Ye who have from
Brandy
fled!
Ye whom Gin has often led!
Welcome are ye, from the dead!
Glorious victory!
Now's the day, and now's the hour;
Lo! the tyrant's waning power,
Darkly o'er us still doth lower;
Chains and slavery!
Who will be a traitor knave?
Who will fill a drunkard's grave?
Who so base as be a slave?
Do not turn and flee!
Who to virtue's king and law,
Would not every drunkard draw?
And from sin's devouring maw
Set them nobly free!
By the drunkard's woes and pains:
By our brethren still in chains;
While the life-blood fills their veins,
Say they shall be free!
Lay the proud usurper low;
See, he reels at every blow!
End his reign of sin and wo!
Shout for victory!
John Pierpont
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/address-to-washingtonians/
