The Old Banner

Fling out the old Banner, the red, white, and blue, 
And rally around it with hearts that are true! 
For the war-blast of treason is heard in the South, 
Its loud thunders boom from the battery's mouth; 
And its hordes, mad for blood, in the spirit of Cain, 
Pour down from the hill-side, swarm up from the plain, 
And swear they will trample the flag of our pride, 
For which Washington fought, for which heroes have died!

                               CHORUS.
Then fling out our Banner again to the gale, 
Though treason deride and though traitors assail; 
The star-studded Banner, the war-tattered Banner, 
For right with the might in its sheen shall prevail!

We were patient — that patience they counted as fear,
And repaid us with insult, with gibe, and with jeer;
We forbore — but they read our forbearance amiss,
And they swept uncontrolled to Rebellion's abyss;
And, mad with unreason, unpausing to think,
Like fools they have plunged from its terrible brink,
And with brands from that hell they have kindled a fire
That shall burn till the traitors who lit it expire!

For the land which our fathers bequeathed us in trust, 
For the tombs where, all-hallowed, still slumbers their dust, 
For the Union they loved, and for freedom and law
And the old flag — their emblem — our swords will we draw, 
And never, till treason is crushed 'neath our heel, 
Shall the rust of the scabbard be found on our steel, 
Nor the stillness of peace hush the boom of our guns 
Till the land of our fathers is saved for our sons!

Our country hath called and her people have heard, 
And their hearts to their innermost centre are stirred; 
By fifties, by hundreds, by thousands they come, 
From farm and from work-shop, from ledger and loom, 
From palace and cottage, the rich and the poor — 
Comes poet, comes artist, comes dreamer, comes doer;
No hardship can daunt, and no terror appall, 
When the land of their love on her children doth call!

Never holier cause summoned heroes to strife 
Than that to which now they pledge fortune and life; 
Never fealty more true nor a faith more sublime 
Than they give to that cause, is recorded in time; 
And they swear by the God of their fathers, that, cost 
What it may to sustain it, it ne'er shall be lost; 
And never shall peace hush the boom of their guns 
Till the land of our fathers is saved for our sons!

                               CHORUS.
Then fling out our Banner again to the gale, 
Though treason deride and though traitors assail; 
The star-studded Banner, the war-tattered Banner, 
For right with the might in its sheen shall prevail!