Or is the dream that stirs our inmost being
To larger vision and clairvoyant seeing,
A phantom riddle e'er before us fleeing,
Unanswered and unanswerable here?
Blot out the thought! vile offspring of man's greed
That prates of peace when profits are in danger;
As long as toilers live in enforced need,
Freedom unto their lives is e'er a stranger.
Freedom of thought! It was a bold endeavor,
And millions fell ere mankind could dissever
The fatal bonds which held mankind forever
Benumbed and lifeless in its iron grasp.
Yet onward in the van with exultation
Freedom, despite the bigot's lamentation,
Led freemen forth to further immolation,
With blood-red hand to other laurels clasp.
When Capet's head rolled 'neath the scaffold's blade,
And France redeemed rose from her nightmare slumber;
When Yankee patriots marched o'er hill and glade,
That tyrants should no more our shores encumber-
Did we attain to Freedom's full fruition
In paving paths for partisan ambition,
While millions still lay bound in serf condition,
The economic slaves of self and greed?
Nay! ballots bring to such no reparation,
Nor ease to bear the iron condemnation
That wages bring, condemned to degradation,
To unrequited toil and life of need.
The battle is not o'er, the means of life
From avaricious hands must yet be wrested;
The right to think and vote ends not the strife
When right to bread in other hands is vested.
The priest has passed, his fatal bonds are riven,
The monarchs flee, by people's wrath out-driven,
And Church and State, to scheming traders given,
In terror stand confronting Freedom's van.
The toiling millions see the bright day breaking,
The scheming few, in law entrenched, are quaking,
For Freedom dawns and strong men are awaking
Resolved to end man's martyrdom to man!