Fulton-Greene-Oglethorpe County GaArchives News.....Soldiers' Home Open to Georgia Veterans June 4 1901
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Denise Murphy denisemurphy13@msn.com August 14, 2004, 3:07 pm

The Atlanta Constitution
The Atlanta Constitution, June 4, 1901
SOLDIERS’ HOME OPEN TO GEORGIA VETERANS
With Patriotic Eloquence and Martial Strains It is Dedicated
TWENTY-FOUR VETERANS HAVE ALREADY ENTERED
Many Gathered To Witness the Opening Exercises—The Home Well Equipped for 
Taking Care of Soldiers—Many Ladies Present.

The hallowed memories of a generation were rehearsed again as the gray-haired 
remnants of the grandest army that ever moved “in tide of times” gathered 
yesterday beneath the domicile that Georgia owed them years ago.

The Confederate Soldiers’ Home is at last a fact.  Last night it sheltered 
twenty-four as brave and loyal hearts as ever responded to the bugle’s call to 
charge.  There beneath the shade of trees which soften the sun’s rays upon 
their spacious home, surrounded by their friends and their comrades in arms of 
other days—those who have worked with untiring energy to see the home a 
reality—they sat them down to rest with peace and comfort to crown the last of 
their valorous days.

Despite the rain and continued threatening weather hundreds of veterans, wives 
and sons and daughters and grandchildren of veterans gathered at the soldiers’ 
home yesterday morning to witness the exercises which would formally dedicate 
it to the noble cause for which it was designed thirteen years ago, when it 
was still only an idea, but an idea with a purpose behind it.  Visitors and 
veterans gathered upon and around the north piazza, which served as the 
speakers’ stand, and listened to words of eloquent eulogium and touching 
pathos evoked by memories which can never die.  To the left of the speaker’ 
table at one end of the piazza was stationed the Fifth Regiment band, which 
provided spirited music, and next the band were there old soldiers who had 
gathered to their new home, and to the occasion, though the tide of youth had 
long since ebbed, they brought still the spirit to applaud the sentiment of 
the orators and to give a ringing cheer for “Dixie.”  To the right of the 
speakers’ table sat the trustees of the home and many ladies, members of the 
Daughters of the Confederacy and other patriotic societies.  Under the trees 
before the plaza stood many to whom the exercises were of deep significance—
the veteran who floodgates of memory were opened, the youth who esteems the 
heritage of valor and of truth that is his.

There with hared heads, all heard the exercises through, and not a few 
handkerchiefs sought eyes when President W. L. Calhoun, closing the day, in 
voice marked with deep emotion, said:

“This is the proudest day of my life, when I can welcome these, my comrades, 
to their home.  I now formally declare the doors of the Confederate Soldiers’ 
Home opened.”

Twenty-Four Veterans Arrive.  Twenty-four of the forth-four veterans already 
positively admitted to the home arrived there yesterday and were assigned to 
their rooms.  White hairs and crutches were in evidence.  The first of the 
inmates of the home to arrive was Curran Becton, from Jefferson county, who 
served in the First Battalion, Georgia sharpshooters.  He came by a cab and 
was assisted up the steps by comrades.  Another aged veteran, M. Levy, came up 
just as the exercises were concluded, and, supported on either side by a 
comrade, slowly mounted the steps until he reached a seat exhausted.  He had 
drawn his pension for a year, but friends made up the pro rata part of it, 
amounting to $35, refunded it to the state, and he became an inmate of the 
home.

