46 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 "The flag should be saluted by all present 
 while being hoisted or lowered, and when it is 
 passing on parade or in review. The spectator 
 should rise if sitting; halt if walking; and stand- 
 ing at 'attention,' salute with the right hand 
 in all cases, except that a man in civilian dress 
 and covered should uncover and hold the hat 
 opposite the left shoulder with the right hand. 
 
 *' Nothing should ever be placed upon or 
 against the flag. 
 
 ''Neither the flag nor a picture of it should 
 be used for any advertising purposes what- 
 soever; nor as toys, fans, parasols, paper-nap- 
 kins, sofa cushions; nor as a cover for a table, 
 desk, or box; nor in any other debasing 
 manner. 
 
 "It is unlawful to trample upon, mutilate, 
 or otherwise treat the flag with insult or ton- 
 tempt; or to attach to it any inscription what- 
 soever." 
 
 Remember that the flag is the symbol of 
 our liberties — that it has been rendered holy 
 by the blood of heroes who gave their lives 
 that it might wave. 
 
 Give it your heart. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 47 
 
 THE FLAG GOES BY 
 
 BY HENRY HOLCOMB BENNETT 
 
 Hats off ! 
 Along the street there comes 
 A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums, 
 A flash of color beneath the sky: 
 
 Hats off ! 
 The flag is passing by ! 
 
 Blue and crimson and white it shines 
 Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines. 
 
 Hats off ! 
 The colors before us fly; 
 But more than the flag is passing by. 
 
 Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great. 
 Fought to make and to save the State : 
 Weary marches and sinking ships; 
 Cheers of victory on dying lips; 
 
 Days of plenty and years of peace; 
 March of a strong land's swift increase; 
 Equal justice, right, and law. 
 Stately honor and reverend awe; 
 
 Sign of a nation, great and strong 
 To ward her people from foreign wrong; 
 Pride and glory and honor, — all 
 Live in the colors to stand or fall. 
 
 Hats off ! 
 Along the street there comes 
 
48 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums; 
 And loyal hearts are beating high: 
 
 Hats off ! 
 The flag is passing by ! 
 
 ABOUT OUR CONSTITUTION— THE 
 FOUNDATION OF OUR LAWS 
 
 After they had declared their independence 
 of Great Britain, the American Colonies became 
 real States, each State having a government of 
 its own. And then, as we have already told 
 you, the States, acting tiirough a Congress, 
 formed a "head" government and named it 
 ''the United States of America." This was 
 done by a written agreement, called the "Ar- 
 ticles of Confederation." This document was 
 really the first constitution of the United States. 
 
 The constitution of a nation, as you may 
 know, is the plan and rules of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 It was soon found that under the Articles 
 of Confederation the head government and 
 the several States were not working well to- 
 gether, as the members of any loving family 
 ought to work. Some of the States were passing 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 49 
 
 laws that other States did not Hke, so, often, 
 there were misunderstandings between them, 
 and sometimes really hard feelings. In fact, in 
 many ways it was being shown that the ** United 
 States" government was not strong enough — 
 not well enough made — to be the government 
 of a great people. Our country was named 
 the ''United" States, but the States were not 
 well united, and the head government was not 
 strong enough. 
 
 So, on September 17, 1787, our Congress, 
 acting by the rule of "Try, try again," agreed 
 to and signed another constitution for the United 
 States. This new Constitution gave to our 
 country what we Americans consider to be the 
 best government in the world. With some wise 
 changes called "amendments," the Constitu- 
 tion of 1787 is the one that we live under to- 
 day. We think it the best, because it was made 
 by the people, and can be changed by the people 
 when they wish, and also because it stands for 
 justice, peace, and the blessings of liberty. We 
 think that as time goes by, the nations of earth 
 will all come to have constitutions similar to 
 ours. 
 
50 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 The opening sentence of our great Constitu- 
 tion is in these words: 
 
 "We, the people of the United States, in 
 order to form a more perfect union, establish 
 justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide 
 for the common defense, promote the general 
 welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to 
 ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and 
 establish this Constitution for the United States 
 of America." 
 
 These few lines give in a nutshell the great 
 purposes which the people of this country — 
 our forefathers — had in mind when they formed 
 this government. Everything else in the Con- 
 stitution was put there to carry out some one 
 or other of these great prime objects. 
 
 The very first object stated in this new Con- 
 stitution of the United States was, "to form a 
 more perfect union." 
 
 The second was, to "establish justice." 
 "Establish" means to make firm; and "jus- 
 tice" means fairness and rightness between 
 men. Surely, that was a wise and noble pur- 
 pose of government ! 
 
 Still another great prime object stated in 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 51 
 
 the Constitution, was, to "insure domestic 
 tranquillity." What does this clause mean? 
 To make certain and sure that at home, among 
 ourselves, the people of these United States 
 shall have calm and peace, with justice and 
 rightness established between men. It is very 
 true that in 1861 our States fell apart into two 
 groups, in a bitter quarrel, and fought a four 
 years' war. But that war settled the two big 
 questions of disagreement between the States — 
 it settled the slave question by wiping out slavery 
 forever, and it settled the "secession" question 
 by deciding that all the people of these States 
 are to remain under one head government. 
 
 One of the stated objects of the Constitu- 
 tion was, to "promote the general welfare;" 
 so our government does many things for the 
 betterment of the people. It carries the mails 
 for us; it helps in the education of many; it 
 keeps rivers and harbors clear and free for the 
 passage of boats and ships; it forbids cheating 
 and wickedness, protecting the law-abiding 
 citizen, and punishing the wrong-doer. These, 
 and many other things it does for the good of 
 the people. 
 
52 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 The last stated object in the Constitution 
 was to "secure the blessings of liberty to our- 
 selves and our posterity." We who live to- 
 day, are some of the "posterity" — descendants — 
 of those grand old patriots who, more than a 
 hundred and thirty years ago, planned this 
 government so that it would bring down to us 
 also, the "blessings of liberty." 
 
 If they could love us and work for us a hun- 
 dred and thirty years ago, then surely we should 
 love and defend the good government they 
 
 left to us ! 
 
 * 
 
 AMERICA 
 
 BY SAMUEL FRANCIS SMITH 
 
 My country, 'tis of thee. 
 Sweet land of liberty, 
 
 Of thee I sing; 
 Land where my fathers died. 
 Land of the Pilgrims' pride. 
 From every mountainside 
 
 Let freedom ring. 
 
 My native country, thee. 
 Land of the noble free. 
 Thy name I love; 
 I love thy rocks and rills, 
 Thy woods and templed hills; 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 53 
 
 My heart with rapture thrills, 
 Like that above. 
 
 Let music swell the breeze, 
 And ring from all the trees 
 
 Sweet freedom's song; 
 Let mortal tongues awake, 
 Let all that breathe partake. 
 Let rocks their silence break, 
 
 The sound prolong. 
 
 Our fathers' God, to Thee, 
 Author of liberty, 
 
 To Thee w^e sing; 
 Long may our land be bright 
 With Freedom's holy light; 
 Protect us by Thy might, 
 
 Great God, our King. 
 
 THE STORY OF A SONG 
 
 BY MAY HARRIS 
 
 It was during our second war with Great 
 Britain— this time to defend American rights on 
 the high seas— that our national song, *'The Star- 
 Spangled Banner," was conceived and written. 
 
 On September 14, 1814, Francis Scott Key, 
 a resident of Baltimore, went on board the flag- 
 ship of the enemy fleet which lay at the mouth 
 
54 MY COUNTRYS VOICE 
 
 of the Potomac. He went under a flag of truce, 
 to request the liberation of a friend who had 
 been arrested by the British on unjust sus- 
 picion of offense. 
 
 The British admiral received Mr. Key cour- 
 teously, and promised that his friend should 
 be released. But as the bombardment of Fort 
 McHenry was about to begin, Mr. Key had to 
 stay with the British under guard, till the fight- 
 ing should be over. 
 
 It was a terrible experience that — remain- 
 ing among the enemy while they attacked the 
 defending American fort, and not being able 
 to guess which way the battle was going. 
 
 Key stood on deck through the night, lis- 
 tening to the cannonading of the British, and 
 to the answering guns of the American fort, 
 and striving to see through the darkness if the 
 beloved flag of his country floated unconquered 
 stiU. 
 
 The finng ceased in the night, and the 
 watcher on deck waited in impatient anxiety 
 for the first light of day to show whether the 
 flag flying over the fort was that of the enemy, 
 or the Stars and Stripes. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 55 
 
 Dawn came at last, and by its first gleams 
 Mr. Key discerned through his glasses the wel- 
 come sight of the American flag unharmed and 
 free. This moment of exultation brought its 
 flash of inspiration. There was an old envelope 
 in his pocket, and on the back of it, he wrote 
 the stirring words which became, by the eager 
 response in the hearts of thousands, the na- 
 tional anthem for America. 
 
 To quote Mr. Watterson's glowing words: 
 
 "Key's song was the very child of battle. 
 It was rocked by cannon in the cradle of the 
 deep. Its swaddling clothes were the Stars 
 and Stripes its birth proclaimed. Its coming 
 was heralded by shot and shell, and from its 
 baptism of fire, a nation of freemen clasped it 
 to its bosom. It was to be thenceforth and 
 forever freedom's Gloria in ExcelsisJ' 
 
 Mr. Key read the verses to some friends, 
 and they insisted that this patriotic song of 
 the flag should go to the public at once. It 
 was printed and distributed, and by a fortunate 
 chance, set to music while the enthusiasm of 
 victory was at its height. Its reception was 
 wonderful — worthy of the moment and of the 
 
56 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 song. The people were held by the flash of the 
 spirit of victory, the tribute to ideals, the faith 
 to country, vibrating in the words that belong 
 as vividly to-day, as then, to all Americans. 
 
 The winds of the world have fluttered our 
 flag in distant places; it has led American sol- 
 diers to victory; it has been a defense and a 
 symbol of faith for the living, a last cloak of 
 dreams for the soldiers who have died to up- 
 hold it; and the song that commemorates it, 
 has become one with it — to stir American hearts 
 to the patriotism of deed and spirit, to love 
 of home, of country, and of God. 
 
 THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 
 
 BY FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, 
 
 What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last 
 
 gleaming — 
 Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the clouds 
 
 of the fight 
 O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly 
 
 streaming ? 
 And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air. 
 Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there : 
 Oh, say, does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave ? 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 57 
 
 On that shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 
 Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes, 
 What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep. 
 
 As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? 
 Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam. 
 In full glory reflected now shines on the stream: 
 'Tis the Star-Spangled Banner ! Oh, long may it wave 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 
 
 And where is that band who so vauntingly swore 
 
 That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion 
 A home and a country should leave us no more ? 
 
 Their blood has washed out their foul footstep's 
 pollution. 
 No refuge could save the hireling and slave 
 From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave: 
 And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph doth wave 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 
 
 Oh, thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand 
 
 Between their loved homes and the war's desolation. 
 Blest with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued 
 land 
 Praise the power that hath made and preserved us 
 a nation. 
 Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
 And this be our motto — "In God is our trust": 
 And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave 
 O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave. 
 
58 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL* 
 
 BY KATHERINE LEE BATES 
 
 O BEAUTIFUL for spacious skies, 
 For amber waves of grain. 
 
 For purple mountain majesties 
 Above the fruited plain ! 
 America ! America ! 
 
 God shed his grace on thee 
 
 And crown thy good with brotherhood 
 
 From sea to shining sea ! 
 
 O beautiful for pilgrim feet, 
 
 Whose stern impassioned stress 
 
 A thoroughfare for freedom beat 
 Across the wilderness ! 
 America ! America ! 
 
 .God mend thine every flaw, 
 
 Confirm thy soul in self-control, 
 
 Thy liberty in law ! 
 
 O beautiful for heroes proved 
 In liberating strife. 
 
 * From "America the Beautiful and Other Poems," by Katherine Lee 
 Bates; published by the Crowell Company. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 59 
 
 Who more than self their country loved, 
 And mercy more than life! 
 America ! America ! 
 May God thy gold refine, 
 Till all success be nobleness. 
 And every gain divine ! 
 
 O beautiful for patriot dream 
 That sees beyond the years 
 
 Thine alabaster cities gleam 
 
 Undimmed by human tears ! 
 America ! America ! 
 
 God shed his grace on thee 
 
 And crown thy gpod with brotherhood 
 
 From sea to shining sea ! 
 
 THE OPPORTUNITIES OF DEMOCRACY 
 
 BY WOODROW WILSON 
 
 There is nowhere in the land any home so 
 remote, so humble, that it may not contain 
 the power of mind and heart and conscience 
 to which nations yield and history submits its 
 
 processes. 
 
