Exhibition Addresses. 109 



Thy limitless crops — grass, wheat, sugar, corn, rice, hemp, hops, 



Thy barns all fill'd — thy endless freight- trains,' and thy bulging store-houses, 



The grapes that ripen on thy vines — the apples in thy orchards, 



Thy incalculable lumber, beef, pork, potatoes — thy coal — thy gold and silver, 



The inexhaustible iron in thy mines. 



XII. 



All thine, O sacred Union ! 



Ship, farm, shop, barns, factories, mines, 



City and State — North, South, item and aggregate, 



We dedicate, dread Mother, all to thee ! 



Protectress absolute, thou ! Bulwark of all ! 



For well we know that while thou givest each and all (generous as God), 



Without thee, neither all nor each, nor land, home, 



Ship, nor mine — nor any here, this day, secure, 



Nor aught, nor any day, secure. 



XIII. 



And thou, thy Emblem, waving over all ! 



Delicate beauty ! a word to thee (it may be salutary) ; 



Remember, thou hast not always been, as here to-day, so comfortably ensove- 

 reign'd ; 



In other scenes than these have I observ'd thee, flag ; 



Not quite so trim and whole, and freshly blooming, in folds of stainless silk ; 



But I have seen thee, bunting, to tatters torn, upon thy splinter'd staff, 



Or clutch'd to some young color-bearer's breast, with desperate hands, 



Savagely struggled for, for life or death — fought over long, 



'Mid cannon's thunder-crash, and many a curse, and groan and yell — and rifle- 

 volleys cracking sharp, 



And moving masses, as wild demons surging — and lives as nothing risk'd, 



For thy mere remnant, grimed with dirt and smoke, and sopp'd in blood ; 



For sake of that, my beauty — and that thou might'st dally, as now, secure up there, 



Many a good man have I seen go under. 



Now here, and these, and hence, in peace, all thine, O Flag ! 

 And here, and hence, for thee, O universal Muse ! and thou for them ! 

 And here and hence, O Union, all the work and workmen thine ! 

 The poets, women, sailors, soldiers, farmers, miners, students thine ! 

 None separate from Thee — henceforth one only, we and Thou ; 

 (For the blood of the children — what is it only the blood Maternal? 

 And lives and works — what are they all at last except the roads to Faith and 

 Death?) 



While we rehearse our measureless wealth, it is for thee, dear Mother ! 



We own it all and several to-day indissoluble in Thee ; 



— Think not our chant, our show, merely for products gross, or lucre — it is for 



Thee, the Soul, electric, spiritual ! 

 Our farms, inventions, crops, we own in Thee ! Cities and States in Thee ! 

 Our freedom all in Thee ! our very lives in Thee ! 



