Fifteenth Amendment + 

Beneath the burden of our joy + 

Tremble, O wires, from East to West! + 

Fashion with words your tongues of fire, + 

To tell the nation’s high behest. + 

Outstrip the winds, and leave behind + 

The murmur of the restless waves; + 

Nor tarry with your glorious news, + 

Amid the ocean’s coral caves. + 

Ring out! ring out! your sweetest chimes, + 

Ye bells, that call to prayer and praise; + 

Let every heart with gladness thrill, + 

And songs of joyful triumph raise. + 

Shake off the dust, O rising race! + 

Crowned as a brother and a man; + 

Justice to-day asserts her claim, + 

And from thy brow fades out the ban. + 

With freedom’s chrism upon thy head, + 

Her precious ensign in thy hand, + 

Go place thy once despisèd name + 

Amid the noblest of the land. + 

O ransomed race! give God the praise, + 

Who led thee through a crimson sea, + 

And ’mid the storm of fire and blood, + 

Turned out the war-cloud’s light to thee. + 