William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
Stanzas to the Memory of General WashingtonPhilip Freneau (17521832)
Terra tegit, populus mœret, cœlum, habet!
D
To virtue, worth, and freedom true,
The chief, the patriot, and the sage
To Vernon bids his last adieu:
To reap in some exalted sphere
The just rewards of virtue here.
To act a part in human things
That few have known among mankind,
And far beyond the task of kings;
We hail you now to Heaven received
Your mighty task on earth achieved.
For thee their choicest wreaths prepare,
Fond Gratitude her share imparts,
And begs thy bones for burial there;
Where, near Virginia’s northern bound,
Swells the vast pile on federal ground.
The Grecian chief, the Roman sage,
The kings, the heroes, and the gods
Who flourish’d in Time’s earlier age,
Would be to class them not with you:
Superior far, in every view.
Blood their delight, and war their trade,
Their oaths profaned, their countries sold,
And fetter’d nations prostrate laid;
Could these, like you, assert their claim
To honour and immortal fame?
With nations shackled in their train,
Returning from their desperate toils
With trophies, and their thousands slain;
In all they did no traits are known
Like those that honour’d Washington.
The task to him so long assign’d?
Who now will rouse our youth to arms,
Should war approach to curse mankind?
Alas! no more the word you give,
But in your precepts you survive.
Nor will your equal soon appear;
But that great name can only die
When Memory dwells no longer here:
When man, and all his systems, must
Dissolve, like you, and turn to dust.