| TO what new fates, my country, far | |
| And unforeseen of foe or friend, | |
| Beneath what unexpected star | |
| Compelled to what unchosen end. | |
| |
| Across the sea that knows no beach, | 5 |
| The Admiral of Nations guides | |
| Thy blind obedient keels to reach | |
| The harbor where thy future rides! | |
| |
| The guns that spoke at Lexington | |
| Knew not that God was planning then | 10 |
| The trumpet word of Jefferson | |
| To bugle forth the rights of men. | |
| |
| To them that wept and cursed Bull Run, | |
| What was it but despair and shame? | |
| Who saw behind the cloud the sun? | 15 |
| Who knew that God was in the flame? | |
| |
| Had not defeat upon defeat, | |
| Disaster on disaster come, | |
| The slave's emancipated feet | |
| Had never marched behind the drum. | 20 |
| |
| There is a Hand that bends our deeds | |
| To mightier issues than we planned; | |
| Each son that triumphs, each that bleeds, | |
| My country, serves It's dark command. | |
| |
| I do not know beneath what sky | 25 |
| Nor on what seas shall be thy fate; | |
| I only know it shall he high, | |
| I only know it shall be great. | |
