Who is thy neighbour! -see him stand,

with sunken cheek and eye,

where hunger shows the empty hand

thy bounty can supply!

*

Look where the widowed mother pines

for what thou well canst spare;

where palsied age, in want, reclines,

and see thy neighbour there!

Behold him in the stranger, thrown

upon a foreign shore,

who, homeless, friendless, and alone,

is shivering at thy door!

*

Go meet him in thine enemy,

and good for evil pay;

and bear in mind, for such as he,

thy Saviour bids thee pray.

Go seek him in the dungeon’s night,

and comfort there impart;

implore the smile of Heaven to light

that desolated heart.

*

Look where the son of Africa sighs

for rights enjoyed by thee;

he is thy neighbour! -loose his ties

and set the captive free!

Columbia, favored of the skies!

how can thy banner wave,

while at thy feet, thy neighbour lies

A crushed and fettered slave?

There is a blot among its stars;

a stain upon thy hand;

a mark upon thy face, that mars

the beauty of our land!

*

Thou, noble tree of liberty,

should not thy verdure fade

o’er him who would his neighbour see

excluded from thy shade?

*

Did they who reared thee by their toil

bot will thy fruit to be,

alike, for all who tread thy soil,

a harvest sweet and free?

Hannah Flagg Gould.  EEUU (1789-1865)