Who but shall learn that freedom is the prize
Man still is bound to rescue or maintain;
That nature’s God commands the slave to rise,
And on the oppressor’s head to break the chain.
Roll, years of promise, rapidly roll round,
Till not a slave shall on this earth be found.John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
Diary (1826-10-30)
(Source)
Sonnet written on the birthday of his father, John Adams, six months after his death.
This is from a sonnet written on the birthday of his father, John Adams, six months after his death. It can be found in the /Memoirs of John Quincy Adams/ Vol VII (http://bit.ly/2fulMsH), p 164. In the original manuscript (http://bit.ly/2fuibem), the sonnet is in shorthand “that it may only be legible to myself, or to a reader who will take the trouble to pick it out.”