At this supreme juncture I call upon the members of the American Railway
Union to stand by their order. In God’s own good time we will make the
despot’s prison, where innocent men suffer, monumental. We will link
them with the legends and lore of labor’s struggles to be read by our
children and our children’s children when Bartholdi’s goddess of liberty
with her torch enlightening the world has succumbed to the ravages of
time.
Count me o’er earth’s chosen heroes—they were souls that stood alone.
(While the men they agonized for threw the contumelious stone)
Stood serene and down the future saw the golden beam incline
To the side of perfect justice, mastered by their faith divine,
By one man’s plain truth to manhood and to God’s supreme design.