Wilson

The lowliest born of all the land,     He wrung from Fate's reluctant hand     The gifts which happier boyhood claims;     And, tasting on a thankless soil     The bitter bread of unpaid toil,     He fed his soul with noble aims.     And Nature, kindly provident,     To him the future's promise lent;     The powers that shape man's destinies,     Patience and faith and toil, he knew,     The close horizon round him grew,     Broad with great possibilities.     By the low hearth-fire's fitful blaze     He read of old heroic days,     The sage's thought, the patriot's speech;     Unhelped, alone, himself he taught,     His school the craft at which he wrought,     His lore the book within his, reach.     He felt his country's need; he knew     The work her children had to do;     And when, at last, he heard the call     In her behalf to serve and dare,     Beside his senatorial chair     He stood the unquestioned peer of all.     Beyond the accident of birth     He proved his simple manhood's worth;     Ancestral pride and classic grace     Confessed the large-brained artisan,     So clear of sight, so wise in plan     And counsel, equal to his place.     With glance intuitive he saw     Through all disguise of form and law,     And read men like an open book;     Fearless and firm, he never quailed     Nor turned aside for threats, nor failed     To do the thing he undertook.     How wise, how brave, he was, how well     He bore himself, let history tell     While waves our flag o'er land and sea,     No black thread in its warp or weft;     He found dissevered States, he left     A grateful Nation, strong and free!