The Richmond Enquirer, January 29, 1861, p. 4, c. 1

Wherefore sing ye songs of Union!

May they now the storm abate,

And in peaceful, calm communion

Keep each sovereign sister State?

Can they save our flag from trailing

In the dust fanatics raise;

And a nation keep from wailing

O'er its untold miseries?

Angry threats and mad invadings,

Urged by passions deep and blind;

False assertions and upbraidings

Pass not as the idle wind!

Chords of love and kindly feeling

One by one have rent in twain,

'Till between us now revealing

That no simpathies remain.

Union! anthems might forever,

Swelling forth in suppliant strain,

Strive to save us; they could never

Re-unite our hearts again.

Would you quell this storm alarming,

Bid the tempest yet be calm?

Would you chock this fearful arming

Man against his fellow man?

Would you all our stars combining,

Bid their lustre never cease,

And around our heart strings breaking,

Bind the olive-branch of peace?

Tell the men who now are drifting

Recklessly our Ship of State

On the rocky shore uplifting;

Tell this story, are too late --

That when Scottish knights were bearing

With a small but chosen band,

Bruce's heart in casket keeping

'Till 'twas laid in Holy Land --

And when Moslem hordes o'erwhelmed them,

Bore them back on every side,

They the casket threw before them:

"Onward! To the rescue!" cried.

Then that band the host defying,

Strew'd the field with Moslem slain,

And amid the dead and dying,

Bore aloft the heart again.

Tell the States that now are seeking

To destroy the Union fair,

There's a casket in their keeping,

Which contains a gem more rare.

Hurl the Constitution ever

'Mid the blind fanatic herd,

And when strife our States would sever,

Let it be the rallying word!

Then far down the future ages,

As they stand in His'ry's forum,

When no wild contention rages,

Stars and stripes may yet wave o'er them!