Another of the veterans who entered yesterday, James F. Murphy, of Jasper 
county, had drawn his pension of $100, but through the efforts of Captain Tip 
Harrison the pro rata amount of $45 was raised and refunded.  The other 
veterans who entered the home yesterday are:

John A. Clements, Eighth Georgia, Talbott county; W. B. Clements, Twenty-
seventh Georgia, Fulton county; J. L. Collier, Twenty-third Georgia, Gordon 
county; Robert B. Davis, Twelfth Mississippi and Fifteenth Kentucky, Dooly 
county; E. F. Elliott, Third Georgia and Forth-fourth Georgia, Putnam county; 
James I. Ford, Fourth Georgia, Fulton county; DeWitt C. Goza, Twentieth 
Georgia, Fulton county; J. C. Harris, Fifieth Alabama, Forsyth county; Melton 
J. Harralson, Third Georgia, Walton county; A. C. Hayes, Tennessee corps, 
Fulton county; A. B. Holt, First Cavalry Whitfield county; W. B. Hunter, 
Seventh Georgia, Troup county; J. R. Hunnicutt, Twenty-second Georgia, 
Gwinnett county; Charles L. Lankford, Third Georgia, Greene county; J. J. 
McCouncil, Troup artillery, Habersham county; G. W. Miller, First Georgia 
cavalry, Cobb county; Amos Moore, ordnance department, Fulton county; G. S. 
Paul, Walthal’s battalion, Fulton county; Z. M. Rogers, South Carolina 
artillery, Cobb county; James N. Stevens, Ninth Georgia, Fulton county.

Home Prepared for Them.  The home was well prepared to receive all the old 
veterans who gathered there and could have taken care of many more.  Thirty of 
the sixth sleeping rooms, each accommodating two persons, have been 
substantially and neatly furnished, and are ready for occupancy.

There is no decorative art about the sleeping apartments, but they look 
refreshing and inviting.  Each bedroom is furnished with two iron bedsteads 
with springs and thick felt mattresses, plenty of sheets and bedclothes, one 
dresser, one wash stand and toilet set, one double wardrobe, two rocking 
chairs, two plain chairs, two rugs, one comb and brush, one pair of slippers 
and one Bible.

The home has its own gas plant.  There are seventy-five burners in the 
building, supplied from the acetylene gas machine which has a capacity 
sufficient to keep them all burning at the same time.

The visitors inspected the home before and after the exercises and were shown 
through by Superintendnent James L. Wilson, the matron, Mrs. J. Pinckney 
Thomas, and Surgeon Henry Rossignol, who have been there several days getting 
it in readiness for the reception of the veterans.

When the exercises were over at 1 o’clock the veterans, together with those of 
the trustees who were present, were provided with a hearty and substantial 
dinner, and thus was the most important feature first given attention.

President Calhoun’s Address.  The exercises marking the opening of the home 
began shortly before 11 o’clock with prayer by the chaplain.  Rev. A. R. 
Holderby, who gave thanks to God that at least provision had been made by the 
state to care for her aged heroes, and invoked His blessing upon the 
institution.

President W. L. Calhoun, of the board of trustees, then delivered an address 
in which he gave briefly and succinctly the interesting history of the 
soldiers’ home.

Comrades and Fellow Citizens: I trust you will pardon me on this occasion for 
a concise statement of facts concerning the Confederate Soldiers’ home of 
Georgia, which after long years of struggling and waiting for its 
establishment, today stands before you symbolizing that the people of Georgia 
have recognized the sublime sentiment of all the ages which honors, protects 
and provides for the noble men who with sufferings that cannot be described, 
self-sacrifices that cannot be estimated, and by the shedding of that precious 
blood have heroically fought in defense of home and country.  In the early 
part of 1889 a committee from the state of Texas, I believe, headed by Major 
Stewart, went to the city of New York for the purpose of soliciting funds for 
the erection of a Confederate Soldiers’ home.  That feeling of friendship and 
mutual sympathy and respect did not then exist as, I am happy to say, it does 
now.  The committee therefore met with poor success.  On April 6th, 1889, 
there appeared in The Atlanta Constitution an editorial under the 
heading, “Shall We Go Begging for Them?”  In it the writer said, among other 
things, “Is it not time for the committee that are soliciting funds in New 
York for a confederate veterans’ home to recall its appeals and close up the 
work?  The poverty of the old vets has been dragged through the north until it 
is a sorry tale too often told.  The appeal has been circulating for more than 
a month in New York, and yet after all the beseeching and all this parade the 
chairman announces that only fifteen hundred dollars has been paid into his 
hands.  Come home, Major Stewart!  Discharge your committee, withdraw your 
appeal and let your old soldiers retire once more to the seclusion from which 
they had better never been drawn.  Let us take them there, never to be paraded 
again with their limping gait, their poor wounds and their shabby raiment 
through the lines of strangers of who charity is begged for their behalf.”

