The Wheeling Daily Intelligencer

The Intelligencer
No Slave Beneath that Flag.
[Messrs. Editors—I found in an old paper of November, 1868, the following beautiful stanzas, peculiarly apropos just now for the sentiment they contain; and for the benefit of those who may not have seen them, please publish.—J. M. Topp.]
BY GEORGE WANSON TAYLOR.
No slave beneath that starry flag,
The emblem of the free!
No fettered hand shall wield the brand That smites for Liberty!
No tramp of servile armies Shall shame Columbia's shore
For he who fights for Freedom's rights Is free for evermore.
No slaves beneath those glorious folds That o'er our fathers flew,
When every breath was dark with death,
But every heart was true.
No serfs of earth's old empires Knelt 'neath its shadow then;
And they who now beneath it bow Forevermore are men.
Go tell the ashes of the braves Who at Fort Hudson fell;
Go tell the dust whose holy trust Stern Wagner guards so well;
Go breathe it softly—slowly— Wherever the patriot slave
For right has fled, and tell the dead He fills a freeman's grave!
Go tell Kentucky's bondsmen true,
That he who fights is free!
And let the tale fill every gale That floats o'er Tennessee!
Let all our mighty rivers The story southward pour,
And every wave tell every Slave To be a Slave no more!
Go tell the brave of every land,
Where'er that flag has flown— The tyrant's fear, the patriot's cheer
Through every clime and zone—
That now no more forever Its stripes are Slavery scars;
No tear-drops stain its azure plain.
Nor dim its golden stars!
No Slave beneath that grand old flag:
Forever let it fly!
With lightning rolled in every fold.
And flashing victory!
God's blessing breathes around it:
And when all strife is done.
May Freedom's might that knows no night.
Make every Star a Sun!