Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.

Anti-Slavery Poems

Texas
To Faneuil Hall

Written in 1844, on reading a call by “a Massachusetts Freeman” for a meeting in Faneuil Hall of the citizens of Massachusetts, without distinction of party, opposed to the annexation of Texas, and the aggressions of South Carolina, and in favor of decisive action against slavery.

Men! if manhood still ye claim,

If the Northern pulse can thrill,

Roused by wrong or stung by shame,

Freely, strongly still;

Let the sounds of traffic die:

Shut the mill-gate, leave the stall,

Fling the axe and hammer by;

Throng to Faneuil Hall!

Wrongs which freemen never brooked,

Dangers grim and fierce as they,

Which, like couching lions, looked

On your fathers’ way;

These your instant zeal demand,

Shaking with their earthquake-call

Every rood of Pilgrim land,

Ho, to Faneuil Hall!

From your capes and sandy bars,

From your mountain-ridges cold,

Through whose pines the westering stars

Stoop their crowns of gold;

Come, and with your footsteps wake

Echoes from that holy wall;

Once again, for Freedom’s sake,

Rock your fathers’ hall!

Up, and tread beneath your feet

Every cord by party spun:

Let your hearts together beat

As the heart of one.

Banks and tariffs, stocks and trade,

Let them rise or let them fall:

Freedom asks your common aid,—

Up, to Faneuil Hall!

Up, and let each voice that speaks

Ring from thence to Southern plains,

Sharply as the blow which breaks

Prison-bolts and chains!

Speak as well becomes the free:

Dreaded more than steel or ball,

Shall your calmest utterance be,

Heard from Faneuil Hall!

Have they wronged us? Let us then

Render back nor threats nor prayers;

Have they chained our free-born men?

Let us unchain theirs!

Up, your banner leads the van,

Blazoned, “Liberty for all!”

Finish what your sires began!

Up, to Faneuil Hall!