In addition to that was another article in which was states, “We must build a 
confederate home in Georgia.  We must build it at once.  We must show that 
Georgia’s heart beats true to the men who suffered in her cause, and that she 
will take them to her heart.  The Constitution will take the matter in hand 
and appeal to the people.”  The author of these articles before his untimely 
death became known and distinguished throughout our common country, and the 
name of Henry W. Grady, whose heart inspired them and whose mind and pen gave 
them form, will go down the years honored and revered by every true son and 
daughter of the south.  Subscriptions were called for and a noble response 
made, and in a short while about $40.00 was raised to build the home.  The 
subscriptions were in amounts from 25 cents up to $1,000 each, and came from 
all classes f our people, and some from non-residents of Georgia.  I wish I 
could read you the names of these generous donors whose hearts are overflowing 
with love and sympathy for our old and disabled confederate soldiers.  A 
charter was obtained, a board of trustees created and organized and the 
various necessary committees appointed.  The old board of trustees consisted 
of Henry W. Grady, president; W. L. Calhoun, Clement A. Evans, Samuel M. 
Inman, R. D. Spalding, George Hillyer, William T. Newman, R. J. McCamy, W. D. 
Ellis, Sr., Marion C. Kiser, Amos Fox, T. L. Langston, D. M. Bain, A. M. 
Foute, A. S. Cutts, G. Gunby Jordan, T. M. Massengale, W. M. Towers, Philip 
Cook, Richard Hobbs, Nelson Tift, W. H. Ross, R. K. Reaves, J. S. Todd, W. A. 
Wright, James W. English, W. T. Smith and E. P. Howell, with W. H. Harrison, 
secretary, and Paul Romare, treasurer.

Grady’s Last Service.  The tract of land upon which we are now assembled, 
containing 119 ¼ acres, was purchased for the home on the 31st of May, 1889, 
and the last service of Mr. Grady was in advising the committee on location in 
selecting the site of the building; for, unfortunately for the home, certainly 
for its early opening, on December 23, 1889, death overtook him, and while in 
the full development of his physical and intellectual manhood his spirit took 
its flight and went out into the great ocean where the shadows lie.  Very soon 
thereafter I was honored by being selected his successor as president of the 
board of trustees.  On memorial day, April 26, 1890, the cornerstone was laid 
with imposing ceremonies by John S. Davidson, grand master, F. and A. Masons 
of Georgia.  Many distinguished persons were present, among them General 
Joseph E. Johnston, General James Longstreet and General E. Kirby-Smith.  Many 
mementos of the war were deposited in the cornerstone, among them a spur made 
of a piece of cannon captured by the confederates at the first battle of 
Manassas, worn by General Longstreet during the war and contributed by him.  
Under the supervision of the building committee and the architects, Messrs. 
Bruce and Morgan, this building was erected by Austin & Boylston, contractors, 
and finally completed early in January, 1891.  Its erection exhausted the fund 
in hand, and eight members of the board of trustees contributed $25 each to 
pay one year’s insurance thereon.  In 1891, being entirely free from debt, and 
again in 1892, it was tendered to the state for a Confederate Soldiers’ home; 
but was both times rejected by the legislature.  On the 14th of February, 
1893, a bill in equity was filed for the sale of the property, there being no 
funds with which to open and maintain it, and, after some litigation, on 
December 17, 1895, a decree was rendered that the property be sold and 
commissioners appointed for that purpose.  During the year of 1897, the 
property was advertised and offered at private sale or lease, but no bids were 
received.  On the first Tuesday in April, 1898, after due advertisement, the 
home was exposed for sale at the court house door of Fulton county, and not 
bringing a satisfactory price, was bid in.  On May 2, 1899, it was again 
exposed for sale at public outcry and the price at which it was bid off not 
being satisfactory, the court refused to confirm the sale.