 Nature pays no tribute to aristocracy, sub- 
 
60 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 scribes to no creed or caste, renders fealty to 
 no monarch or master of any name or kind. 
 
 Genius is no snob. It does not run after 
 titles or seek by preference the high circles of 
 society. It affects humble company as well as 
 great. It pays no special tribute to universities 
 or learned societies or conventional standards 
 of greatness, but serenely chooses its own com- 
 rades, its own haunts, its own cradle even, and 
 its own life of adventure and of training. 
 
 No man can explain this, but every man 
 can see how it demonstrates the vigor of democ- 
 racy, where every door is open in every hamlet 
 and countryside, in city and wilderness alike, 
 for the ruler to emerge when he will and claim 
 his leadership in the free life. Such are the 
 authentic proofs of the validity and vitality 
 of democracy. 
 
 THE MONROE DOCTRINE 
 
 It is but natural that free and happy 
 America should keenly sympathize with coun- 
 tries not so fortunate. So, when the Spanish 
 colonies of Central and South America revolted 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 61 
 
 against the cruel oppression of Spain and — one 
 after another — set up a democratic form of 
 government fashioned after our own, the United 
 States promptly acknowledged them as sister 
 republics. 
 
 In her dismay at the loss of her colonies, 
 Spain called upon other European Powers to 
 help her regain them, and for a while it looked 
 as if France, Austria, Prussia, and Russia would 
 respond to her call. 
 
 This was a question of deep concern to the 
 people of the United States. 
 
 Our President at that time was James Mon- 
 roe, a very wise and able man. Monroe talked 
 over the matter with Jefferson and Madison, 
 and the three agreed that America — including 
 both North and South America — should be 
 made ''safe for democracy" against the ag- 
 gressive monarchies of Europe. In other words, 
 that Spain and her like had to keep their hands 
 off our young sister republics. 
 
 Accordingly, on December 2, 1823, the Presi- 
 dent sent to Congress a message which shortly 
 became known the world over as ''the Monroe 
 Doctrine." 
 
62 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 **We should consider any attempt on their 
 part to extend their system to any portion of 
 this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and 
 safety. With the existing colonies or depen- 
 dencies of any European power we have not 
 interfered and shall not interfere. But with 
 the governments who have declared their in- 
 dependence and maintained it, and whose 
 independence we have, on great consideration 
 and on just principles, acknowledged, we could 
 not view any interposition for the purpose of 
 oppressing them, or controlling in any other 
 manner their destiny, by any European power 
 in any other light than as the manifestation 
 of an unfriendly disposition toward the United 
 States." 
 
 As Great Britain, the mistress of the seas, 
 quietly added her moral support to the firm 
 stand taken by the United States, Spain did 
 not receive the help she invoked, and lost for- 
 ever her South American possessions. 
 
 Nearly a century has passed since the Monroe 
 Doctrine was proclaimed to the world, but each 
 year of that century our country has stood 
 squarely upon its principles. Very recently a 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 63 
 
 splendid new statement of the doctrine was made 
 by President Wilson. But we will talk of that 
 later on. 
 
 PIONEERS! O PIONEERS! 
 
 BY WALT WHITMAN 
 
 The pioneer spirit celebrated by Whitman in 
 this poem is typical of America. The Cavaliers 
 who pushed out to the larger hope offered by 
 Virginia, were pioneers, as were the Puritans 
 who sought religious freedom on the bleak shores 
 of Massachusetts. And pioneer sons of Puritan 
 and Cavalier, moving westward, step by step, 
 conquered the far-stretching wilderness. 
 
 It must be understood that the pioneer is 
 not in any sense a destroyer. He does not 
 march for the mere love of adventure, but al- 
 ways to find a larger freedom. He does not 
 pause in order to destroy, but to build to peace 
 and civilization. 
 
 We cannot tarry here, 
 We must march, my darhngs, we must bear the brunt of 
 
 danger, 
 We, the youthful sinewy races, all the rest on us depend, 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
64 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 O you youths, western youths, 
 So impatient, full of action, full of manly pride and 
 
 friendship, 
 Plain I see you, western youths, see you tramping with 
 the foremost, 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
 Have the elder races halted ? 
 Do they droop and end their lesson, wearied, over there 
 
 beyond the seas? 
 We take up the task eternal, and the burden, and the 
 lesson, 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
 All the past we leave behind; 
 We debouch upon a newer, mightier world, varied world; 
 Fresh and strong the world we seize, world of labor and 
 the march, 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
 W^e detachments steady throwing, 
 Down the edges, through the passes, up the mountains 
 
 steep. 
 Conquering, holding, daring, venturing, as we go, the 
 unknown ways. 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
 We primeval forests felling. 
 We the rivers stemming, vexing we, and piercing deep 
 
 the mines within; 
 We the surface broad surveying, and the virgin soil up- 
 heaving, 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 65 
 
 Colorado men are we, 
 From the peaks gigantic, from the great sierras and the 
 
 high plateaus, 
 From the mine and from the gully, from the hunting 
 trail we come, 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
 From Nebraska, from Arkansas, 
 Central inland race are we, from Missouri, with the con- 
 tinental blood intervein'd; 
 All the hands of comrades clasping, all the Southern, all 
 the Northern, 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
 O resistless, restless race ! 
 O beloved race in all ! O my breast aches with tender 
 
 love for all ! 
 O I mourn and yet exult — I am rapt with love for all, 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
 All the pulses of the world. 
 Falling in, they beat for us, with the western movement 
 
 beat; 
 Holding single or together, steady moving, to the front, 
 all for us, 
 
 Pioneers ! O pioneers ! 
 
66 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 A NATION OF PIONEERS* 
 
 BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT 
 
 In his admirable series of studies of twenti- 
 eth-century problems Doctor Lyman Abbott has 
 pointed out tha^ we are a nation of pioneers; 
 that the first colonists to our shores were pio- 
 neers, and that pioneers selected out from among 
 the descendants of these early pioneers, mingled 
 with others selected afresh from the Old World, 
 pushed westward into the wilderness and laid 
 the foundations for new commonwealths. They 
 were men of hope and expectation, of enter- 
 prise and energy; for the men of dull content 
 or more dull despair had no part in the great 
 movement into and across the New World. 
 Our country has been populated by pioneers; 
 and, therefore, it has in it more energy, more 
 enterprise, more expansive power than any 
 other in the wide world. 
 
 You whom I am now addressing stand for 
 the most part but one generation removed from 
 these pioneers. You are typical Americans, 
 for you have done the great, the characteristic, 
 
 * From an address delivered at Minneapolis, September "Z, 1901. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 67 
 
 the typical work of our American life. In 
 making homes and carving out careers for your- 
 selves and your children, you have built up 
 this State; throughout our history the suc- 
 cess of the home maker has been but another 
 name for the upbuilding of the nation. The 
 men who, with axe in the forest and pick in 
 the mountains and plough on the prairies, 
 pushed to completion the dominion of our people 
 over the American wilderness have given the 
 definite shape to our nation. They have shown 
 the qualities of daring, endurance, and far- 
 sightedness, of eager desire for victory and stub- 
 born refusal to accept defeat, which go to make 
 up the essential manliness of the American 
 character. Above all, they have recognized 
 in practical form the fundamental law of success 
 in American life — the law of worthy work, the 
 law of high, resolute endeavor. 
 
 We have but little room among our people 
 for the timid, the irresolute and the idle; and 
 it is no less true that there is scant room in 
 the world at large for the nation with mighty 
 thews that dares not to be great. 
 
 Surely, in speaking to the sons of men who 
 
68 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 actually did the rough and hard, and infinitely 
 glorious, work of making the great Northwest 
 what it now is, I need hardly insist upon the 
 righteousness of this doctrine. In your own 
 vigorous lives you show by every act how scant 
 is your patience with those who do not see in 
 the life of effort the life supremely worth liv- 
 ing. Sometimes we hear those who do not work 
 spoken of with envy. Surely, the wilfully idle 
 need arouse in the breast of a healthy man no 
 emotion stronger than that of contempt — at the 
 outside no emotion stronger than angry con- 
 tempt. The feeling of envy would have in it an 
 admission of inferiority on our part, to which the 
 men who know not the sterner joys of life are 
 not entitled. 
 
 Poverty is a bitter thing, but it is not as bitter 
 as the existence of restless vacuity and physical, 
 moral, and intellectual flabbiness to which those 
 doom themselves who elect to spend all their 
 years in that vainest of all pursuits, the pur- 
 suit of mere pleasure as a sufficient end in itself. 
 
 The wilfully idle man has no place in a sane, 
 healthy, and vigorous community. . . . 
 
 Infinitely the happiest man is he who has 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 69 
 
 toiled hard and successfully in his life-work. 
 The work may be done in a thousand different 
 ways; with the brain or the hands, in the study, 
 the field, or the workshop; if it is honest work, 
 honestly done and well worth doing, that is all 
 we have a right to ask. Every father and mother 
 here, if they are wise, will bring up their chil- 
 dren not to shirk difficulties, but to meet and 
 overcome them; not to strive after a life of 
 ignoble ease, but to strive to do their duty, 
 first to themselves and their families, and then 
 to the whole State; and this duty must 
 inevitably take the shape of work in some form 
 or other. You, the sons of pioneers, if you are 
 true to your ancestry, must make your lives 
 as worthy as they made theirs. They sought 
 for true success, and, therefore, they did not 
 seek ease. They knew that success comes only 
 to those who lead the life of endeavor. 
 
 It seems to me that the simple acceptance 
 of this fundamental fact of American life, this 
 acknowledgment that the law of work is the 
 fundamental law of our being, will help us to 
 start aright in facing not a few of the problems 
 that confront us. 
 
70 IVIY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 THE BIVOUAC OF THE DEAD 
 
 BY THEODORE o'hARA 
 
 The word ''bivouac" means a camp for 
 the night — for rest and sleep. 
 
 The following inspired poem describes the 
 camping, for their last long sleep, of Kentucky 
 soldiers killed in the war between the United 
 States and Mexico. 
 
 At the outbreak of this war — over the south- 
 ern boundary of Texas, you will remember — 
 many gallant Kentuckians were among those 
 who volunteered for the fight. 
 
 The poem refers specifically to the heroic 
 slain of the battle of Buena Vista, where the 
 small American army under General Zachary 
 Taylor was outnumbered by the Mexicans, 
 five to one. 
 
 When the greatly unequal forces faced each 
 other, General Santa Anna summoned Taylor 
 to surrender. 
 
 The answer came back: "General Taylor 
 never surrenders !" 
 
 And he did not. Instead, he administered 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 71 
 
 such a terrible punishment to the Mexican 
 hordes that the name of Zachary Taylor will 
 be remembered there as long as Mexico en- 
 dures. 
 
 But though the fight was won, many of 
 our bravest and best were lost — among them, 
 the young son of the Great Pacificator, Henry 
 Clay. Young Clay fell far in advance of his 
 command, pierced by a dozen swords. 
 
 Afterward Kentucky "claimed from War 
 his richest spoil — the ashes of her brave." Her 
 dead were brought back to bivouac for the 
 last time on her ''Dark and Bloody Ground." 
 This was the inspiration of Theodore O'Hara's 
 poem: 
 
 The muffled drum's sad roll has beat 
 
 The soldier's last tattoo; 
 No more on Life's parade shall meet 
 
 That brave and fallen few. 
 On Fame's eternal camping-ground 
 
 Their silent tents are spread. 
 And Glory guards, with solemn round, 
 
 The bivouac of the dead. 
 
 No rumor of the foe's advance 
 
 Now swells upon the wind; 
 No troubled thought at midnight haunts 
 
 Of loved ones left behind; 
 
72 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 No vision of the morrow's strife 
 The warrior's dream alarms; 
 
 No braying horn, no screaming fife. 
 At dawn shall call to arms. 
 
 The neighing troop, the flashing blade, 
 
 The bugle's stirring blast. 
 The charge, the dreadful cannonade, 
 
 The din and shout are past — 
 Nor War's wild note, nor Glory's peal. 
 
 Shall thrill with fierce delight 
 Those breasts that never more may feel 
 
 The rapture of the fight. 
 
 Like the fierce northern hurricane 
 
 That sweeps his great plateau, 
 Flushed with the triumph yet to gain. 
 
 Came down the serried foe — 
 Who heard the thunder of the fray 
 
 Break o'er the field beneath. 
 Knew well the watchword of that day 
 
 Was "Victory or Death !" 
 
 Full many a norther's breath hath swept 
 
 O'er Angostura's plain, 
 And long the pitying sky has wept 
 
 Above its mouldered slain. 
 The raven's scream, or eagle's flight. 
 
 Or shepherd's pensive lay, 
 Alone now wakes each sullen height 
 
 That frowned o'er that dread fray. 
 
