To the Right Honorable WILLIAM, Earl of
Dartmouth, His Majesty's Principal Secre-
tary of State for North America, &c.
Dartmouth, His Majesty's Principal Secre-
tary of State for North America, &c.
HAIL happy day, when, smiling like the
morn,
morn,
Fair Freedom rose New-England to
adorn:
The northern clime beneath her genial ray,
Dartmouth, congratulates thy blissful
sway:
Elate with hope her race no longer mourns,
Each soul expands, each grateful bosom burns,
While in thine hand with pleasure we behold
The silken reins, and Freedom's charms unfold.
Long lost to realms beneath the northern skies
She shines supreme, while hated faction dies:
Soon as appear'd the Goddess long
desir'd
Sick at the view, she languish'd and
expir'd;
Thus from the splendors of the morning light
The owl in sadness seeks the caves of night.
No more, America, in mournful strain
Of wrongs, and grievance unredress'd
complain,
No longer shalt thou dread the iron chain,
Which wanton Tyranny with lawless hand
Had made, and with it meant t' enslave the
land.
Should you, my lord, while you peruse my
song,
song,
Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung,
Whence flow the wishes for the common good,
By feeling hearts alone best understood,
I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate
Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy
seat:
What pangs excruciating must molest,
What sorrows labor in my parents' breast?
Steel'd was that soul, and by no misery
mov'd,
That from a father seiz'd his babe
belov'd:
Such, such my case. And can I then but
pray
pray
Others may never feel tyrannic sway?
For favours past, great Sir, our thanks are due,
And thee we ask thy favours to renew,
Since in thy pow'r, as in thy will before,
To sooth the griefs, which thou did'st once
de-
plore.
plore.
May heav'nly grace the sacred sanction
give
To all thy works, and thou for ever live
Not only on the wings of fleeting Fame,
Though praise immortal crowns the patriot's
name,
name,
But to conduct to heav'n's refulgent fane,
May fiery coursers sweep th' ethereal plain,
And bear thee upwards to that blest abode,
Where, like the prophet, thou shalt find thy God.