"_Take_ _Care of your rights!_" Comes across the ocean of eternity, A solemn message from your friend And benefactor! Be worthy of him! Raise the standard of your people higher, And higher still! To-day is yours! Grasp firm hold of it, for it cometh not Again! Let the world see and note The heroic fibre Of which you are made! Remember the gates of a great future Are open to you! Educate yourselves, your women and your children, Inaugurate and carry on Reform within yourselves; Enlarge your minds! Quicken your Intelligence, and follow in the footsteps Of Sumner! Ye men, Look well and wisely To your political welfare! Let not the foul fingers of bribery And corruption Pollute the pure scroll of your Birthright! Remember the loving laborers upon the walls Of liberty's republican temple. A temple built on free soil! "Its corner stone," said Sumner, "is _freedom_; Its broad, all sustaining arches, _Truth_, _justice_ and _humanity_! Like the ancient Roman capitol, at once A _temple_ and a _citadel_! Fit shrine for the genius of _American institutions_." _A shrine at whose high Altar The best and noblest of the land doth minister! A temple wherein the lamp of human pity Suspended by the chain of universal brotherhood Swings its perpetual light!_