 Sons of the Dark and Bloody Ground ! 
 Ye must not slumber there. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 73 
 
 Where stranger steps and tongues resound 
 
 Along the heedless air. 
 Your own proud land's heroic soil 
 
 Shall be your fitter grave; 
 She claims from War his richest spoil — 
 
 The ashes of her brave. 
 
 Thus 'neath their parent turf they rest. 
 
 Far from the gory field; 
 Borne to a Spartan mother's breast 
 
 On many a bloody shield. 
 The sunshine of their native sky 
 
 Smiles sadly on them here, 
 And kindred eyes and hearts watch by 
 
 The heroes' sepulchre. 
 
 Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead ! 
 
 Dear as the blood ye gave ! 
 No impious footstep here shall tread 
 
 The herbage of your grave; 
 Nor shall your glory be forgot 
 
 While Fame her record keeps, 
 Or Honor points the hallowed spot 
 
 Where Valor proudly sleeps. 
 
 Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone 
 
 In deathless song shall tell, 
 When many a vanished year hath flown 
 
 The story how ye fell. 
 Nor wreck, nor change, nor Winter's blight. 
 
 Nor Time's remorseless doom. 
 Can dim one ray of holy light 
 
 That gilds your glorious tomb. 
 
74 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 DISUNION AND WAR 
 
 There came a time when our beloved coun- 
 try went down into the Valley of the Shadow 
 of Death — when the States of the North and the 
 States of the South fell apart over a different 
 understanding of American principles, and 
 fought a fierce and bloody war. 
 
 And so fierce and so bloody was that 
 brothers' strife that the years were long before 
 the people of the politically reunited sections 
 could speak to each other frankly and calmly 
 about the questions which had been at stake — ■ 
 for many men were still of many minds and the 
 last liberty to be surrendered by the American 
 is that of opinion. 
 
 As late as 1903, Cyrus Townsend Brady — 
 a Northerner, but one married to a Southern 
 woman — wrote : 
 
 "I close my eyes and see once more my 
 father, as I saw him on that day nearly forty 
 years ago ... a tired, dusty figure in faded 
 army blue. 
 
 "And I open them again and my glance 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 75 
 
 falls upon a daughter of the Carolinas, my 
 wife. 
 
 *'Her children and mine, typical of an united 
 people, cluster about us. They look at me, 
 some out of the blue eyes of the North, others 
 from the brown ones of the South, and beg for 
 a story — a world-wide, world-old appeal ! 
 
 "Can I speak to them of that great war when 
 State faced State and section met section in 
 our beloved land ? Can I tell the splendid story 
 of men of valor and consecration who differed 
 so radically that only in the shock of battle 
 could they compose their differences.^ Can I 
 tell these things, on the one hand, without being 
 false to the principles for which my father fought, 
 which are my own; and, on the other, without 
 giving offense or bitterness to those I love, who 
 were on the other side ? Can I be entirely fair ? 
 Can I, can any one, to-day write of the Blue 
 and the Gray so that they shall both approve.^" 
 
 In other words, as late as 1903, Mr. Brady 
 questioned whether the country was really re- 
 united at heart. That the re-established polit- 
 ical union of the two sections was enduringly 
 strong, the writer could not have doubted. And 
 
76 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 no man doubted then that South, as well as 
 North, saw in the perpetuation of the Union 
 the hand of God. 
 
 The fundamental issue on which that war 
 was fought was the supremacy of States' rights, 
 including the right of a State to secede from 
 that Union which it had voluntarily entered. 
 
 The South believed in strong State govern- 
 ments with a Union of them for their mutual 
 protection. 
 
 The North believed rather in one strong cen- 
 tral government with the States subservient to it. 
 
 Both were sincere, and each believed firmly 
 that her interpretation of the principles on which 
 the American Union was founded was the right 
 interpretation. 
 
 The clash came over the question of slavery. 
 
 The practice of holding negroes in slavery 
 was at first sanctioned and practised by both 
 North and South. Gradually, however, the 
 South acquired most of the slaves as it was 
 soon proven that they lived and worked much 
 better in the southern climate. 
 
 It must be understood that the sentiment 
 against human slavery was a matter of growth. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S, VOICE 77 
 
 just as the sentiment against religious persecu- 
 tion, which included burning for witchcraft, 
 was a matter of growth. All Americans toler- 
 ated slavery at first. 
 
 The people of the North, however, were the 
 first to become generally aroused to the iniquity 
 of the holding in bondage of one man by an- 
 other, and they voluntarily set free their few 
 remaining slaves. 
 
 New States were being admitted, and with 
 the admission of each. South and North struggled 
 for and against the extension of slavery into 
 the new territory. The conflict of ideas be- 
 came increasingly bitter. 
 
 South Carolina withdrew from the Union, 
 and was followed quickly by ten other Southern 
 States. These eleven seceding States entered a 
 union of their own known as *'the Confederate 
 States of America," and placed their seat of 
 government at Montgomery, Alabama. 
 
 The North, believing that the original Union 
 of all the States should not be broken, and de- 
 siring passionately to perpetuate it as our fore- 
 fathers had left it, determined to restore it at 
 whatever cost. 
 
78 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 Both sections rushed to arms. 
 
 The first gun was fired at Fort Sumter, 
 April 12, 1861. 
 
 For four long, bitter years, these two great 
 sections of the American people wasted their 
 superb strength against each other. 
 
 iVnd not in song or in story is there to be 
 found loftier devotion to principle, more splen- 
 did heroism in action, or finer chivalry of spirit 
 in the last accounting than was displayed by 
 both sides. This record they have left to us 
 as a common American heritage — this with 
 the immortal names of Grant, Lee, Lincoln, 
 Jackson, Meade, and all the rest ! 
 
 The South — by far the weaker section — 
 was overcome. On April 9, 1865, the American 
 hero, Lee, surrendered to the American hero, 
 Grant, at Appomattox, and the great brothers' 
 traged}^ was brought to a close. 
 
 As a result, the Union was restored, and 
 the curse of slavery was forever banished from 
 our common country. In this, the year of our 
 Lord 1918, it would be hard to find a man in 
 the South who would change either of those two 
 great facts if it were williin liis power to do so. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 79 
 
 Twelve months ago the voice of our re- 
 united country spoke, saying: 
 
 ''The outposts of American liberty are one 
 with the fighting -hue in France. Go and 
 defend!" 
 
 And in answer, our bravest and best of 
 North and South are even now opposing their 
 American breasts to the bayonets of the Huns. 
 
 TO SAVE THE UNION 
 
 The great passion of Abraham Lincoln's 
 heart was to save the Union, as will be shown 
 by the following letter from him to Horace 
 Greeley : 
 
 "Executive Mansion, 
 "Washington, August 22, 1862. 
 
 "Honorable Horace Greeley. 
 
 ""Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the 
 19th addressed to myself through the New 
 York Tribune. If there be in it any statements 
 or assumptions of fact which I may know to 
 be erroneous, I do not, now and here, controvert 
 them. If there be in it any inferences which I 
 may believe to be falsely drawn, I do not, now 
 
80 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 and here, argue against them. If there be per- 
 ceptible in it an impatient and dictorial tone, 
 I waive it in deference to an old friend whose 
 heart I have always supposed to be right. 
 
 "As to the policy I 'seem to be pursuing,' as 
 you say, I have not meant to leave any one in 
 doubt. 
 
 "I would save the Union. I would save it 
 the shortest way under the Constitution. The 
 sooner the national authority can be restored, 
 the nearer the Union will be 'the Union as it 
 was.' If there be those who would not save the 
 Union unless they could at the same time save 
 slavery, I do not agree with them. If there be 
 those who would not save the Union unless 
 they could at the same time destroy slavery, 
 I do not agree with them. My paramount ob- 
 ject in this struggle is to save the Union, and 
 is not either to save or destroy slavery. If I 
 could save the Union without freeing any slave, 
 I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing 
 all the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save 
 it by freeing some and leaving others alone, 
 I would also do that. What I do about slavery 
 and the colored race, I do because I believe it 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 81 
 
 helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I 
 forbear because I do not beHeve it would help 
 to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I 
 shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, 
 and I shall do more whenever I shall believe 
 doing more will help the cause. I shall try to 
 correct errors when shown to be errors, and I 
 shall adopt new views so fast as they shall ap- 
 pear to be true views. 
 
 ''I have here stated my purpose according 
 to my view of official duty; and I intend no 
 modification of my oft-expressed personal wish 
 that all men everywhere could be free. 
 "Yours, 
 
 *'A. Lincoln." 
 
 LITTLE GIFFEN 
 
 BY FRANCIS ORRERY TICKNOR 
 
 The following story of ''Little Giffen" shows 
 how great was the sacrifice which the South 
 offered for the cause she loved and lost. Little 
 Giffen was but one of the many thousand 
 Southern boys who were called upon to play 
 the part of men in the great brothers' war. 
 
82 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 "Private" John Allen, of Mississippi — at the 
 age of fourteen, one of the Confederacy's most 
 valued spies — was another. Private John lived 
 to serve the reunited nation in Congress, but 
 Little Giffen, with many missing others, ''did 
 not write." 
 
 Out of the focal and foremost fire, 
 Out of the hospital walls as dire; 
 Smitten of grapeshot and gangrene, 
 (Eighteenth battle, and he sixteen !) 
 Spectre ! such as you seldom see, 
 Little Giffen, of Tennessee ! 
 
 "Take him and welcome!" the surgeons said; 
 
 Little the doctor can help the dead ! 
 
 So we took him; and brought him where 
 
 The balm was sweet in the summer air; 
 
 And we laid him down on a wholesome bed — 
 
 Utter Lazarus, heel to head ! 
 
 • And we watched the war with abated breath, — 
 Skeleton boy against skeleton death. 
 Months of torture, how many such? 
 Weary weeks of the stick and crutch; 
 And still a glint of the steel-blue eye 
 Told of a spirit that w^ouldn't die. 
 
 And didn't. Nay, more ! in death's despite 
 The crippled skeleton learned to write. 
 "Dear mother," at first, of course; and then 
 "Dear captain," inquiring about the men. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 83 
 
 Captain's answer: "Of eighty-and-five, 
 Giffen and I are left alive." 
 
 Word of gloom from the war, one day; 
 
 Johnston pressed at the front, they say. 
 
 Little Giffen was up and away; 
 
 \ tear— his first— as he bade good-by. 
 
 Dimmed the glint of his steel-blue eye. 
 
 "I'll write, if spared!" There was news of the faght. 
 
 But none of Giffen.-He did not write. 
 
 I sometimes fancy that, were I king 
 
 Of the princely Knights of the Golden Rmg, 
 
 With the song of the minstrel in mme ear. 
 
 And the tender legend that trembles here, 
 
 I'd give the best on his bended knee, 
 
 The whitest soul of my chivalry. 
 
 For "Little Giffen," of Tennessee. 
 
 GETTYSBURG ADDRESS 
 
 BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN 
 
 The Battle of Gettysburg-July 1, 2, and 
 3 1863-marked the high tide of the war be- 
 tween the North and the South. When the 
 battle was "lost and won," there were left dead 
 on the field thirty-one thousand wearers ot 
 the Gray and twenty-three thousand in the 
 
 Blue of the Union. 
 
 This was the greatest battle of the war, 
 
84 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 and was contested with supreme courage on 
 both sides. It proved an overwhelming vic- 
 tory for the North. 
 
 One hundred days after the battle — and 
 while the struggle was yet at its fiercest, and 
 no one knew what the end would be — a portion 
 of the field was dedicated by the people of the 
 North as a national cemetery. 
 
 Not the mind, but the heart, must conceive 
 what that occasion meant to the anxious and 
 bereaved who met there that day. It was a 
 throng made up of the veterans of many battles, 
 of widows and orphans of the dead on many 
 fields, of countless others who had suffered 
 and were suffering because of Gettysburg and 
 all that had gone before. 
 
 Edward Everett, the most distinguished 
 orator of the day, made the address of the oc- 
 casion, and held his audience spellbound for 
 three hours. 
 
