1876: Centennial Musings

Centennial Musings (1876)
Source: Pacific Commercial Advertiser. Honolulu: November 4, 1876.

[On the 4th of July last, "on a lone barren isle" in the mid Pacific, a gentleman now in Honolulu composed the following spirited lines, which he entitles "Came too late for the Centennial," and sends them to the PACIFIC COMMERCIAL ADVERTISER:]

In the history of the human race,
A nobler deed you cannot trace,
That what in '76 took place,
A hundred years ago.

'Twas men of mark, with nerve and will,
That wrote on parchment with a quill,
What did with anger monarchs fill,
A hundred years ago.

Some copies of this document;
With all dispatch to France were sent,
Which gave King George's anger vent,
A hundred years ago.

Ship loads of venom quickly came,
Commanding, in King George's name,
That we submit, nor more complain,
A hundred years ago.

The struggle came, as come it must,
Which each man placed in God his trust,
For all they ask'd was fair and just,
A hundred years ago.

Then Freedom's torch and light did fill,
Each Patriot's breast-and does so still-
That blas'd so brighten on Bunker Hill,
A hundred years ago.

The royal troops in hellish pack
Of hired assassins, white and black,
Were worse than bloodhounds on their track,
A hundred years ago.

Immortal fame shall consecrate
The gallant hearts that met their fate,
Braving the royal idiot's hate,
A hundred years ago.

For there are names that will not die,
That did the royal wrath defy,-
They held commission from on high-
A hundred years ago.