O raise your voices in one general peal

Remonstrant, for the opprest. And ye, who sit
Month after month devising impost-laws,
Give some small portion of your midnight vigils,
To mitigate, if not remove the wrong.

Relentless Justice! with fate-furrowed brow!
Wherefore to various crimes of various guilt,
One penalty, the most severe, allot?

Why, palled in state, and mitred with a wreath
Of nightshade, dost thou sit portentously,
Beneath a cloudy canopy of sighs,

Of fears, of trembling hopes, of boding doubts?
Death's dart thy mace!--Why are the laws of God,
Statutes promulged in characters of fire *,

* "And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the Mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled."--EXOD. xix. 16.

Despised in deep concerns, where heavenly guidance
Is most required? The murderer,-let him die,
And him who lifts his arm against his parent,
His country,-or his voice against his God.

Let crimes less heinous dooms less dreadful meet
Than loss of life! so said the law divine,
That law beneficent, which mildly stretched,

To men forgotten and forlorn, the hand

Of restitution: Yes, the trumpet's voice

The Sabbath of the jubilee* announced:

"And thou shalt number seven Sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month; in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family."--LEV. xxv. 8. 9. 10.

The freedom-freighted blast, through all the land
At once, in every city, echoing rings,
From Lebanon to Carmel's woody cliffs,
So loud, that far within the desert's verge
The couching lion starts, and glares around.
Free is the bondman now, each one returns
To his inheritance: The man, grown old
In servitude far from his native fields,
Hastes joyous on his way; no hills are steep,
Smooth is each rugged path; his little ones
Sport as they go, while oft the mother chides
The lingering step, lured by the way-side flowers
At length the hill, from which a farewell look,
And still another parting look, he cast

On his paternal vale, appears in view:

The summit gained, throbs hard his heart with joy And sorrow blent, to see that vale once more:

Instant his eager eye darts to the roof

Where first he saw the light: his

youngest born

He lifts, and, pointing to the much-loved spot,
Says, "There thy fathers lived, and there they sleep.'
Onward he wends; near and more near he draws:
How sweet the tinkle of the palm-bowered brook!
The sun-beam slanting through the cedar grove
How lovely, and how mild! but lovelier still
The welcome in the eye of ancient friends,

Scarce known at first! and dear the fig-tree shade, 'Neath which on Sabbath eve his father told *

Of Israel from the house of bondage freed,

Led through the desert to the promised land ;--
With eager arms the aged stem he clasps,

*" And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.-Thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh's bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand."--DEUT. vi. 6. 7. 21.

And with his tears the furrowed bark bedews:

And still, at midnight-hour, he thinks he hears

The blissful sound that brake the bondman's chains, The glorious peal of freedom and of joy!

Did ever law of man a power like this Display power marvellous as merciful, Which, though in other ordinances still Most plainly seen, is yet but little marked For what it truly is, a miracle! Stupendous, ever new, performed at once

In every region,-yea, on every sea

Which EUROPE'S navies plow ;-yes, in all lands
From pole to pole, or civilized or rude,

People there are, to whom the Sabbath morn
Dawns, shedding dews into their drooping hearts:

Yes, far beyond the high-heaved western wave,
Amid COLUMBIA'S wildernesses vast,

The words which God in thunder from the Mount