 When he had finished, amid thunderous 
 applause, there followed him the modest and 
 diffident Lincoln who, in two hundred and 
 seventy -two words, made one of the greatest 
 speeches of all time. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 85 
 
 Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers 
 brought forth upon this continent a new na- 
 tion, conceived in Hberty, and dedicated to the 
 proposition that all men are created equal. Now 
 we are engaged in a great civil war, testing 
 whether that nation, or any nation so conceived 
 and so dedicated, can long endure. We are 
 met on a great battle-field of that war. We 
 have come to dedicate a portion of that field 
 as a final resting-place for those who here gave 
 their lives that that nation might live. It is 
 altogether fitting and proper that we should 
 do this. But in a larger sense we cannot dedi- 
 cate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow 
 this ground. The brave men, Hving and dead, 
 who struggled here, have consecrated it far 
 above our poor power to add or detract. The 
 world will little note, nor long remember, what 
 we say here; but it can never forget what they 
 did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be 
 dedicated here to the unfinished work which 
 they who fought here have thus far so nobly 
 advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedi- 
 cated to the great task remaining before us, 
 that from these honored dead we take increased 
 
86 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 devotion to that cause for which they gave the 
 last full measure of devotion; that we here 
 highly resolve that these dead shall not have 
 died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall 
 have a new birth of freedom, and that govern- 
 ment of the people, by the people, and for the 
 people, shall not perish from the earth. 
 
 ABOUT THE BATTLE HYMN 
 
 BY MAY HARRIS 
 
 When the United States, once welded by the 
 stern struggle of the Revolution, and the faith 
 of its founders, into a national republic, was 
 in the midst of the bitter strife of the Civil War, 
 a time of indecisions, of shadowed faith, of 
 terrible gloom spread over the people of the 
 North. The outcome was not clear. President 
 Lincoln was dispirited, and the discouragement 
 of the moment infected the people. Patriotism 
 was chilled, and recruiting became a tedious 
 task. The two great bodies of the same people, 
 brother against brother — foemen by circum- 
 stance and fate — were supporting their divisions 
 of faith with equal endurance. If the tide of 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 87 
 
 battle turned for the Union, it must be soon, 
 for the South was wilUng to pour out the last 
 drop of her blood to win the fearful struggle. 
 
 The need was the nation's, and it was great. 
 Each man and woman felt it, but it was a 
 woman's strength of spirit and depth of soul 
 that answered ! 
 
 Julia Ward Howe, after a sleepless night in 
 Washington, looking down the deserted avenues 
 to the arching dome of the capitol, was touched 
 by a magnificent inspiration and wrote the 
 " Battle Hymn of the Republic." It came to her 
 like a chant of invisible hosts marching to the 
 rhythm of victory; the brave words thrill the 
 hearts of those who read them to-day, and if 
 they so move us now, what must they have 
 meant then to the people of the North ! They 
 were new oil for the lamp of patriotism, a fresh 
 mine of courage for worn and weary men, and 
 strong winds of devotion to keep the Star- 
 Spangled Banner floating and free. 
 
 In all literature there is nothing comparable 
 to Mrs. Howe's magnificent hymn, except the 
 song of Miriam — "By Egypt's baffled seas." 
 
 The response to its challenge was a wave 
 
88 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 of patriotism from East to West. Volunteers 
 answered its call by thousands, and marching 
 veterans sang it to battle and to victory. 
 
 That war is over — the ghost of its grief and 
 terror, buried in the hearts of a reunited people, 
 whose hands once more are joined together in 
 a union of will and of spirit; but the great 
 hymn of the republic, written sixty years ago, 
 is still a trumpet call to stir American hearts. 
 
 Julia Ward Howe wa§ past fifty when she 
 wrote the battle hymn, and she lived a beauti- 
 fully rounded life to the age of ninety-one. No 
 American woman — one might say, no woman 
 in all the world — has left such a precious legacy 
 as the author of those unforgetable lines. 
 
 THE BATTLE HYMN OF THE REPUBLIC 
 
 BY JULIA WARD HOWE 
 
 Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the 
 
 Lord; 
 
 He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of 
 
 wrath are stored; 
 
 He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible 
 
 swift sword: 
 
 His truth is marching on. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 89 
 
 I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred 
 
 circhng camps; 
 They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews 
 
 and damps; 
 I have read His righteous sentence by the dim and 
 
 flaring lamps: 
 
 His day is marching on. 
 
 I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of 
 
 steel ; 
 "As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my 
 
 grace shall deal; 
 Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with 
 
 his heel: 
 
 Since God is marching on." 
 
 He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call 
 
 retreat ; 
 He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment 
 
 seat; 
 Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my 
 
 feet! 
 
 Our God is marching on ! 
 
 In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the 
 
 sea. 
 With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and 
 
 me; 
 As He died to make men holy, let us die to make 
 
 men free, 
 
 While God is marching on. 
 
90 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 THE END OF THE BROTHERS' WAR* 
 
 History chooses humble scenes for her 
 great events. This was so of the meeting of 
 Grant and Lee which brought to an end the 
 war between the States. 
 
 Appomattox Court House was a sleepy 
 little village of but a single dusty street and 
 the McLean house, a plain, low structure of 
 brick, with a broad piazza. 
 
 Colonel Babcock on the morning of April 
 9, 1865, carried to Lee from Grant the last 
 of a series of letters that had passed between 
 the two generals to arrange a meeting. He 
 found Lee near the Confederate picket-line 
 half a mile beyond Appomattox Court House. 
 
 "He was lying down by the roadside on a 
 blanket which had been spread over a few fence 
 rails on the ground under an apple-tree, which 
 was part of an orchard. This circumstance 
 furnished the only ground for the wide-spread 
 report that the surrender occurred under an 
 
 * The quotations in this account of the surrender of Lee are taken 
 from General Horace Porter's account in "Battles and Leaders of the 
 Civil War," published by the Century Company. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 91 
 
 apple-tree. Babcock dismounted upon coming 
 near, and as he approached on foot, Lee sat 
 up, with his feet hanging over the roadside 
 embankment. The wheels of the wagons in 
 passing along the road had cut away the earth 
 of this embankment, and left the roots of the 
 tree projecting. Lee's feet were partly rest- 
 ing on these roots. One of his staff-officers 
 came forward, took the despatch which Bab- 
 cock handed him, and gave it to General 
 Lee." 
 
 This letter told Lee that Grant was ap- 
 proaching, and Lee rode back into the village 
 and selected the little brick house as the best 
 place for a meeting. 
 
 In riding forward with a few officers to see 
 Lee, Grant passed through General Sheridan's 
 cavalry, which had cut the Confederates off 
 from retreat, and from the high ground of Sheri- 
 dan's position Grant saw the columns and 
 wagon-trains of the Confederates in the valley 
 below. As he passed Sheridan, Grant called 
 out: "How are you, Sheridan.^" 
 
 "First rate, thank you, how are you?" 
 said Sheridan. 
 
92 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 ''Is Lee over there?" asked Grant, and he 
 pointed up the village street. 
 
 ''Yes, he's in that brick house," answered 
 Sheridan. 
 
 "Well, then, we'll go over," said Grant, 
 and he rode on with the several officers that 
 were with him, mounted the broad steps, and 
 entered the house. This was at half past one. 
 The two generals and the officers gathered in 
 a room furnished with a marble-topped table, 
 a sofa, and a few chairs. 
 
 "The contrast between the two commanders 
 was striking, and could not fail to attract 
 marked attention as they sat ten feet apart 
 facing each other. General Grant, then nearly 
 forty-three years of age, was five feet eight 
 inches in height, with shoulders slightly stooped. 
 His hair and full beard were a nut-brown, with- 
 out a trace of gray in them. He had on a single- 
 breasted blouse, made of dark-blue flannel, un- 
 buttoned in front, and showing a waistcoat 
 underneath. He wore an ordinary pair of top- 
 boots, with his trousers inside, and was without 
 spurs. The boots and portions of his clothes 
 were spattered with mud. He had had on a 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 93 
 
 pair of thread gloves, of a dark -yellow color, 
 which he had taken off on entering the room. 
 His felt 'sugar-loaf,' stiff-brimmed hat was 
 thrown on the table beside him. He had no 
 sword, and a pair of shoulder-straps was all 
 there was about him to designate his rank. In 
 fact, aside from these, his uniform was that of a 
 private soldier. 
 
 '*Lee, on the other hand, was fully six feet 
 in height, and quite erect for one of his age, 
 for he was Grant's senior by sixteen years. His 
 hair and full beard were a silver-gray, and quite 
 thick, except that the hair had become a little 
 thin in front. He wore a new uniform of Con- 
 federate gray, buttoned up to the throat, and 
 at his side he carried a long sword of exceed- 
 ingly fine workmanship, the hilt studded with 
 jewels. It was said to be the sword that had 
 been presented to hun by the State of Virginia. 
 His top-boots were comparatively new, and 
 seemed to have on them some ornamental stitch- 
 ing of red silk. Like his uniform, they were 
 singularly clean, and but little travel-stained. 
 On the boots were handsome spurs, with large 
 rowels. A felt hat, which in color matched 
 
94 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 pretty closely that of his uniform, and a pair 
 of long buckskin gauntlets lay beside him on 
 the table." 
 
 General Grant began the conversation by 
 saying: ''I met you once before, General Lee, 
 while we were serving in Mexico, when you 
 came over from General Scott's headquarters 
 to visit Garland's brigade, to which I then be- 
 longed. I have always remembered your ap- 
 pearance, and I think I should have recognized 
 you anywhere." ''Yes," replied General Lee^ 
 ''I know I met you on that occasion, and I have 
 often thought of it and tried to recollect how 
 you looked, but I have never been able to re- 
 call a single feature." After some further men- 
 tion of Mexico, General Lee said: "I suppose, 
 General Grant, that the object of our present 
 meeting is fully understood. I asked to see 
 you to ascertain upon what terms you would 
 receive the surrender of my army." General 
 Grant replied: ''The terms I propose are those 
 stated substantially in my letter of yesterday; 
 that is, the officers and men surrendered to be 
 paroled and disqualified from taking up arms 
 again until properly exchanged, and all arms, 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 95 
 
 ammunition, and supplies to be delivered up 
 as captured property." Lee nodded an assent, 
 and said: ''Those are about the conditions 
 which I expected would be proposed." General 
 Grant then continued: "Yes, I think our corre- 
 spondence indicated pretty clearly the action 
 that would be taken at our meeting, and I hope 
 it may lead to a general suspension of hostili- 
 ties and be the means of preventing any further 
 loss of life." 
 
 General Lee then suggested that Grant 
 put the terms into writing, and this he did in 
 a brief paragraph which included the condition 
 famous for its simple chivalry that ''the sur- 
 render of war materials should not embrace 
 the side-arms of the officers." 
 
 General Grant then said: "Unless you have 
 some suggestions to make in regard to the form 
 in which I have stated the terms, I will have 
 a copy of the letter made in ink and sign it." 
 
 "There is one thing I would like to men- 
 tion," Lee replied after a short pause. "The 
 cavalrymen and artillerists own their own horses 
 in our army. Its organization in this respect 
 differs from that of the United States." This 
 
96 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 expression attracted the notice of our officers 
 present, as showing how firmly the conviction 
 was grounded in his mind that we were two 
 distinct countries. He continued: *'I would 
 like to understand whether these men will be 
 permitted to retain their horses?" 
 
 *'You will find that the terms as written 
 do not allow this," General Grant replied; 
 "only the officers are permitted to take their 
 private property." 
 
 Lee read over the second page of the letter 
 again, and said: 
 
 '*No, I see the terms do not allow it; that 
 is clear." His face showed plainly that he was 
 quite anxious to have this concession made, 
 and Grant said very promptly and without 
 giving Lee time to make a direct request: 
 
 "Well, the subject is quite new to me. Of 
 course, I did not know that any private soldiers 
 owned their animals; but I think this will be 
 the last battle of the war — I sincerely hope 
 so — and that the surrender of this army will 
 be followed soon by that of all the others, and 
 I take it that most of the men in the ranks are 
 small farmers, and as the country has been so 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 97 
 
 raided by the two armies, it is doubtful whether 
 they will be able to put in a crop to carry them- 
 selves and their families through the next winter 
 without the aid of the horses they are now rid- 
 ing, and I will arrange it in this way: I will 
 not change the terms as now written, but I 
 will instruct the officers I shall appoint to re- 
 ceive the paroles to let all the men who claim 
 to own a horse or mule take the animals home 
 with thejn to work their little farms. ..." 
 
 ''Lee now looked greatly relieved, and 
 though anything but a demonstrative man, he 
 gave every evidence of his appreciation of this 
 concession, and said: 'This will have the best 
 possible effect upon the men. It will be very 
 gratifying and will do much toward conciliat- 
 ing our people.' " 
 
 After this the terms of surrender were copied 
 in ink, matters of detail were discussed, and 
 Grant's officers were presented to Lee. He 
 received them with that quiet consideration 
 and dignity of bearing which in itself always 
 convinced those who saw him of his natural 
 greatness and nobility. 
 
