Sunday, August 29, 2010

A Prayer Encored

The Newark Mercury gives an account of the anniversary exercises of a Mission School in that city, from which we extract the following:

“During the singing of ‘Our Glorious Union Forever,’ two sisters, aged four years and seven, stood on the left of the singers, both having dress and head wreaths of read, white and blue, the eldest representing the Goddess of Liberty and the other the presiding Child Genius, of the Republic. The song finished, the youngest child knelt, and folding her tiny hands offered up the following artless prayer for her country:

Oh Lord, look down from out the sky,
And hear a child who prays to Thee;
A child that loves the United States,
And every wicked traitor hates.
Oh bless our soldiers and our sailors;
George McClellan, and the others;
Our pretty flag with victory crown,
And don’t let any one tear it down,
Bless all that’s good, no matter what,
And don’t forget old General Scott.

“As the child uttered this little prayer, with all the earnestness and simplicity of her innocent nature, a breathless silence came over the audience, and in the lowest depth of every heart there stirred and trembled a gush of genuine feeling that finally burst into wild applause. – The prayer went up to heaven once more, and two [bouquets] fell at the feet of the children.”

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 10, 1862, p. 2

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