Grocott & Ward, comps. Grocott’s Familiar Quotations, 6th ed. 189-?.
Freedom
This hand to tyrants ever sworn the foe,
For Freedom only deals the deadly blow;
Then sheathes in calm repose the vengeful blade,
For gentle peace in Freedom’s hallowed shade.
John Quincy Adams.—Written in an Album, 1842.
Sun of the moral world! effulgent source
Of man’s best wisdom and his steadiest force,
Soul-searching Freedom!
Joel Barlow.—To Freedom.
Freedom is not caprice but room to enlarge.
C. A. Bartol.—Radical Problems: Open Questions.
England may as well dam up the waters of the Nile with bulrushes, as to fetter the step of Freedom, more proud and firm, in this youthful land, than where she treads the sequestered glens of Scotland, or couches herself among the magnificent mountains of Switzerland.
Lydia Maria Child.—Supposititious Speech of James Otis: From The Rebels, Chap. IV.
When Freedom from her mountain height
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there.
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure, celestial white
With streakings of the morning light.
Joseph Rodman Drake.—The American Flag.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free.
Julia Ward Howe.—Battle Hymn of the Republic.
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
Julia Ward Howe.—Battle Hymn of the Republic.
That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Abraham Lincoln.—Speech at Gettysburg, Nov. 19, 1863.
And ne’er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves,
While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves.
Robert Treat Paine.—Adams and Liberty.
There is what I call the American Idea…. This idea demands, as the proximate organization thereof, a democracy, that is, a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; of course, a government of the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God: for shortness’ sake I will call it the idea of Freedom.
Theodore Parker.—Speech at the New England Antislavery Convention, Boston, May 29, 1850.
Blandishments will not fascinate us, nor will threats of a “halter” intimidate. For, under God, we are determined that, wheresoever, whensoever, or howsoever we shall be called to make our exit, we will die freemen.
Josiah Quincy.—Observations on the Boston Port Bill, 1774.