O ye men! Who loved him With a love past telling! Be the better for his noble efforts! Let the picture of his glorious life Hang ever before your eyes! Sanctifying your efforts, ennobling your aspirations! He suffered In the throes of agony to give birth To a higher manhood! _Be that manhood!_ True, you have been buffetted and Rudely tossed, But that has passed into the oblivion of The receding age! The present and future Are open to you as never before! Helping hands are extended to you! _Take care of your opportunities!_
Ye men Cultivate truth! For honor and independence Follow quickly upon its footsteps! 'Tis true The standard of Sumner is high! But a-down the ladder of his life there are Steps of granite mould That will bear you upward And onward! _Be ye governed by no ignoble motives!_ The time is not far distant when the missing Fringes Of the glorious mantle of liberty Will be sewn on by loving hands! Be prepared for it! Receive it upon your knees, With uncovered heads! Remembering whose hand had Wrought it out!
Be ye sure It is borne to ye Within the folding of an angel's wing! 'Tis yours! By the voice of heaven! 'Tis yours! By the voice of earth! The pinnacle of your temple of freedom! The flag that will flutter freely o'er its top! "O, my bill! My bill!!" He cried in the last agonies of death! "Take care of my civil rights bill!" Were his solemn words, As the messenger of death stood upon His threshold! "_O, don't let the bill fail!_" Was his dying injunction, as he sought out With his glazing eye, the friend Who kissed his hand in token of The solemn covenant!
"_Take_ _Care of your rights!_" Comes across the ocean of eternity, A solemn message from your friend And benefactor! Be worthy of him! Raise the standard of your people higher, And higher still! To-day is yours! Grasp firm hold of it, for it cometh not Again! Let the world see and note The heroic fibre Of which you are made! Remember the gates of a great future Are open to you! Educate yourselves, your women and your children, Inaugurate and carry on Reform within yourselves; Enlarge your minds! Quicken your Intelligence, and follow in the footsteps Of Sumner!
Ye men, Look well and wisely To your political welfare! Let not the foul fingers of bribery And corruption Pollute the pure scroll of your Birthright! Remember the loving laborers upon the walls Of liberty's republican temple. A temple built on free soil! "Its corner stone," said Sumner, "is _freedom_; Its broad, all sustaining arches, _Truth_, _justice_ and _humanity_! Like the ancient Roman capitol, at once A _temple_ and a _citadel_! Fit shrine for the genius of _American institutions_." _A shrine at whose high Altar The best and noblest of the land doth minister! A temple wherein the lamp of human pity Suspended by the chain of universal brotherhood Swings its perpetual light!_