 "At a little before four o'clock General 
 
98 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 Lee shook hands with General Grant, bowed 
 to the other officers, and with Colonel Mar- 
 shall left the room. Lee signalled to his orderly 
 to bring up his horse, and while the animal 
 was being bridled the general stood on the lowest 
 step and gazed sadly in the direction of the 
 valley beyond where his army lay — now an 
 army of prisoners. He smote his hands together 
 a number of times in an absent sort of a way; 
 seemed not to see the group of Union officers 
 in the yard who rose respectfully at his approach, 
 and appeared unconscious of everything about 
 him. x\ll appreciated the sadness that over- 
 whelmed him, and he had the personal sym- 
 pathy of every one who beheld him at this 
 supreme moment of trial. The approach of 
 his horse seemed to recall him from his revery, 
 and he at once mounted. General Grant now 
 stepped down from the porch, and, moving 
 toward him, saluted him by raising his hat. 
 He was followed in this act of courtesy by all 
 our officers present. Lee raised his hat respect- 
 fully, and rode off to break the sad news to 
 the brave fellows whom he had so long com- 
 manded. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 99 
 
 "General Grant and his staff then mounted 
 and started for the headquarters camp, which, 
 in the meantime, had been pitched near by. 
 The news of the surrender had reached the 
 Union Hues, and the firing of salutes began at 
 several points, but the general sent orders at 
 once to have them stopped, and used these 
 words in referring to the occurrence: 'The 
 war is over . . . and the best sign of rejoicing 
 after the victory will be to abstain from all 
 demonstrations in the field.'" 
 
 O CAPTAIN! MY CAPTAIN! 
 
 BY WALT WHITMAN 
 
 On the 14th of April, 1865, President Lin- 
 coln was assassinated by the half-crazed John 
 Wilkes Booth. His death came as the last 
 stroke of disaster to the South, for, as Henry 
 Watterson, the distinguished pubhcist and ed- 
 itor, says: 
 
 "The direst blow that could have been laid 
 upon the prostrate South was delivered by the 
 assassin's bullet that struck him down. He 
 
100 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 was the one friend we had at court when friends 
 were most in need." 
 
 Every American heart must respond to 
 the keen anguish expressed in these Unes by 
 ''the good gray poet": 
 
 O Captain ! my Captain ! our fearful trip is done, 
 
 The ship has weathered every rack, the prize we sought 
 
 is won, 
 The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting. 
 While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and 
 daring. 
 
 But O heart ! heart ! heart ! 
 
 Oh, the bleeding drops of red. 
 
 Where on the deck my Captain lies, 
 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
 O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells; 
 Rise up ! — for you the flag is flung — for you the bugle 
 
 trills. 
 For you bouquets and ribboned wreaths — for you the 
 
 shores a-crowding. 
 For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces 
 turning; 
 
 Here, Captain ! dear father ! 
 This arm beneath your head ! 
 It is some dream that on the deck 
 You've fallen cold and dead. 
 
 My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still, 
 My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor 
 will. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 101 
 
 The ship is anchored safe and sound, its voyage closed 
 
 and done, 
 From fearful trip the victor ship comes in with object 
 won; 
 
 Exult, O shores ! and ring, O bells ! 
 But I, with mournful tread, 
 Walk the deck my Captain lies, 
 Fallen cold and dead. 
 
 REPLEDGING THE SOUTH TO THE 
 UNION 
 
 Robert E. Lee touched the pinnacle of 
 greatness when, after defeat, he rallied the 
 South to a new pledge of loyalty to the Union. 
 This quoted letter from him is but one of many 
 such addressed to the people whom he had led 
 through the fire of war, and who were ready 
 to follow him still along any path he should 
 choose. 
 
 "Near Cartersville, Virginia, 
 ''28th August, 1865. 
 
 ''Honorable John Letcher, Lexington, Va. 
 
 ''My dear Sir: I was much pleased to hear 
 of your return to your home and to learn by 
 your letter of the 2d of the kindness and con- 
 
102 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 sideration with which you were treated during 
 your arrest, and of the sympathy extended to 
 you by your former congressional associates 
 and friends in Washington. The concihatory 
 manner in which President Johnson spoke of 
 the South must have been particularly agree- 
 able to one who has the interest of its people 
 so much at heart as yourself. I wish that spirit 
 could become more general. It would go far 
 to promote confidence and to calm feelings 
 which have too long existed. The questions 
 which were for years in dispute between the 
 State and general governments, and which 
 unhappily were not decided by the dictates of 
 reason, but referred to the decision of war, 
 having been decided against us, it is the part 
 of wisdom to acquiesce in the result, and of 
 candor to recognize the fact. 
 
 ''The interests of the State are, therefore, 
 the same as those of the United States. Its 
 prosperity will rise or fall with the welfare of 
 the country. The duty of its citizens, then, 
 appears to me too plain to admit of doubt. All 
 should unite in honest efforts to obliterate the 
 effects of war, and to restore the blessings of 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 103 
 
 peace. They should remain, if possible, in the 
 country; promote harmony and good feeling; 
 qualify themselves to vote, and elect to the 
 State and general legislatures wise and patriotic 
 men who will devote their abilities to the in- 
 terests of their country and the healing of all 
 dissensions. I have invariably recommended 
 this course since the cessation of hostilities, 
 and have endeavored to practise it myself. 
 I am much obliged to you for the interest you 
 have expressed in my acceptance of the presi- 
 dency of Washington College. If I believed I 
 could be of advantage to the youth of the coun- 
 try, I should not hesitate. I have stated to 
 the committee of trustees the objections which 
 exist in my opinion to my filling the position, 
 and will yield to their judgment. Please pre- 
 sent me to Mrs. Letcher and your children, and 
 believe me, 
 
 'Most truly yours, 
 
 "R. E. Lee." 
 
104 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 THE BLUE AND THE GRAY 
 
 BY FRANCIS MILES FINCH 
 
 By the flow of the inland river, 
 
 Whence the fleets of iron have fled, 
 Where the blades of the grave-grass quiver, 
 
 Asleep are the ranks of the dead; 
 Under the sod and the dew, 
 
 Waiting the judgment day; — 
 Under the one, the Blue; 
 
 Under the other, the Gray. 
 
 These in the robings of glory. 
 
 Those in the gloom of defeat, 
 All with the battle-blood gory, 
 
 In the dusk of eternity meet; — 
 Under the sod and the dew. 
 
 Waiting the judgment day; — 
 Under the laurel, the Blue; 
 
 Under the willow, the Gray. 
 
 From the silence of sorrowful hours 
 
 The desolate mourners go. 
 Lovingly laden with flowers 
 
 Alike for the friend and the foe; — 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 105 
 
 Under the sod and the dew, 
 
 Waiting the judgment day; — 
 Under the roses, the Blue; 
 
 Under the lilies, the Gray. 
 
 So with an equal splendor 
 
 The morning sunrays fall, 
 With a touch, impartially tender. 
 
 On the blossoms blooming for all;— 
 Under the sod and the dew. 
 
 Waiting the judgment day;— 
 'Broidered with gold, the Blue; 
 
 Mellowed with gold the Gray. 
 
 So, when the summer calleth, 
 
 On forest and field of grain 
 With an equal murmur falleth 
 
 The cooling drip of the rain; — 
 Under the sod and the dew. 
 
 Waiting the judgment day; — 
 Wet with the rain, the Blue; 
 
 Wet with the rain, the Gray. 
 
 Sadly, but not with upbraiding. 
 The generous deed was done; 
 
106 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 In the storm of the years that are fading, 
 
 No braver battle was won; — 
 Under the sod and the dew, 
 
 Waiting the judgment day; — 
 Under the blossoms, the Blue; 
 
 Under the garlands, the Gray. 
 
 No more shall the war-cry sever, 
 
 Or the winding rivers be red; 
 They banish our anger forever 
 
 When they laurel the graves of our dead ! 
 Under the sod and the dew, 
 
 Waiting the judgment day; — 
 Love and tears for the Blue; 
 
 Tears and love for the Gray. 
 
 "OLD IRONSIDES" 
 
 ''Old Ironsides'' is our pet name for the 
 historic frigate. Constitution. This vessel was 
 one of the three first built for the American 
 navy, and from the time of her launching in 
 1797 she played a dramatic part in the naval 
 career of the young republic. The Constitution 
 rendered important service against the Bar- 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 107 
 
 bary pirates, helping to sweep them from the 
 paths of commerce. In the War of 1812, also, 
 she sustained an heroic part. 
 
 The facts of this war — our second with 
 Great Britain — seem strangely contradictory. 
 To begin with, the war would never have been 
 fought but for our weakness on the seas. We 
 had no navy worthy of the name, and this fact 
 invited aggression and insult. Our ships were 
 seized in our own waters, and thousands of 
 our sailors were taken by force and compelled 
 to serve on British vessels. And yet, the big 
 fact stands out that the War of 1812, was won 
 by the Americans upon the seas ! 
 
 The Constitution helped us to perform that 
 seeming miracle. It was in her fight with the 
 Guerriere, when her splendidly seasoned wooden 
 hull turned off the shot of the enemy as might 
 have done a plating of steel, that she won the 
 name we love her by — ''Old Ironsides.'' 
 
 But in time the dear old ship wore out, as 
 all ships must, whereupon the secretary of the 
 navy proposed to have her taken to pieces. 
 You may well believe that the people would 
 not permit such a sacrilege. Oliver Wendell 
 
108 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 Holmes voiced the indignation of the whole 
 people when he wrote: 
 
 Ay, tear her tattered ensign down ! 
 
 Long has it waved on high, 
 And many an eye has danced to see 
 
 That banner in the sky; 
 Beneath it rung the battle shout, 
 
 And burst the cannon's roar; — 
 The meteor of the ocean air 
 
 Shall sweep the clouds no more. 
 
 Her deck, once red with heroes' blood, 
 
 \Vhere knelt the vanquished foe, 
 When winds were hurrying o'er the flood, 
 
 And waves were white below. 
 No more shall feel the victor's tread, 
 
 Or know the conquered knee; — 
 The harpies of the shore shall pluck 
 
 The eagle of the sea ! 
 
 Oh, better that her shattered hulk 
 
 Should sink beneath the wave; 
 Her thunders shook the mighty deep. 
 
 And there should be her grave; 
 Nail to the mast her holy flag. 
 
 Set every threadbare sail, 
 And give her to the god of storms. 
 
 The lightning and the gale! 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 109 
 
 LINCOLN— THE AMERICAN 
 
 The South Speaks 
 
 "It has been said that the typical American 
 has yet to come. Let me tell you that he has 
 already come. Great types, like valuable plants, 
 are slow to flower and fruit. But from the union 
 of these Colonies, Puritans and Cavaliers, from 
 the straightening of their purposes and the 
 crossing of their blood, slow perfecting through 
 a century, came he who stands as the first typical 
 American, the first who comprehended within 
 himself all the strength and gentleness, all the 
 majesty and grace, of this republic, Abraham 
 Lincoln. 
 
 ''He was the sum of Puritan and Cavalier, 
 for in his ardent nature were fused the virtues 
 of both, and in the depths of his great soul the 
 faults of both were lost. He was greater than 
 Puritan, greater than Cavalier, in that he was 
 American, and that in his honest form were 
 first gathered the vast and thrilling forces of 
 his ideal government, charging it with such 
 tremendous meaning and so elevating it above 
 
110 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 human suffering that martyrdom, though in- 
 famously aimed, came as a fitting crown to a 
 hfe consecrated from the cradle to human 
 liberty. Let us, each cherishing the traditions 
 and honoring his fathers, build with reverent 
 hands to the type of this simple but sublime 
 life, in which all types are honored, and in our 
 common glory as Americans there will be plenty 
 and to spare for your forefathers and for mine." 
 Henry Woodfin Grady. 
 
 "One thinks now that the world in which 
 Abraham Lincoln lived might have dealt more 
 gently by such a man. He was himself so 
 gentle — so upright in nature and so broad of 
 mind — so sunny and so tolerant in temper — so 
 simple and so unaffected in bearing —a rude 
 exterior covering an undaunted spirit, proving 
 by his every act and word that 
 
 ***The bravest are the tenderest, 
 The loving are the daring.'" 
 
 Henry Watterson. 
 
 "One of the great sons of men, a man of 
 singular, delightful, vital genius who presently 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 111 
 
 emerged upon the great stage of the nation's 
 history, gaunt, shy, ungainly, but dominant 
 and majestic, a natural ruler of men, himself 
 inevitably the central figure of the great plot." 
 
 WooDRow Wilson. 
 
 LEE— THE AMERICAN 
 
 The North Speaks 
 
 "For one I am willing to vote him the lead- 
 ing gentleman of his time. . . . Lee, whose 
 towering fame, like a softly burning torch, will 
 light the face of the Confederacy down the 
 murky galleries of time. . . . 
 
