I.Fair land of my fathers! I hail with delight
The white streak of thy cliffs o'er the dark-rolling sea;
Though distant the prospect, though faint be its light,
That line on the surge is the land-mark to me;
Beyond whose tall ramparts for ages have stood,
'Mid the roar of the waves,--where for ages shall be,
The birth-place, the home, of the great and the good,
In the land of my fathers--the land of the free.
Fair land of my fathers! thy rich and thy poor,
The peasant and peer, in one equal degree,
Claim freedom their birthright; the thatched-cottage door
Is strong as the castle or palace can be;
So that noble nor king may oppress or annoy
Its tenant in tatters. Thus long may we see,
What the world cannot rival, nor hope to destroy
The fair land of my fathers,--the land of the free.
Fair land of my fathers! by chance should the foot
Of the manacled negro but touch on thy shore,
Where justice, religion, humanity, meet,
His chains burst asunder, and slavery no more
May fetter his frame or his spirit; but brute,
And worm of the earth that he has been, e'en he,
Starts at once into life, in that freedom whose root
Strikes deep through each grain of the land of the free.
Fair land of my fathers! yet is there one blot
On the sun of thy glory; and dark though it be,
And figured in blood, oh! who prayeth not,
That its shadow may now be departing from thee?
It is this:--that whilst thou art the light of the world--
The rock, and the land-mark of freedom--there be
Wide, far-distant realms, where thy banner's unfurled,
O'er millions of slaves to the land of the free.
Fair land of my fathers! no longer be this
Thy reproach amongst men, and thy curse before God;
But bow in repentance, and sorrowing, kiss,
Ere it strike in his anger, his chastening rod:
Give the negro, the Indian, throughout thy domains,
The birthright thy children inherit from thee;
And when thou, at length, shalt have broken their chains,
Throughout all her borders thy land shall be free.
James Baldwin Brown
April 13th, 1827.