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Bless O Thou Mighty Ruler of the Universe Thy servants to whom are committed the Executive, the Legislative and Judicial government of this land; that Thou wouldst be pleased to direct and prosper all their consultations to the advancement of Thy glory, the good of Thy Church, the safety, honor and welfare of Thy people; that all things may be so ordered and settled by their endeavors, upon the best and surest foundations, that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and true liberty may be established among us for all generations. Make us to know, therefore, that on this day of our Nation's festivity, and to consider it in our hearts, that Thou art God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath, and that there is no God else beside Thee.

Enable us to keep Thy statutes and Thy judgments which Thou hast.coinmanded, that it may go well with us and with our children that we and they may fear Thy rame and obey Thy law, and that Thou mayest prolong the days of this nation through all coming time.

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Establish Thy kingdom in the midst of this land. Make it "Emmanuel's land," a "mountain of holiness and a dwelling place of righteousness."

Inspire Thy Church with the spirit of truth, unity and concord, and grant that every member of the same in his vocation and ministry may serve Thee faithfully. Bless the rulers of this city and commonwealth, and grant that they may truly and impartially administer justice to the punishment of wickedness and vice, and to the maintenance of Thy true religion and virtue.

Pour out Thy Fatherly blessing upon our whole country, upon all our lawful pursuits and industries, upon all our households and institutions of learning and benevolence, that rejoicing in Thy smile, and strengthened by Thy might, this nation may go on through all the years of this new century, a praise and a joy of the whole earth, so that all who look upon it may be able to say, "Truly God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved."

These things and whatsoever else we need for our national preservation and perpetuity, we humbly ask, in the name and through the mediation of Thy dear Son, to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all might, majesty, dominion and power, world without end. Amen.

WELCOME TO THE NATIONS.

BY

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

SUNG AT PHILADELPHIA, JULY 4, 1876.

I.

Bright on the banners of lily and rose
Lo, the last sun of our century sets!

Wreath the black cannon that scowled on our foes,
All but her friendships the Nation forgets!

All but her friends and their welcome forgets!
These are around her: But where are her foes?
Lo, while the sun of her century sets
Peace with her garlands of lily and rose!

II.

Welcome! a shout like the war trumpet's swell
Wakes the wild echoes that slumber around!
Welcome! it quivers from Liberty's bell;

Welcome! the walls of her temple resound!
Hark! the gray walls of her temple resound!
Fade the far voices o'er hill-side and dell;
Welcome! still whisper the echoes around
Welcome! still trembles on Liberty's bell!

III.

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Thrones of the Continents! Isles of the Sea! Yours are the garlands of peace we entwine; Welcome, once more, to the land of the free, Shadowed alike by the palm and the pine; Softly they murmur, the palm and the pine; "Hushed is our strife, in the land of the free;" Over your children their branches entwine, Thrones of the Continents! Isles of the Sea!

THE NATIONAL ODE.

BY

BAYARD TAYLOR.

DELIVERED AT PHILADELPHIA. JULY 4, 1876.

I.-1,

SUN of the stately Day.

Let Asia into the shadow drift,

Let Europe bask in thy ripened ray,
And over the severing ocean lift
A brow of broader splendor!
Give light to the eager eyes

Of the Land that waits to behold thee rise:
The gladness of morning lend her,
With the triumph of noon attend her,
And the peace of the vesper skies!
For lo! she cometh now

With hope on the lip and pride on the brow,
Stronger, and dearer, and fairer,

To smile on the love we bear her,-
To live, as we dreamed her and sought her,
Liberty's latest daughter!

In the clefts of the rocks, in the secret places,
We found her traces;

On the hills, in the crash of woods that fall,
We heard her call;

When the lines of battle broke,

We saw her face in the fiery smoke;
Through toil, and anguish, and desolation,
We followed, and found her

With the grace of a virgin Nation
As a sacred zone around her!

Who shall rejoice

With a righteous voice,

Far-heard through the ages, if not she?
For the menace is dumb that defied her,
The doubt is dead that denied her,

And she stands acknowledged, and strong and free!

II.-1.

Ah, hark! the solemn undertone
On every wind of human story blown.
A large, divinely-moulded Fate
Questions the right and purpose of a State,
And in its plan sublime

Our eras are the dust of Time.
The far-off Yesterday of power
Creeps back with stealthy feet,
Invades the lordship of the hour,
And at our banquet takes the unbidden seat.
From all unchronicled and silent ages
Before the Future first begot the Past,
Till History dared, at last,

To write eternal words on granite pages;
From Egypt's tawny drift, and Assur's mound,
And where, uplifted, white and far,
Earth highest yearns to meet a star,

And Man his manhood by the Ganges found,-
Imperial heads, of old millennial sway,

And still by some pale splendor crowned,

Chill as a

corpse-light in our full-orbed day,

In ghostly grandeur rise

And say, through stony lips and vacant eyes: "Thou that assertest freedom, power and fame, Declare to us thy claim!"

I.-2.

On the shores of a Continent cast,
She won the inviolate soil

By loss of heirdom of all the Past,
And faith in the royal right of Toil!
She planted homes on the savage sod:
Into the wilderness lone

She walked with fearless feet
In her hand the divining-rod,

Till the veins of the mountains beat
With fire of metal and force of stone!
She set the speed of the river-head

To turn the mills of her bread;
She drove her plowshare deep

Through the prairie's thousand-centuried sleep;
To the South, and West, and North,
She called Pathfinder forth,
Her faithful and sole companion,
Where the flushed Sierra, snowy-starred,
Her way to the sunset barred,

And the nameless rivers in thunder and foam
Channeled the terrible canyon!

Nor paused, till her uttermost home
Was built, in the smile of a softer sky
And the glory of beauty still to be,
Where the haunted waves of Asia die
On the strand of the world-wide sea!

II.-2.

The race, in conquering,

Some fierce Titanic joy of conquest knows
Whether in veins of serf or king,
Our ancient blood beats restless in repose,
Challenge of Nature unsubdued
Awaits not Man's defiant answer long;
For hardship, even as wrong,

Provokes the level-eyed, heroic mood.
This for herself she did; but that which lies,
As over earth the skies,

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