The Reunion Association of Atlanta, having proposed to give to the home a 
surplus left over of $3,394.75 if the legislature would accept it by January 
1, 1901, it was in October, 1898, again tendered the state through the 
legislature, but the bill was laid on the table.  In October, 1900, the 
governon having recommended its acceptance by the state, and the same having 
been unanimously indorsed by the Georgia divisions of the United Confederate 
Veterans at Augusta, by the United Daughters of the Confederacy at Savannah 
and by other organizations and citizens, it as on the 19th day of December, 
1900, accepted by the state, through the legislature, and $15,000 appropriated 
for its maintenance and provision made for the appointment of a board of 
trustees by the governor, who thereafter appointed W. L. Calhoun, Joseph B. 
Cummin, S. W. Harris, C. M. Wiley, Charles D. Phillips, H. W. Bell, W. F. 
Jenkins, H. H. Perry, J. H. Martin, John Triplet, and A. F. Daley.  It is 
proper to state that during all these long years, the home never having been 
occupied and no income derived therefrom, the fund necessary to pay the 
insurance and guard for the building and grounds was advanced by the Atlanta 
National bank, through its vice president, and the treasurer of the old board 
of trustees, Mr. Paul Romare.  The building has been thoroughly repaired, 
furnished and today stands before you a commodious and beautiful structure, 
ready for occupancy.

During the construction of the building and the recent furnishing thereof, 
many valuable donations in kind have been made thereto, inspired by generous, 
patriotic and noble hearts.

Greeting to Old Soldiers.  Now, my old comrades, I greet you and in behalf of 
the board of trustees welcome you home; for it is your home.  You and I and 
the other old confederate soldiers who have honored us by their presence today 
can never forget the sufferings, the privations, the long and weary marches, 
the almost starvation, the dreadful conflicts and the shedding of blood in the 
grandest struggle for constitutional rights; for home and country, the world 
has ever [unreadable].

[Unreadable ….] and for the cherished past [unreadable …] memories again.   
[unreadable …] deathless valor past.  Upon our southern alliance vet in vain … 
The people of Georgia and the state of Georgia, in its sovereign capacity, 
have united in providing this home for you.  It was a sacred duty to maintain 
you in your old age, in firmity and poverty.  You have long ago, paid for it 
in something far more valuable than gold or silver.

We trust you will feel that you have not come to a pauper’s home.  God 
forbid.  While reasonable rules and regulations are requisite for the conduct 
for any public institution yet there will be no irksome duties or burdens 
placed upon you.  We wish you to preserve your self-respect and to enjoy every 
proper privilege necessary to your comfort and happiness.  Everything possible 
will be done to make the hours you pass here pleasant and agreeable, and not 
tedious and burdensome.  Mutual confidence and respect should at all times 
prevail between yourselves and the officers of the institution, and finally, 
we hope and believe that when your end shall come, you will have so conducted 
your lives that you shall all be prepared to enter that Heavenly home above, 
where war shall be no more, where poverty, suffering, sorrow, tears an death 
will never come and life will be eternal.  

“At length the cry direct from the people made the appeal of the trustees 
potent.  The trustees had tendered the entire property to the state 
unencumbered, the Reunion Association of 1898 pledged its entire treasure of 
$3,500 to the home, and the need of the institution had become more and more 
apparent; and thus under sense of just obligation and the inspiration of the 
noblest sentiment, our state accepted the gift and provided for its use.  So 
the gloom was uplifted and the glory shone in.  The former trustees, which 
like the old guard had never surrendered, meet in the capitol to finish their 
work, and their last recorded minutes show the completion of this great trust.