 '* Lee's attitude has never, it seems to me, 
 had due recognition. Had he yielded to a sense 
 of mortification over defeat, had he been ill- 
 natured and revengeful, one word from him and 
 the conflict would have degenerated into bloody 
 and barbarous guerilla warfare. On the con- 
 trary, by his dignified, yet full and manly meet- 
 ing of Grant on his high level of magnanimity 
 and statesmanship, he rendered a great service 
 to his country and generation." 
 
 General Morris Schaff. 
 
112 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 ''As a mere military man Washington him- 
 self cannot rank with the wonderful war-chief 
 who for four years led the army of Northern 
 Virginia. . . . 
 
 ''Lee will undoubtedly rank as, without 
 any exception, the greatest of all the great cap- 
 tains that the Enghsh-speaking people have 
 brought forth." Theodore Roosevelt. 
 
 "He . . . had never failed in gentle courtesy 
 to his officers, in boundless tenderness to his 
 men, in humanity to all, and in word and deed 
 had proved himself the rarest type of soldier 
 and gentleman." ^^^^^ 
 
 AMERICA FOR ME 
 
 BY HENRY VAN DYKE 
 
 'Tis fine to see the Old World, and travel up 
 
 and down 
 Among the famous places and cities of renown, 
 To admire the crumbly castles and the statues 
 
 of the kings, — 
 But now I think I've had enough of antiquated 
 
 things. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 113 
 
 So it's home again, and home again, 
 
 America for me ! 
 My heart is turning home again, and there 
 
 I long to be, 
 In the land of youth and freedom beyond 
 
 the ocean bars. 
 Where the air is full of sunlight and the 
 
 flag is full of stars. 
 
 Oh, London is a man's town, there's power in 
 
 the air; 
 And Paris is a woman's town, with flowers in 
 
 her hair; 
 And it's sweet to dream in Venice, and it's 
 
 great to study Rome; 
 But when it comes to living there is no place 
 
 hke home. 
 
 I like the German fir-woods, in green battalions 
 
 drilled ; 
 I like the gardens of Versailles with flashing 
 
 fountains filled; 
 But, oh, to take your hand, my dear, and 
 
 ramble for a day 
 In the friendly western woodland where Nature 
 
 has her way ! 
 
114 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 I know that Europe's wonderful, yet something 
 
 seems to lack: 
 The Past is too much with her, and the people 
 
 looking back. 
 But the glory of the Present is to make the 
 
 Future free, — 
 We love our land for what she is and what she 
 
 is to be. 
 
 Oh, it's home again, and home again, 
 America for me ! 
 
 I want a ship that's westward bound to 
 plough the rolling sea. 
 
 To the blessed Land of Room Enough be- 
 yond the ocean bars. 
 
 Where the air is full of sunlight and the 
 flag is full of stars. 
 
 ''A PRECEDENT" 
 
 I HAVE told you how, in the Monroe Doc- 
 trine, America informed the world that she 
 would protect her young sister republics of 
 the West from interference by foreign monarchs. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 115 
 
 Now, turn back and read a further clause in 
 that same Doctrine: 
 
 "With the existing colonies or dependencies 
 of any European Power we have not interfered 
 and shall not interfere." 
 
 This policy advanced by President Monroe 
 and sanctioned by the people of the United 
 States in 1823, expressed the serious conviction 
 of the people of America for three-quarters of 
 a century. But policies, like nations, grow 
 and develop. 
 
 The first definite expansion of our Monroe 
 Doctrine was brought about by Spain's treat- 
 ment of Cuba, her last colony in the New World. 
 The people of Cuba for centuries suffered op- 
 pression at the hands of their mother country, 
 Spain, and several times had risen in rebellion, 
 but only to lose out and to have their chains 
 tightened. During each such struggle, the 
 free and happy people of our own United States 
 were compelled to stand by and witness — with 
 wrung hearts — the bitter treatment of the is- 
 landers, because we had said we would not in- 
 terfere with the colony of a foreign Power. Be- 
 sides, the overcautious urged, we lacked '*a 
 
116 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 precedent." In other words, it was not right 
 for us to do what the makers of America had 
 not done before us. 
 
 During the Cuban rebeUion of 1894-1898, 
 however, when the Spanish were not only 
 devastating the island with fire and sword, but 
 w^ere penning up to starve the women and chil- 
 dren of Cuba, we suddenly realized that we 
 did not need a precedent to strike for God and 
 humanity. 
 
 President McKinley of revered memory 
 and the Congress of the United States had pro- 
 tested, but in vain. And we took a long step 
 forward. We first recognized the independence 
 @f Cuba, and later declared war against Spain 
 to help establish that independence. 
 
 Go back to your histories for the glorious 
 record — Dewey at Manila, Schley at Santiago, 
 Roosevelt and Joe Wheeler at San Juan, and 
 Hobson on the Merrimac. Read how Americans 
 behaved in that time of testing. And while 
 you are reviewing, don't forget to read again of 
 the gallantry of the Spanish Admiral Cervera. 
 It is American, you know, to appreciate chivalry, 
 though it be in a foe. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 117 
 
 Your history will tell you that we won that 
 war. Now don't forget — dont ever forget — that 
 although — when the end of it came — we had a 
 hold upon Cuba which we might have kept 
 and strengthened, we did not enforce our govern- 
 ment upon her. Our government labored in 
 the island till it was redeemed from pestilence 
 and disorder, and then withdrew our armies 
 and left little Cuba free. 
 
 No, we did not have a precedent for freeing 
 a brutally oppressed little people, but, God be 
 praised, we did not need one ! 
 
 FOR CUBA 
 
 BY ROBERT MOWRY BELL 
 
 No precedent, ye say. 
 
 To point the glorious way 
 Toward help for one down trod in blood and 
 tears ? 
 
 Brothers, 'tis time there were ! 
 
 We bare our swords for her, 
 And set a model for the coming years ! 
 
 This act, to end her pain, 
 
 Without a hope of gain, 
 
118 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 Its like on history's page where can ye read? 
 
 Humanity and God 
 
 Call us to paths untrod ! 
 On, brothers, on ! We follow not, but lead ! 
 
 HIGH POINTS 
 
 I 
 
 In her dealings with the other nations of 
 the world, big and little, the United States 
 is establishing a reputation for generosity. 
 
 About the year 1900, the government of 
 China became powerless to protect, not only 
 Europeans and Americans, but those Chinese 
 who had become Christians, from the **Boxers" 
 — members of a Chinese secret society, who 
 were robbing and murdering the people from 
 the outside world. The United States, with 
 other civilized nations, sent soldiers to China 
 to aid that government in putting down the 
 Boxers. China agreed, and gave bond to pay 
 the United States about twenty-four and a 
 half million dollars for our losses and expenses 
 on account of the Boxers. Before payment, 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 119 
 
 however, our Congress passed a resolution re- 
 ducing the amount to be collected from poor 
 old China to about thirteen and a half million 
 dollars, thus making that government a present 
 of eleven million dollars "as an act of friend- 
 ship." 
 
 II 
 
 In spite of the fact that he was called our 
 *' fighting President," the world has no greater 
 advocate for the right sort of peace than Theo- 
 dore Roosevelt. Mr. Roosevelt received the 
 Nobel Peace Prize of 1906 in recognition of 
 his effective work in the settlement of the Russo- 
 Japanese War by the treaty of Portsmouth. 
 
 Ill 
 
 America has not always been guiltless of 
 land covetousness; therefore, when the Presi- 
 dent, speaking before the Pan-American Union 
 in 1913, pledged that never again would we 
 seek land by conquest, we felt that we had ab- 
 solved ourselves from an ancient sin. 
 
 **I want to take this occasion," said Mr. 
 
120 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 Wilson, "to say that the United States will 
 never again seek one foot of territory by conquest. 
 She will devote herself to showing that she 
 knows how to make honorable and fruitful 
 use of the territory she has, and she must re- 
 gard it as one of the duties of friendship to the 
 Latin-American states to see that from no 
 quarter are material interests made superior 
 to human liberty and national opportunity." 
 
 IV 
 
 When the Panama Canal was finished, the 
 United States made the very grave mistake of 
 exempting American coastwise vessels from 
 paying the toll which was required of all other 
 craft. 
 
 England resented this, and held that it was 
 a. violation of her treaty with us. 
 
 Many Americans thought that there were 
 two sides to the question, but President Wilson, 
 appearing before Congress on March 5, 1914, 
 said: 
 
 ''I have come to ask you for the repeal of 
 that provision of the Panama Canal Act of Au- 
 gust 24, 191(^2, which exempts vessels engaged 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 121 
 
 in the coastwise trade of the United States 
 from payment of tolls, and to urge upon you 
 the justice, the wisdom, and the large policy 
 of such a repeal with the utmost earnestness 
 of which I am capable. 
 
 " We consented to the treaty, its language 
 we accepted — and we are too big, too power- 
 ful, too self-respecting a nation to interpret 
 with too strained or refined a reading the words 
 of our own promises just because we have power 
 enough to give us leave to read them as we 
 please. The large thing to do is the only thing 
 that we can afford to do, a voluntary with- 
 drawal from a position everywhere questioned 
 and misunderstood. We ought to reverse our 
 action without raising the question whether 
 we were right or wrong, and so once more de- 
 serve our reputation for generosity and for 
 the redemption of every obligation without 
 quibble or hesitation." 
 
 The Act was repealed. 
 
122 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 TRUE AMERICANISM 
 
 BY HENRY VAN DYKE 
 
 True Americanism is this: 
 
 To believe that the inahenable rights of man 
 to hfe, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are 
 given by God. 
 
 To believe that any form of power that tram- 
 ples on these rights is unjust. 
 
 To believe that taxation without representa- 
 tion is tyranny, that government must rest 
 upon the consent of the governed, and that the 
 people should choose their own rulers. 
 
 To believe that freedom must be safe- 
 guarded by law and order, and that the end of 
 freedom is fair play for all. 
 
 To believe, not in a forced equality of con- 
 ditions and estates; but in a true equalization 
 of burdens, privileges, and opportunities 
 
 To believe that the selfish interests of per- 
 sons, classes, and sections must be subordinated 
 to the welfare of the commonwealth. 
 
 To believe that union is as much a human 
 necessity as liberty is a divine gift. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 123 
 
 To believe, not that all people are good, but 
 that the way to make them better is to trust 
 the whole people. 
 
 To believe that a free state should offer an 
 asylum to the oppressed, and an example of 
 virtue, sobriety, and fair dealing to all nations. 
 
 To believe that for the existence and per- 
 petuity of such a state a man should be willing 
 to give his whole service, in property, in labor, 
 and in life. 
 
 THE HOMES OF THE PEOPLE 
 
 BY HENRY W. GRADY 
 
 A FEW Sundays ago I stood on a hill in 
 Washington. My heart thrilled as I looked on 
 the towering marble of my country's Capitol, 
 and a mist gathered in my eyes, as, standing 
 there, I thought of its tremendous significance 
 and the powers there assembled, and the respon- 
 sibilities there centred — its Presidents, its Con- 
 gress, its courts, its gathered treasure, its army, 
 its navy, and its sixty million of citizens. It 
 seemed to me the best and mightiest sight that 
 the sun could find in its wheeling course — this 
 
124 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 majestic home of a republic that has taught 
 the world its best lessons of liberty. I felt that 
 if wisdom, and justice, and honor abided there- 
 in, the world would stand indebted to this 
 temple on which my eyes rested. 
 
 A few days later I visited a country home. 
 It was just a modest, quiet house sheltered 
 by great trees and set in a circle of field and 
 meadow, gracious with the promise of harvest. 
 The fragrance of pink and hollyhock mingled 
 with the aroma of garden and orchard, and the 
 air was resonant with the hum of bees and 
 poultry's busy clucking. Inside the house was 
 thrift, comfort, and that cleanliness that is 
 next to godliness — the restful beds, the open 
 fireplace, the books and papers, and the old 
 clock. 
 
 Outside stood the master, strong and whole- 
 some and upright; wearing no man's yoke; 
 with no mortgage on his roof, and no lien on 
 his ripening harvest; pitching his crops in his 
 own wisdom, and selling them in his own time in 
 his chosen market; master of his lands and 
 master of himself. 
 
 Near by stood his aged father, happy in 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 125 
 
 the heart and home of his son. As they started 
 to the house, the old man's hands rested on 
 the young man's shoulder, laying there the 
 unspeakable blessing of an honored and grate- 
 ful father. 
 
 As they drew near the door, the old mother 
 appeared, with the sunset falling on her face, 
 softening its wrinkles and its tenderness, light- 
 ing up her patient eyes, and the rich music of 
 her heart trembling on her lips, as in simple 
 phrase she welcomed her husband and son to 
 their home. 
 
