Lines to Hon. Thaddeus Stevens + 

Have the bright and glowing visions + 

Faded from thy longing sight, + 

Like the gorgeous tints of ev’n + 

Mingling with the shades of night? + 

Didst thou hope to see thy country + 

Wearing Justice as a crown, + 

Standing foremost ’mid the nations + 

Worthy of the world’s renown? + 

Didst thou think the grand fruition + 

Reached the fullness of its time, + 

When the crater of God’s judgment + 

Overflowed the nation’s crime? + 

That thy people, purged by fire, + 

Would have trod another path, + 

Careful, lest their feet should stumble + 

On the cinders of God’s wrath? + 

And again the injured negro + 

Grind the dreadful mills of fate, + 

Pressing out the fearful vintage + 

Of the nation’s scorn and hate? + 

Sadder than the crimson shadows + 

Hung for years around our skies, + 

Are the hopes so fondly cherished + 

Fading now before thine eyes. + 

Not in vain has been thy hoping, + 

Though thy fair ideals fade, + 

If, like one of God’s tall aloes, + 

Thou art rip’ning in the shade. + 

There is light beyond the darkness, + 

Joy beyond the present pain; + 

There is hope in God’s great justice, + 

And the negro’s rising brain. + 

Though before the timid counsels + 

Truth and Right may seem to fail, + 

God hath bathed his sword in judgment, + 

And his arm shall yet prevail. + 