“As their representative this day, with full personal knowledge of all that 
has been done, I am profoundly grateful that I can memorialize their labors 
and rejoice with them in a victory that brings unspeakable comfort to many of 
our comrades and a tender token of Georgia’s gratitude to its confederate 
soldiery.  And now on this birthday of the first, the last, the only president 
of the Confederate States of America, and here on this spot of Georgia’s soil 
I am authorized to lay the hands of the old board in consecration of this 
place for the refuge of the confederate soldiers who shall need it, and the 
monument to declare the principles for which he fought.  I utter for the old 
board their benedication upon the opened soldiers’ home and on their behalf 
salute the new board with warm congratulations and highest confidence, praying 
that wisdom from above may guide them in ministering for many years to the 
noble confederate comrades now placed in their charge.”

Governor Candler Talks.  President Calhoun was followed by Governor Allen D. 
Candler, who spoke of what Georgia had done in behalf of her soldiers.  A 
century and a quarter ago, when the country was rent with revolution, Georgia 
did not hastily join with those who began the struggle, he said, but convinced 
of the righteousness of the struggle, she went into it with a vim and a 
determination and an energy that none could surpass.  So it was in the 
sixties, when Georgia did more in defense of the south, perhaps, than any 
other southern state.

“And so it is today,” he said.  “Georgia is now paying almost as much in 
pensions in her old soldiers as all of the other states of the south 
combined.  Some of these states have pensioned the old soldiers; others have 
provided them with a home.  I am proud to say today that Georgia has done 
both, and the home stands here today a monument to those who fought for it, 
and a home indeed to those who will enter its portals.”

The governor said the state had not endowed the institution asa pauper’s 
retreat.  “God forbid it shall ever be looked on in that light,” he said.  “It 
is a home that Georgia has given you and to which you are entitled, for you 
paid for it long ago.”

Governor Candler spoke of the hard effort it had cost to bring about the 
acceptance of the home by the state and its final opening, and he 
congratulated the people of the state and the veterans upon the final triumph.

Other Speeches Made.  Hon. Clark Howell, president of the senate, was 
introduced as one of those who had fought hard in behalf of the home in the 
press and in legislative halls.  “States, like men, sometimes make mistakes,” 
Mr. Howell said in opening his address.  “But Georgia has rectified her 
mistake of ten years ago in refusing to receive and establish the Soldiers’ 
home, [unreadable] now what she should have and has done [unreadable] may not 
then have done then.  Many may not then have considered it a mistake, but in 
the light of recent years it [unreadable] has been so proven, and the state 
can rejoice today that the wrong has been no happily righted.

Major Livingstone Mims spoke next in his usual happy and graceful style, and 
afte referring to the home and the great work it would accomplish, he paid a 
tribute to the ladies whose loving hands and hearts have accomplished so much 
in behalf of the home and have done so much to make it a success.  During his 
speech some one presented him with a handsome bouquet of sweet peas, a token 
which he very gracefully acknowledged.

Hon. W. T. smith, of Gwinnett, state senator, who fought a hard fight in half 
of the home in the general assembly, spoke especially of those whose efforts 
had resulted in the final triumph witnessed in the opening of the home.  His 
references to the noble Henry W. Grady were warmly applauded.

Judge W. F. Jenkins, of Eatonton, one of the trustees of the home, was 
introduced as the one private on that board.  Judge Jenkins made an earnest 
and an interesting speech, in which he warmly congratulated the veterans upon 
the opening of the home, and always were they greeted with applause.  During 
the speaking Mrs. A. E. Grady, his mother; Mrs. William King, his mother-in-
law, and Mrs. E. R. Black, his daughter, were escorted to the speakers’ stand 
and given seats ‘midst cheers and applause.

