To Canaan!

A Song of the Six Hundred Thousand.

by Oliver Wendell Holmes

Where are you going, soldiers,

With banner, gun, and sword?

We're marching South to Canaan

To battle for the Lord!

What Captain leads your armies

Along the rebel coasts ?

The Mighty One of Israel,

His name is Lord of Hosts!

To Canaan, to Canaan,

The Lord has led. us forth,

To blow before the heathen walls

The trumpets of the North!

What flag is this you carry

Along the sea and shore ?

The same our grandsires lifted up,

The same our fathers bore!

In many a battle's tempest

It shed the crimson rain:

What God has woven in his loom

Let no man rend in twain!

To Canaan, to Canaan,

The Lord has led us forth,

To plant upon the rebel towers

The banners of the North! 

What troop is this that follows,

All armed with picks and spades?

These are the swarthy bondsmen,

The iron-skin brigades!

They'll pile up Freedom's breastwork,

They'll scoop out rebels' graves;

Who- then will be their owner,

And march them off for slaves ?

To Canaan, to Canaan,

The Lord has led us forth,

To strike upon the captive's chain

The hammers of the North! 

What song is this you're singing?

The same that Israel sung

When Moses led the mighty choir,

And Miriam's timbrel Tun-!

To Canaan! to Canaan!

The priests and maidens cried;

To Canaan! to Canaan!

The people's voice replied.

To Canaan, to Canaan,

The Lord has led us forth,

To thunder through its adder-dens

The anthems of the North! 

When Canaan's hosts are scattered,

And all her walls lie flat,

What follows next in order?

- The Lord will see to that!

We'll break the tyrant's sceptre,

We'll build the people's throne -

When half the world is Freedom's,

Then all the world's our own!

To Canaan, to Canaan,

The Lord has led us forth,

To sweep the rebel threshing-floors,

A whirlwind from the North!

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