The Citizen

With plainness in thy daily pathway walk,
And disencumber'd of excess: no other
Jostling, servile to none, none overstalk,
For, right and left, who passes is thy brother.

Let him who in thy upward countenance looks,
Find there in meek and soften'd majesty
Thy Country writ, thy Brother, and thy God;
And be each motion onward, calm, and free.

Feel well with the poised ballot in thy hand,
Thine unmatch'd sovereignty of right and wrong,
'Tis thine to bless or blast the waiting land,
To shorten up its life or make it long.

Who looks on thee, with gladness should behold
A self-delivered, self-supported Man —
True to his being's mighty purpose — true
To this heaven-bless'd and God-imparted plan.

Nowhere within the great globe's skyey round
Canst thou escape thy duty, grand and high —
A man unbadged, unbonneted, unbound —
Walk to the tropic, to the desert fly.

A full-fraught hope upon thy shoulder leans,
And beats with thine, the heart of half the world;
Ever behind thee walks the shining past,
Before thee burns the star-stripe, far unfurl'd.