General Evans’s Report.  General Clement A. Evans; representing the former 
board of trustees, made the following speech:

“I am proud, indeed, to represent that first and last board of trustees which 
for many years bore the sacred standard of the soldiers’ home to the crest of 
a victory which has fulfilled the hope of Georgia’s confederate veterans and 
thrilled the hearts of all Georgia’s people.  I am proud in being numbered 
among the first to respond to the noble Grady’s call, and among the first and 
last of that band of trustees whose patient devotion through more than a 
decade of years enables me to represent them in the fact accomplished which we 
here and now behold with pride.  I will not enumerate nor eulogize the 
sacrifices these trustees made nor the work they did on behalf of the home’s 
most sacred cause, for they count not the sacrifices anything in their exalted 
estimate of the vast and priceless compensations of this glorious hour.  Not 
for one moment, even in the darkest days through which they struggled to 
establish this greatest and tenderest testimonial of Georgia’s gratitude to 
her brave defensers, have I had the heart to waver from my faith that the 
doors of this Georgia’s confederate soldiers’ rest would be opened wide and a 
warm welcome to our unfortunate confederate comrades would be spoken from its 
portals.

“These trustees whose names will be forever identified with the soldiers’ home 
had their first happiness in seeing the quick success of their earliest 
appeals for funds.  Cities, towns, confederate associations, ladies’ 
associations and the people responded with subscriptions at once and with 
enthusiasm.  They saw with satisfaction this site selected by a committee 
representing all Georgia, and then accepting the plans of the architect they 
watched with interest this structure rise in which many a brave soldier of the 
confederate armies would find repose, protection and good cheer through the 
last days of his life.  Then came their first great grief in the sad and 
sudden call to heaven’s human habitation of their first president, Henry W. 
Grady, that magnificent man—the founder of this home—himself the son of a 
patriotic confederate soldier who died in battle for the southern cause.  They 
passed from this sorrow into and through the gloom which misunderstanding and 
mistake cast around the dear prospect that brightened their first years of 
effort, making their labors easy.  In this cloud they found themselves in 
charge of a trust they could not execute, and therefore prayed direction by 
the courts.  They sought many ways to reach the one and alone desired end, and 
still persisted in their claim that for Georgia’s sake this home should be—
that it must be—a memorial institution of the state itself.

The closing speech of the day was made by B. M. Blackburn, who was introduced 
as the son of a confederate veteran.  Mr. Blackburn referred to the 
appropriateness of opening the soldiers’ home on the natal day of President 
Jefferson Davis, whom he compared as a martyr to John on the Isle of Patmos.  
He felt the most glorious heritage he could leave his children was the memory 
of that great struggle for principles of right and truth in which his father 
was engaged, and that would go down as a blessed and hallowed memory to his 
children’s children.

Judge Calhoun closed the exercises at 1 o’clock by formally declaring the home 
open, and the many visitors who had gathered began a tour of inspection of the 
building.

The Patriotic Societies.  The patriotic societies were well represented at the 
home: Mrs. Joseph H. Morgan, Mrs. Ed King, Mrs. Olmstead, of the Ladies’ 
Memorial Association; Mrs. J. S. Raines; president of the Daughters of the 
Confederacy of Atlanta; Mrs. Malone, vice president; Miss Annie Randolph 
Howard, secretary; Mrs. Hawkes, Mrs. Clement A. Evans, Miss Sallie Malone, 
Mrs. T. Jefferson Thomas, Mrs. John Milledge and many other members were 
present.  The Savannah chapter was represented by Mrs. Sexton, the efficient 
president, and her mother, Mrs. Branch, who came up to be present on this 
occasion, toward whose success their chapter had contributed so much.  The 
state society of Daughters of the American Revolution was represented by Mrs. 
R. E. Park, state regent; Miss Junia McKinley, honorary state regent of 
Georgia; Mrs. David Woodward, Mrs. William Newman, Mrs. Nellie Peters Black, 
Miss Virginia Hardin, Mrs. William King, Mrs. Anne Grady, mother of Henry W. 
Grady, and Mrs. Eugene Black, his only daughter, and others.

