Sadly, but not with upbraiding,
The generous deed was done,

In the storm of the years that are fading
No braver battle was won :
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the Judgment Day;
Under the blossoms, the Blue;
Under the garlands, the Gray.

No more shall the war cry sever,
Or the winding rivers be red;
They banish our anger forever

When they laurel the graves of our dead!
Under the sod and the dew,
Waiting the Judgment Day;

Love and tears for the Blue;
Tears and love for the Gray.

CENTENNIAL HYMN (1876)

BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER°

OUR fathers' God! from out whose hand
The centuries fall like grains of sand,
We meet today, united, free,
And loyal to our land and Thee,
To thank Thee for the era done,
And trust Thee for the opening one.

Here, where of old, by Thy design,
The fathers spake that word of Thine
Whose echo is the glad refrain
Of rendered bolt and falling chain,
To grace our festal time, from all
The zones of earth our guests we call.

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Be with us while the New World greets
The Old World thronging all its streets,
Unveiling all the triumphs won
By art or toil beneath the sun;
And unto common good ordain
This rivalship of hand and brain.

Thou, who hast here in concord furled
The war flags of a gathered world,
Beneath our Western skies fulfill
The Orient's mission of good-will,

And, freighted with love's Golden Fleece,
Send back its Argonauts of peace.

For art and labor met in truce,
For beauty made the bride of use,
We thank Thee; but, withal, we crave
The austere virtues strong to save,
The honor proof to place or gold,
The manhood never bought nor sold!

Oh, make Thou us, through centuries long,
In peace secure, in justice strong;
Around our gift of freedom draw
The safeguards of thy righteous law:
And, cast in some diviner mold,
Let the new cycle shame the old!

THE FLAG GOES BY (1904)

BY HENRY HOLCOMB BENNETT
HATS off!

Along the street there comes
A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
A flash of color beneath the sky:
Hats off!

The flag is passing by!

Blue and crimson and white it shines,
Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
Hats off!

The colors before us fly

But more than the flag is passing by:

Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
Fought to make and to save the State:
Weary marches and sinking ships;
Cheers of victory on dying lips;

Days of plenty and years of peace;
March of a strong land's swift increase;
Equal justice, right and law,

Stately honor and reverend awe;

Sign of a nation great and strong
To ward her people from foreign wrong:
Pride and glory and honor, -all
Live in the colors to stand or fall.

Hats off!

Along the street there comes

A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
And loyal hearts are beating high:
Hats off!

The flag is passing by!

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ROBERT E. LEE (1907)

BY JULIA WARD HOWE°

A GALLANT foeman in the fight,
A brother when the fight was o'er,
The hand that led the host with might
The blessed torch of learning bore.

No shriek of shells nor roll of drums,
No challenge fierce, resounding far,
When reconciling Wisdom comes

To heal the cruel wounds of war.

Thought may the minds of men divide,
Love makes the hearts of nations one;
And so, thy soldier grave beside,

We honor thee, Virginia's son.

THE FLAG OF THE FREE (1910)

BY HENRY VAN DYKE

O brave flag, O bright flag, O flag to lead the free!
The glory of thy silver stars,

Engrailed in blue above the bars

Of red for courage, white for truth,

Has brought the world a second youth

And drawn a hundred million hearts to follow after thee. ...

Old Cambridge saw thee first unfurled,

By Washington's far-reaching hand,
To greet, in Seventy-six, the wintry morn
Of a new year, and herald to the world
Glad tidings from a Western land, -
A people and a hope new-born!

The double cross then filled thine azure field,
In token of a spirit loath to yield

The breaking ties that bound thee to a throne.
But not for long thine oriflamme could bear
That symbol of an outworn trust in kings.
The winds that bore thee out on widening wings
Called for a greater sign and all thine own,
A new device to speak of heavenly laws
And lights that surely guide the people's cause.
Oh, greatly did they hope, and greatly dare,
Who bade the stars in heaven fight for them,
And set upon their battle-flag a fair
New constellation as a diadem!

Along the blood-stained banks of Brandywine
The ragged regiments were rallied to this sign;
Through Saratoga's woods it fluttered bright
Amid the perils of the hard-won fight;
O'er Yorktown's meadows broad and green
It hailed the glory of the final scene;
And when at length Manhattan saw
The last invaders' line of scarlet coats

Pass Bowling Green, and fill the waiting boats
And sullenly withdraw,

The flag that proudly flew

Above the battered line of buff and blue,

Marching, with rattling drums and shrilling pipes,
Along the Bowery and down Broadway,
Was this that leads the great parade today,
The glorious banner of the stars and stripes.
First of the flags of earth to dare
A heraldry so high;

First of the flags of earth to bear
The blazons of the sky;
Long may thy constellation glow,
Foretelling happy fate;
Wider thy starry circle grow,