Page:Poems written during the progress of the abolition question in the United States.djvu/44

 'Genius of America! Spirit of our free institutions—where art thou? How art thou fallen, oh Lucifer! son of the morning—how art thou fallen from Heaven! Hell from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming! The kings of the earth cry out to thee, Aha! Aha!—?—Speech of Rev. S. J. May.

Our fellow-countrymen in chains! Slaves—in a land of light and law? Slaves—crouching on the very plains Where rolled the storm of Freedom's war! A groan from Eutaw's haunted wood— A wail where Camden's martyrs fell— By every shrine of patriot blood, From Moultrie's wall and Jasper's well! By storied hill and hallowed grot, By mossy wood and marshy glen, Whence rang of old the rifle-shot, And hurrying shout of Marion's men! The groan of breaking hearts is there— The falling lash—the fetter's clank! Slaves— are breathing in that air, Which old De Kalb and Sumter drank! What, ho!—our countrymen in chains! The whip on 's shrinking flesh! Our soil yet reddening with the stains, Caught from her scourging, warm and fresh! What! mothers from their children riven! What! God's own image bought and sold! to market driven, And bartered as the brute for gold!