University of Virginia Library

A TRIBUTE.

To the two young citizens of the United States, who, at the first rising of the Parisians in the late struggle, took up arms in the cause of liberty, and on the day of its commencement, perished in the conflict.

Glory, unto the gallant youths, who stood,
Generous and firm, in freedom's sacred van;
Unshrinking, who poured forth their dearest blood,
Asserting, dying for, the rights of man!
And glory to the banners of that nation
Whose sacred name they bore, and with whose spirit,
Proudly endued, who took their fearless station,
With those who did a common cause inherit!
They shall have glory—undiminished glory,
Well registered, and written down in story.
When Tyrants are no longer seen, or stand,
In recollection vague, or dim tradition,
As do the giant bones that fill our land,
Wrecks of some mighty ruins of the past—
Relic of monster's whose o'ergrown condition,
The very God that made them, had to blast!
High honor to our countrymen—the brave,
Who did not shrink from the impending strife,
But, taught in the true principle, who gave,
Freely in Freedom's cause their blood and life.
They shall have memories in the coming hours,
And choicest recollections, which shall be,
Green as the summer's leaves and fresh as flow'rs,
That, thro' all seasons bloom eternally.
Their memories shall be trophies, and shall stand,
Linked with the martyrs who have bled before,
A crowning monument in every land,
A quenchless beacon for each storm-wrapt shore.
Their deeds and fate, well chronicled shall be,
Among the living archives of the free,
And though unknown each unrequited name,
Theirs is a title to undying fame—
The unchiselled marble under which they sleep,
Shall hold a record which shall firmer keep,
Even than itself, the memory of the fate,
Which bore without a name, a glorious date.
What higher trophy than, when men would know,
How all around have names, but those below—
And then shall learn, that pilgrims, when the flame
Of Freedom rose, from foreign shores, who came,
Assailed the Tyrant monster in his den,
And bled and perish'd, for their fellow men;
Nor claimed a bust, nor asked a shrine or tear,
To win one tribute for their bloody bier.