 Beyond was the good wife, true of touch 
 and tender, happy amid her household cares, 
 clean of heart and conscience, the helpmate 
 and the buckler of her husband. And the chil- 
 dren, strong and sturdy, trooping down the 
 lane with the lowing herd or, weary of simple 
 sport, seeking, as truant birds do, the quiet 
 of the old home nest. 
 
 And I saw the night descend on that home, 
 falling gently as from the wings of the unseen 
 dove. And the stars swarmed in the bending 
 skies; the trees thrilled with the cricket's cry; 
 the restless bird called from the neighboring 
 
126 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 wood; and the father, a simple man of God, 
 gathering the family about him, read from the 
 Bible the old, old story of love and faith, and 
 then knelt down in prayer, the baby hidden 
 amid the folds of its mother's dress, and closed 
 the record of that simple day by calling down 
 the benediction of God on the family and the 
 home ! 
 
 As I gazed, the memory of the great Capitol 
 faded from my brain. Forgotten its treasure 
 and its splendor. I said, ''Surely here — in the 
 homes of the people is lodged the Ark of the 
 Covenant of my country. Here is its majesty 
 and its strength. Here the beginning of its 
 power and the end of its responsibility." 
 
 The homes of the people: let us keep them 
 pure and independent, and all will be well with 
 the republic. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 127 
 
 HOME, SWEET HOME 
 
 BY JOHN HOWARD PAYNE 
 
 'Mid pleasures and palaces though we may 
 
 roam, 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home; 
 A charm from the sky seems to hallow us 
 
 there. 
 Which, seek through the world, is ne'er met 
 
 with elsewhere. 
 
 Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 
 There's no place like home ! there's no place 
 
 like home ! 
 
 An exile from home, splendor dazzles in vain; 
 O, give me my lowly thatched cottage again ! 
 The birds singing gayly, that came at my call, — 
 Give me them, — and the peace of mind, dearer 
 
 than all ! 
 
 Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 
 There's no place like home ! there's no place 
 
 like home ! 
 
 How sweet 'tis to sit 'neath a fond father's 
 smile, 
 
128 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 And the cares of a mother to soothe and 
 
 beguile ! 
 Let others dehght 'mid new pleasures to roam, 
 But give me, oh, give me, the pleasures of home ! 
 
 Home, home, sweet, sweet home ! 
 There's no place like home ! there's no place 
 
 like home! 
 
 To thee I'll return, overburdened with care; 
 The heart's dearest solace will smile on me 
 
 there; 
 No more from that cottage again will I roam; 
 Be it ever so humble, there's no place like 
 
 home. 
 
 Home ! home ! sweet, sweet home ! 
 There's no place like home ! there's no place 
 
 like home! 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 129 
 
 AMERICA WAKES 
 
 Americans are by nature a happy, home- 
 loving people. Apparently safe in their ocean 
 isolation, they have gone about their pleasures 
 and their business with little thought of world 
 complications. 
 
 In the beginning they won liberty for them- 
 selves, and very shortly thereafter decreed 
 that the liberty won by other American coun- 
 tries should not be interfered with from over- 
 seas. This done, they rested upon their laurels 
 and thought to live happy ever after. 
 
 Then came the Great War, involving in a 
 death-struggle with Germany nearly every Eu- 
 ropean country including France, the friend 
 of our liberties, and England, our motherland. 
 
 America hesitated, because she did not un- 
 derstand. She had said that she would stay 
 out of European quarrels, and she had held to 
 the doctrine. 
 
 America did not know at first that this war 
 was to prove a death-struggle between Democ- 
 racy and Despotism. If she had known that 
 
130 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 at first as well as she knows it now, she would 
 have reahzed instantly that it was her fight. 
 
 America was herself so kind, so just, so 
 "honor-sure," that she could not conceive of 
 the masters of Germany as lost to these great 
 principles. 
 
 But the dark deeds of the Teutons began to 
 strike us awake. The more they shocked us, 
 the more we sympathized with their victims, 
 and the clearer we saw mortal danger to the 
 peaceable nations of earth, ourselves included. 
 
 Then came Germany's order to her to keep 
 off the free seas, in her declaration of ruthless 
 submarine warfare. 
 
 When, on April 6, 1917, America at last 
 formally declared war, it was not on account 
 of submarine ruthlessness alone, but on ac- 
 count of every sin of Germany's, from the law- 
 less invasion of Belgium to that good day when 
 America took her proper place on the side of 
 world liberty. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 131 
 
 GERMANY'S SINS AGAINST AMERICA 
 
 CONGRESSMAN LINTHICUM OF MARYLAND IN THE 
 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 
 As a reward for our neutrality what have 
 we received at the hands of WilHam II? 
 
 He has set the torch of the incendiary to 
 our factories, our workshops, our ships, and 
 our wharfs. 
 
 He has laid the bomb of the assassin in our 
 munition-plants and the holds of our ships. 
 
 He has sought to corrupt our manhood with 
 a selfish dream of peace when there is no peace. 
 
 He has wilfully butchered our citizens on 
 the high seas. 
 
 He has destroyed our commerce. 
 
 He seeks to terrorize us with his devilish 
 policy of frightfulness. 
 
 He has violated every canon of interna- 
 tional decency and set at naught every sol- 
 emn treaty and every precept of international 
 law. 
 
 He has plunged the world into the maddest 
 orgy of blood, rapine, and murder which his- 
 tory records. 
 
132 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 He has intrigued against our peace at home 
 and abroad. 
 
 He seeks to destroy our civiHzation. Pa- 
 tience is no longer a virtue, further endurance 
 is cowardice, submission to Prussian demands 
 is slavery. 
 
 THE WAR MESSAGE 
 
 When German aggression could no longer 
 be borne. President Wilson went before Con- 
 gress — April 2, 1917 — and asked that body 
 to declare that a state of war existed between 
 the United States and the Imperial German 
 Government. 
 
 Compare the principles laid down in this 
 masterly paper with the principles announced 
 in the great Monroe Doctrine. Monroe sought 
 to protect the republics of both Americas from 
 interference by monarchical European Powers. 
 President Wilson announces that the world must 
 be made safe for democracy ! 
 
 Now pause and look back to the dim be- 
 ginnings of American liberty among the burghers 
 of Virginia, the Pilgrims of Plymouth, and the 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 133 
 
 friendly wild men who kept faith with William 
 Penn. 
 
 By steadfastly setting her face toward the 
 light of liberty — at first glimpsed dimly and 
 from afar — America has ascended into the full 
 radiance of the ideal of world freedom. 
 
 The President speaks to Congress : 
 
 "With a profound sense of the solemn and 
 even tragical character of the step I am taking 
 and of the grave responsibilities which it in- 
 volves, but in unhesitating obedience to what 
 I deem my constitutional duty I advise that 
 the Congress declare the recent course of the 
 Imperial German Government to be in fact 
 nothing less than war against the government 
 and people of the United States. . . 
 
 '* While we do these things, these deeply 
 momentous things, let us be very clear and 
 make very clear to all the world, what our mo- 
 tives and our objects are. . . . Our object is 
 to vindicate the principles of peace and justice 
 in the life of the world as against selfish and 
 autocratic power, and to set up among the really 
 free and self-governed peoples of the world 
 
134 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 such a concert of purpose and of action as will 
 henceforth insure the observance of those prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 "We have no quarrel with the German 
 people. We have no feeling toward them but 
 one of sympathy and friendship. It was not 
 upon their impulse that their government acted 
 in entering the war. It was not with their 
 previous knowledge or approval. It was a war 
 determined upon as wars used to be determined 
 upon in the old unhappy days, when peoples 
 were nowhere consulted by their rulers. . . . 
 
 "A steadfast concert for peace can never 
 be maintained except by a partnership of demo- 
 cratic nations. No autocratic government 
 could be trusted to keep faith within it or ob- 
 serve its covenants. It must be a league of 
 honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would 
 eat its vitals away; the plottings of inner circles 
 who could plan what they would, and render 
 account to no one, would be a corruption seated 
 at its very heart. Only free people can hold 
 their purpose and their honor steady to a com- 
 mon end, and prefer the interests of mankind to 
 any narrow interest of their own. . . . 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 135 
 
 "We are now about to accept the gage of 
 battle with the natural foe to Hberty, and shall, 
 if necessary, spend the whole force of the na- 
 tion to check and nullify its pretensions and 
 its power. - We are glad now that we see the 
 facts with no veil of false pretense about them, 
 to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world 
 and for the liberation of its peoples, the German 
 peoples included; for the rights of nations, 
 great and small, and the privilege of men 
 everywhere to choose their way of life and 
 obedience. . . . 
 
 "The world must be made safe for democ- 
 racy. Its peace must be planted upon the tested 
 foundations of political liberty. We have no 
 selfish ends to serve. We desire no conquests, 
 no dominion. We seek no indemnities for our- 
 selves, no material compensation for the sacri- 
 fices we shall freely make. We are but one of 
 the champions of the rights of mankind. We 
 shall be satisfied when those rights have been 
 made as secure as the faith and the freedom of 
 nations can make them. 
 
 "It is a fearful thing to lead this great, 
 peaceful people into war, into the most terrible 
 
136 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself 
 seeming to be in the balance. 
 
 *'But the right is more precious than peace, 
 and we shall fight for the things which we have 
 always carried nearest our hearts — for democ- 
 racy, for the right of those who submit to au- 
 thority to have a voice in their own govern- 
 ments, for the rights and liberties of small 
 nations, for a universal dominion of right by 
 such a concert of free people as shall bring peace 
 and safety to all nations and make the world 
 itself at last free. . . . 
 
 "To such a task we can dedicate our lives 
 and our fortunes, everything that we are and 
 everything that we have, with the pride of those 
 who know that the day has come when America 
 is privileged to spend her blood and her might 
 for the principles that gave her birth and hap- 
 piness and the peace which she has treasured. 
 
 **God helping her, she can do no other." 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 137 
 
 OLD TIES RENEWED 
 
 Shortly after the United States declared 
 war against Germany, England and France 
 sent to this country some of their most dis- 
 tinguished men to confer with our own about 
 the part America was to sustain in the struggle 
 for v/orld freedom. We all remember how en- 
 thusiastically Sir Arthur James Balfour of Eng- 
 land and General Joffre and Minister Viviani 
 of France were received by the American 
 people. 
 
 Of course they had come to talk of war, 
 and at many close councils they perfected their 
 giant plans. But during their visit with us, 
 these bearers of a mighty burden found time 
 to renew old ties. 
 
 On the 29th of April, 1917, Balfour, on the 
 part of England, and Joffre and Viviani, rep- 
 resenting the land that is kin in spirit to our 
 own, together with our own Secretary of State 
 and others, made a pious pilgrimage to the 
 tomb of Washington. 
 
 It was quietly enacted — that liistoric scene. 
 
138 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 There was no display, no cold formality. The 
 men in whose hands lay the destiny of world 
 liberty, turned aside for a space, to do honor 
 to the prophetic past. 
 
 In the still sunshine of a perfect spring day 
 the little party landed at Mount Vernon, and 
 made their way up the green slope together, as 
 any less conspicuous pilgrims might have done. 
 
 Before the tomb of the First American they 
 stood with bared heads, and offered simple 
 but supreme tribute. 
 
 Minister Viviani, speaking for the nation 
 without whose help Washington could not have 
 achieved success, said: 
 
 ''In this spot lies all that is mortal of a great 
 hero. . . . 
 
 "In this spot meet the admiration of the 
 whole world and the veneration of the Amer- 
 ican people. In this spot rise before us the 
 glorious memories left by the soldiers of France 
 led by Rochambeau and Lafayette. 
 
 "And I esteem it a supreme honor, as well 
 as a satisfaction for my conscience, to be en- 
 titled to render this homage to our ancestors 
 in the presence of my colleague and friend. 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 139 
 
 Mr. Balfour, who so nobly represents his great 
 nation. By thus coming to lay here the re- 
 spectful tribute of every English mind he shows, 
 in this historic moment of communion which 
 France has willed, what nations that live for 
 liberty can do. 
 
 "When we contemplate in the distant past 
 the luminous presence of Washington ; in nearer 
 times the majestic figure of Abraham Lincoln; 
 when we respectfully salute President Wilson 
 the worthy heir of these great memories, we 
 at one glance measure the vast career of the 
 American people. 
 
 ''It is because the American people pro- 
 claimed and won the equality of all men, that 
 the free American people at the hour marked 
 by fate has been enabled with commanding 
 force to carry its action beyond the seas. 
 
 "In the name of France, I salute the young 
 army which will share our common glory. 
 
 "While paying this supreme tribute to the 
 memory of Washington, I ask you before this 
 tomb to bow in earnest meditation and all fervor 
 of piety before all the soldiers of the allied na- 
 tions who for nearly three years have been 
 
140 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 fighting under different flags for the same 
 ideal. . . . 
 