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Fisher, who have furnished a beautiful room at the home, 
came up from Newnan for the opening.  Mrs. Fisher brought with her many lovely 
flowers to decorate the rooms.

After the formal programme as over many of the ladies and gentlemen adjourned 
to the spacious memorial hall, where the famous veteran quartet, led by 
Colonel Tip Harrison, with Colonel E. P. Thornton and Colonel McBride, 
rendered “Old Time Confederates” and other stirring songs, in which the entire 
audience joined in the chorus.  The accompanist was Mrs. Ellen Meade Clarke, 
whose beautiful voice added much to the music.  Miss Marlowe, granddaughter of 
the first Episcopal bishop of Maryland, added much to the beauty of the old 
war songs, her con[unreadable] voice being especially noticed when “Maryland, 
My Maryland,” was sung with pathos and expression.  Miss Marlowe is a western 
girl and her hearty enjoyment and interest proves that all the world admires, 
and nearly all the world loves, the confederate veterans the noblest heroes of 
them all.

The guests of honor were made happy by the tender interest manifested in their 
welfare.  They could not have received a more cordial welcome than was 
accorded them in this beautiful Soldiers’ Home of Georgia, where their 
declining years may be spent secure from care and tenderly cherished by the 
state and people for whom their young manhood was so bravely given.

Many gifts were sent out to the home yesterday morning, including books for 
the library and furnishings for the different rooms.  A beautiful quilt made 
of confederate colors, red and white, was donated by Mrs. F. McKinley Scales, 
who herself made all the dainty stitches and quilting.

The superintendent, Mr. Wilson, and Mrs. Thomas, the matron, deserve much 
credit for the perfect condition in which the entire building was found on the 
day of the opening.

The Cry to Arms.  In their new home the old veterans will fight their battles 
over, going back to the days when they were called from their homes to respond 
to their country’s cry for help.  Henry Timrod’s famous poem, “A Cry to Arms,” 
will doubtless recall to them many memories of those days of long ago:

“Ho! Woodsmen of the mountain side!
Ho! Dwellers in the vales!
Ho! Ye who by the chafing tide
Have roughened in the gales!
Leave barn and byre, leave kin and cot,
Lay by the bloodless spade;
Let desk, and case, and counter rot,
And burn your books of trade.

“The despot roves your fairest lands;
And till he flies or fears,
Your fields must grow but armed bands,
Your sheaves be sheaves of spears!
Give up to mildew and to rust
The useless tools of gain;
And feed your country’s sacred dust
With floods of crimson rain!

“Come, with the weapons at your call—
With musket, pike or knife;
He wields the deadliest blade of all
Who lightest holds his life.
The arm that drives its unbought blows
With all a patriot’s scorn
Might brain a tyrant with a rose,
Or stab him with a thorn.

“Does any falter? Let him turn
To some brave maiden’s eyes,
And catch the holy fires that burn
In those sublunar skies.
Oh! Could you like your women feel,
And in their spirit march
A day might see your lines or steel
Beneath the victor’s arch.

“What hope, o God! Would not grow warm
When thoughts like these give cheer?
The lily calmly braves the storm,
And shall the palm tree fear?
No! rather let its branches court
The rack that sweeps the plain;
And from the lily’s regal port
Learn how to breast the strain!

“Ho! Woodsmen of the mountain side!
Ho! Dwellers in the vales!
Ho! Ye who by the roaring tide
Have roughened in the gales!
Come! Flocking [unreadable] to the fight,
From forest, hill and lake;
We battle for our country’s right,
And for the lily’s sake.”

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