Retribution

O, Thou that hear'st the lowliest suppliant's prayer
     Eternal, powerful, and Omniscient One!
     Though clouds and darkness are around thy throne,
Yet do we know that righteousness is there.
Help of the humble! God of Love! declare 
     How long shall violence and wrong be done,— 
     With deeds that well might shame the blushing sun,—
Even in thy name, and yet thy mercy spare?
     O! when the accumulated crimes of ages, 
     That darken now the recording angel's pages,
Call to the harvest of eternal wrath
     The ministering one on tearless vengeance waiting,
How fierce shall fall, upon Columbia's path, 
     Ruin's red flood, which knoweth no abating.