Hail to the day that gave birth to a nation!
And hail each remembrance it annu'lly brings!
Hail Independence! Thy stern declaration
Gave Freedom a home in defiance of Kings.
Britain's despotic sway
Trammeled thy early day.
Infant America, "child of the skies."
Till with a daring hand
Freedom's immortal band
Severed thy shakles and bid thee arise!
Then was the standard of Liberty planted--
The star-spangled banner proud floated on high;
Columbia's sons met the foeman undaunted,
With firm resolution to conquer or die.
Precious the prize they sought,
Dearly that prize they bought:
Freedom and peace cost the blood of the brave.
Heaven befriended them,
Fortune attended them--
Liberty triumphed o'er tyranny's grave!
Peace to those patriots, heroes, and sages,
Whose glorious legacy now we enjoy!
May it descend to the world's latest ages,
Like primitive gold, without any alloy!
Then let our motto be,
"Union and Liberty,"
High on our national banner enshrined,
Like a bright morning star,
Glittering from afar,
Casting its beams o'er the world of mankind.
When urged by friends to make a collection of poems for publication; he
found, (in 1866), that many had been lost beyond recovery, his hope of
writing something more worthy of preservation made him careless of that
which had been published; there is, however, considerable variety in the
collection, ranging from "grave to gay." These are some of the titles;
"Lines," written on opening a mound on the bank of Whitewater near
Richmond, Ind. containing a human skeleton. "What is Life," "What is
Faith," "A Prayer," "My Loves and Hates." This was the first poem
written for publication. "Valedictory, on closing my term as Clerk of
the Wayne County Courts."
In lighter vein are, "Advertisment for a Wife," "The Last of the
Family," "To My Old Coat," and "The Miller."
Mr. Finley was not a church member but his creed is embraced in the
following sentence--"The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man."
An unpublished fragment, found after death in the pocket-book he
carried, shows his truly devotional spirit:--
"My Heav'nly Father! deign to hear
The supplications of a child,
Who would before thy throne appear,
With spirit meek, and undefiled.
Let not the vanities of earth
Forbid that I should come to Thee,
Of such as I, (by Heav'nly birth)
Thy Kingdom, Thou hast said, shall be."