 ** Their monument is in our hearts. Not the 
 Kving alone greet us here; the ranks of the dead 
 themselves rise to surround the soldiers of 
 liberty. 
 
 "At this solemn hour in the history of the 
 world, while saluting from this sacred mound 
 the final victory of justice, I send to the republic 
 of the United States the greetings of the French 
 Republic." 
 
 When he had finished, there was no ap- 
 plause, no stir of any kind. Only, deep down 
 in the hearts of the listeners there, a solemn 
 repledging of friendship between the land of 
 Washington and the land of Lafayette. 
 
 Sir Arthur James Balfour had been com- 
 missioned by the British Mission to America 
 to lay a wreath upon the tomb of Washington. 
 Do you catch the big meaning of that.^ Eng- 
 land would decorate the grave of him who had 
 led her thirteen American colonies in successful 
 rebellion against her policies. 
 
 The simple explanation is this: Our mother 
 England has long since freed herself from the 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 141 
 
 policies of rulers like George III, and to-day 
 is one of the most democratic of nations. Eng- 
 lishmen of Sir Arthur Balfour's day love liberty 
 much as did Chatham and Burke when they 
 protested in the British Parliament against 
 injustice to the American colonies. 
 
 When Mr. Balfour came forward to place 
 the wreath, he stood for a moment, silent, and 
 seemingly overcome by all that the situation 
 meant to the people of the two great English- 
 speaking countries. When at length he spoke, 
 it was to say simply: 
 
 "M. Viviani has expressed in most eloquent 
 words the feelings which grip us all here to- 
 day. He has not only paid a fitting tribute to 
 a great statesman, but he has brought our 
 thoughts most vividly down to the present. 
 
 *' There is no place in the world where a 
 speech for the cause of liberty would be better 
 placed than here at the tomb of Washington. 
 
 *'But as that work has been so adequately 
 done by a master of oratory, perhaps you will 
 permit me to read a few words prepared by 
 the British Mission for the wreath we are to 
 to leave here to-day: 
 
142 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 '" * Dedicated by the British Mission to the 
 immortal memory of George Washington, sol- 
 dier, statesman, patriot, who would have re- 
 joiced to see the country of w^hich he was by 
 birth a citizen and the country which his genius 
 called into existence, fighting side by side to 
 save mankind from subjection to a military 
 despotism.' " 
 
 And America did not fail of a fitting answer. 
 In the speeches of her own representatives there, 
 and on the tongues of all her people, were ex- 
 pressions of deep gratification that the two 
 great peoples of the same blood, the same 
 language, the same ideals, should be brought 
 together again in affection and in perfect un- 
 derstanding. 
 
 THE SHIP OF STATE 
 
 BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW 
 
 . . . Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State ! 
 Sail on, O Union, strong and great ! 
 Humanity with all its fears. 
 With all its hopes of future years. 
 Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 143 
 
 We know what Master laid thy keel, 
 What Workmen wrought thy ribs of steel. 
 Who made each mast, and sail, and rope. 
 What anvils rang, what hammers beat. 
 In what a forge and what a heat 
 Were shaped the anchors of thy hope ! 
 
 Fear not each sudden sound and shock, 
 
 'Tis of the wave and not the rock; 
 
 'Tis but the flapping of the sail, 
 
 And not a rent made by the gale ! 
 
 In spite of rock and tempest's roar. 
 
 In spite of false lights on the shore. 
 
 Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea ! 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. 
 
 Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears, 
 
 Our faith triumphant o'er our fears, 
 
 Are all with thee ! 
 
 SOLDIERS OF FREEDOM 
 
 When, in response to the President's ap- 
 peal. Congress declared a state of war to be 
 existing between the United States and Ger- 
 many, many thousands were prompt to volun- 
 
144 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 teer their services to the flag, and these were 
 gladly accepted. 
 
 But our country — always democratic — quick- 
 ly passed the Selective Draft Law. Where all 
 classes rule, it is right that all classes should also 
 serve. 
 
 Welcoming these new "Soldiers of Free- 
 dom" into the nation's service, the President 
 wrote : 
 
 *'The White House, Washington. 
 
 *' To the Soldiers of the National Army : 
 
 "You are undertaking a great duty. The 
 heart of the whole country is with you. Every- 
 thing that you do will be watched with the 
 deepest interest and with the deepest solicitude 
 not only by those who are near and dear to 
 you, but by the whole nation besides. For this 
 great war draws us all together, makes us all 
 comrades and brothers, as all true Americans 
 felt themselves to be when we first made good 
 our national independence. The eyes of all 
 the world will be upon you, because you are 
 in some special sense the soldiers of freedom. 
 "Let it be your pride, therefore, to show 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 145 
 
 all men everywhere not only what good sol- 
 diers you are, but also what good men you are, 
 keeping yourselves fit and straight in every- 
 thing and pure and clean through and through. 
 Let us set for ourselves a standard so high that 
 it will be a glory to live up to it and then let 
 us live up to it and add a new laurel to the crown 
 of America. 
 
 ''My affectionate confidence goes with you 
 in every battle and every test. God keep and 
 
 guide you ! 
 
 "WooDROW Wilson." 
 
 A TOAST 
 
 BY GEORGE MORROW MAYO 
 
 Here's to the Blue of the wind-swept North, 
 When we meet on the fields of France. 
 
 May the spirit of Grant be with you all 
 As the Sons of the North advance ! 
 
 And here's to the Gray of the sun-kissed South, 
 When we meet on the fields of France. 
 
 May the spirit of Lee be with you all 
 As the Sons of the South advance ! 
 
146 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 And here's to the Blue and the Gray as one ! 
 
 When we meet on the fields of France. 
 May the spirit of God be with us all 
 
 As the Sons of the Flag advance ! 
 
 LOYALTY 
 
 The most nobly tragic figure in our coun- 
 try to-day is the American of German blood 
 whose deep consciousness of the right and the 
 wrong involved compels him to take up arms 
 against his Fatherland of tender memories and 
 traditions. 
 
 Hear what some of them have to say: 
 
 "To America, which we, prompted by love 
 and gratitude, have chosen as our new home- 
 land, we owe everything which it may justly 
 require from us as citizens. When conscience 
 speaks, the heart must keep silent. . . . 
 
 " There is but one authority for us to go by 
 in such cases — conscience combined with duty. 
 Before these solemn and stern majesties we 
 have to bow in absolute submission in the pres- 
 ent crisis. Let us do it in gratitude toward 
 America, which has welcomed us to its hospitable 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 147 
 
 shores and has given us opportunities such as 
 the old country simply could not offer to most 
 of us, and which has granted us golden liberty 
 for everything noble and good, and which has 
 showered an abundance of blessings upon us. 
 
 "With these convictions we Americans of 
 German descent or birth shall stand by our 
 flag whatever may come — with hands folded 
 for intercession, but ready as well for sacrifices 
 and, if need be, to fight, let us support our 
 government and pray God to protect our be- 
 loved American homeland ! " 
 
 A. G. BUCHER. 
 
 "We Americans of foreign antecedents are 
 here not by the accident of birth, but by our 
 own free choice for better or for worse. 
 
 *'We are your fellow citizens because you 
 accepted our oath of allegiance as given in good 
 faith, and because you have opened to us in 
 generous trust the portals of American oppor- 
 tunity and freedom, and have admitted us to 
 membership in the family of Americans, giving 
 us equal rights in the great inheritance which 
 has been created by the blood and the toil of 
 
148 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 your ancestors, asking nothing from us in re- 
 turn but decent citizenship and adherence to 
 those ideals and principles which are symbol- 
 ized by the glorious flag of America." 
 
 Otto H. Kahn. 
 
 "Any other course than a declaration of 
 war would make a weakling of this great na- 
 tion. 
 
 ''Our influence for good in the world would 
 be destjoyed, and future generations would be 
 ashamed of the conduct of their fathers." 
 
 Judge Leo Rassieur. 
 
 ''Politically, I am an American and nothing 
 else; but I am proud to be a German. I would 
 consider myself less than a man were I to for- 
 get the tremendous sacrifices made by the im- 
 migrant Germans in defense of their new Father- 
 land. Shall this blood have flowed in vain? 
 Shall we now attack this America to which we 
 gave all we had to give.^^ This country is our 
 country; our interests are its interests; here we 
 are; here will our descendants be; here we 
 shall stay. The Union, now and forever." 
 
 General Franz Sigel (in the Civil War). 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 149 
 
 ''In the fires of the Civil War the North and 
 the South were welded into one great union 
 of States. If the fires of the present war will 
 weld the many nationalities in our citizenship 
 into one great cohesive union of nationalities, 
 and burn away the adjectives of nationalism 
 from 'American,' then will there be a national 
 profit that will more than balance the terrible 
 sacrifices we shall be required to make. 
 
 "Where do we, the sons of men like Franz 
 Sigel and his companions in the struggle for 
 liberty, stand .^ If we are to be true to them 
 and the ideals for which they fought, we must 
 stand to-day on the side of America and free- 
 dom against the German Government and 
 autocracy. We shall not then fight against 
 our blood kindred, but in the broader sense, 
 we shall fight for them against a government 
 not of their own creation. We shall secure for 
 them the right of self-government, the right 
 of a people and not of a Kaiser to find its place 
 'in the sun' — the sun of liberty and equality." 
 
 Franz Sigel (the son). 
 
 "My emotions tell me one thing at this aw- 
 ful time, but my reason tells me another. As a 
 
150 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 German by birth it is a horrible calamity that 
 I may have to fight Germans. That is natural, 
 is it not? But as an American by preference, 
 I can see no other course open." 
 
 C. KOTZENABE. 
 
 "The present ruling class of Germany must 
 be removed or at least be made impotent of 
 doing any further mischief. When this is ac- 
 complished a great stride will have been made 
 toward universal world peace. Under a new, 
 liberal, free government, the German people 
 will expand and blossom into a still greater 
 nation, and all their energy and brain power 
 will be expended in the channels of peace in- 
 stead of war." ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ 
 
 THE NATION IN ARMS 
 
 ADAPTED FROM AN ADDRESS BY FRANKLIN K. 
 LANE, SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR 
 
 Why are we fighting Germany? The brief 
 answer is that ours is a war of self-defense. We 
 did not wish to fight Germany. She made the 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 151 
 
 attack upon us; not on our shores, but on our 
 ships, our hves, our rights, our future. 
 
 This is a war to save America— to preserve 
 self-respect, to justify our right to Hve as we 
 have lived, not as some one else wishes us to live. 
 For America is not the name of so much terri- 
 tory. It is a living spirit, born in travail, grown 
 in the rough school of bitter experience, a living 
 spirit which has purpose and pride, and con- 
 science — knows why it wishes to live and to 
 what end, knows why it comes to be respected 
 of the world, and hopes to retain that respect 
 by living on with the Hght of Lincoln's love of 
 man as its Old and New Testament. It is more 
 precious that this America should live than 
 that we Americans should live. 
 
 We fight Germany 
 
 Because of Belgium— invaded, outraged, en- 
 slaved, impoverished Belgium. 
 
 Because of France— invaded, desecrated 
 France, a million of whose heroic sons have 
 died to save the land of Lafayette. Glorious 
 golden France, the preserver of the arts, the 
 land of noble spirit— the first land to follow 
 our lead into republican liberty. 
 
152 MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 
 
 Because of England — from whom came the 
 laws, traditions, standards of life, and inherited 
 love of liberty which we call Anglo-Saxon 
 civilization. 
 
 Because of Russia — New Russia. She must 
 not be overwhelmed now. 
 
 Because of other peoples, with their rising 
 hope that the world may be freed from govern- 
 ment by the soldier. 
 
 We are fighting Germany because she vio- 
 lated our confidence. 
 
 The nation that would do this thing pro- 
 claims the gospel that government has no con- 
 science. And this doctrine cannot live, or else 
 democracy must die. For the nations of the 
 world must keep faith. There can be no living 
 for us in the world where the state has no con- 
 science, no reverence, for the things of the spirit, 
 no respect for international law, no mercy for 
 those who fall before its force. 
 
 We are fighting Germany because in this 
 war feudalism is making its last stand against 
 oncoming democracy. We see it now. This 
 is a war against an old spirit, an ancient, out- 
 worn spirit. It is a war against feudalism — the 
 
MY COUNTRY'S VOICE 153 
 
 right of the castle on the hill to rule the village 
 below. It is a war for democracy — the right 
 of all to be their own masters. Let Germany 
 be feudal if she will, but she must not spread 
 her system over the world that has outgrown 
 it. 
 
 We fight with the world for an honest world 
 in which nations keep their word. 
 
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