This Land

America a land that had its beginning in the very dawn of creation a land that is water Earth and air whose history is written in fire etched in a veil of Twilight heard in the silence Thunder of glaciers and spread by the wind a land where the daring and courage of man has carved a giant country out of these ancient elements a land both scarred and graced By The Mark of man our heritage is here in this land soft sweet winds ruffle fruit of plain the vibrant Drums of sea stroke the shore glacial cords strike muted Bas and crashing symbols of moled flame burst from Earth to shatter mountaintops lava sprays flow red through the land while forging their return to the [Music] Sea and what Beauty has been created to color and soften this land liken threads through Rock Crags to Mellow Sullen worlds of stone Blossom carpets velvet feet of white brow Peaks green laced boughs reach out to shelter verdant lands or soar a loft to butus Skies the Giant Sequoia 40 million years ago the forbearers of this tree had already taken root in our Western soil God's first temples were here before the age of ice and long before man had crossed the northern streets and began his Tim long journey in this our [Music] land these cathedrals of nature stand stately and Silent always ready to offer the Tranquility of their cool green world to all who enter the awesome beauty of Mount reneer stands as a Silent Witness to the many and varied ages of this land from its fiery Beginnings as a lava spewing volcano to its present calm from its age of vegetation with carpets of Alpine flowers and Majestic Groves of towering fur trees through the age of the glacier a dramatic reminder of ice locked lands rivers of ice that smothered plant life moved gigantic Boulders and etched valleys and riverbeds into the Plains and then slowly began to melt away after thousands of years these vestages of the Ice Age have retreated to The Bleak sanctuary of mountaintops where they remain in uncertain rest perhaps awaiting the dawn of another Ice Age when they will again dominate this land and join forces with the mighty rivers that flow through the land and help carve yawning Canyons of unsurpassed Beauty whose Rocky barrenness captures the shifting moods of nature in blues and reds that streak Canyon walls in a spellbinding array of color and Shadow Nature has carved this land with a majestic Splendor Grand Canyon a Gorge ever changing into new depths of beauty and color incredible Yellowstone a land of geysers that leap from the seing forces buried deep in our Earth a land of bubbling mud [Music] pots a land of hot springs that Cascade over Terraces sculpted by Nature's Own hand Yellowstone a land too impatient to live just one life at a time here ages of Fire and Ice have been combined into a surrealistic scene of lush greens and cryst pools and Stark fossil forests cast an eerie spell over the land but the spell can be abruptly broken by an elk by a bear or a buffalo once again proud and free to run without fear in the safety of this [Music] Refuge Yellowstone a true Panorama of the [Music] ages this land was still being formed by the ages of Fire and Ice when a new element came to leave its Mark man from the north came man primitive tribes forged their way through ice lock lands slowly pushing Southward their history is the history of all men from wandering nomads they settled to till the soil and to build centuries ago Indians settled the semiarid land men who revered all living [Music] things deeply allied with nature grateful for its roots and odd by its power from the East came man Explorer missionary planter pirate the Placid harbors of the Caribbean gave birth to ships of every flag ships of slave and rum links between World old and [Music] new where crumbled ruins revive the age of storehouses Laden with booty from New Found lands of forts that thrust Stone chest to Sea and challenge all to shimmering Lust For riches torn from New World stores to Grace coffers of old a glittering heart Harvest pass through these Stony arms fulfilling greedy dreams of Newfound lands all marks of man that once stood as alien monuments now one with this land symbols not of riches taken from the new world but those of which came to it of the old world culture that cloaks our Southern lands and lends soul to the wealth of our heritage to the north the finger of Cape C stretching 70 Sandy miles out into the sea and a millennium into time beckoned other men other civilizations Norsemen almost a thousand years before Columbus it saw the Pilgrim's first walk on American soil they strolled the speech and saw these [Music] sights and many follow men who wrote a history of sail and sea the pleasure and Peril of the trackless Steep of Clippers ships and wailing boats that brought back their fill of the Bountiful sea and of times paid their due in unfathomable ways stories etched on Ocean Floors and sprayed upon the Sandy Shore evoked only by these time worn Stones Faithfully standing guard to empty Graves the remembering ground tribute to those who went down to the sea to those who would never return in Quincy Massachusetts stands a home that serves as a remembering [Music] ground the Adams House tribute to those who strived for democracy the house quietly Echoes the past for the house was loved as was the Land by all it sheltered John Adams one of the five who drafted the Declaration of Independence and helped choose the motto of this land e pluris yum out of many one by Abigail his wife the only woman in our history to be the wife of one president and the mother of another John Quincy Adams her son another president another generation dedicated to democracy on the same day in 1826 John Adams and his friend Thomas Jefferson died each thinking the other lived on it was July the 4th these Generations helped to build our Shrine of Freedom if there could be but one Shrine of Freedom it would be here Independence Hall these walls have heard the founders of our country they have heard Washington accept command of the Continental Army and the roll call that approved our Declaration of Independence Proclaim Liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof this is the peel of the Liberty [Music] Bell the C that Rose above the battle sounds at Yorktown and led our men on to Victory and on to democracy though times came when the call was muted less than 100 years later its message of unity and freedom was muffled by the D of uneasy States clamoring to secede in this quiet little village of Harper's Ferry nestled in the Gap where the pomac and Shan Andor rivers flow together some of the first sounds of Discord were heard it was here that a fiery eyed John Brown chose to incite a rebellion among the slaves it was here that Rebellion failed The Noose of death was laid on John Brown's neck but his Legend lived on and short years later Union Soldiers added new words to an old hymn John Brown's Body lies a molden in the grave his soul goes marching on John Brown's raid was but a symptom of the seething unrest that gripped the land a Madness that pitted brother against brother that filled the air with the sound of rifles the flash of saers and the Thunder of Cannon and left the blooded Mark of man through this land Echoes of the cries of battle and the Roar of Cannon still stalk this land names once lost in the dusty pages of History stand as guardians of those days when this land was Was A House Divided Manasses where was heard look there stands Jackson like a stone wall rally behind the Virginians we blue and gray twice locked in a battle to the death but death delayed to hobble across the land ever Restless ever [Music] demanding Anum where Crimson Day m forever Lane and real and fell thousands for 2 years the madness continued then Gettysburg where the southern sword was thrust into the north there still Echoes the conflict of three summer [Music] days from ridges and Hills to wheat fields and Orchards a torn and ravaged trail of desperate men regrouped for one final effort pickets [Music] charge [Music] [Applause] [Music] and three days of battle ended in the retreating shadow of a proud man who held high his gray head and led his defeated troops Down The Long 2-year Trail to aptic the Cannons were quieted and the sound of clashing swords was stilled and peace again sheltered the land and brother joined brother and new to finish tasks that began here and to reap the fruits of this vast plain this land both scarred and nurtured By The Mark of man the agony of war is but a single thread in the rich fabric of our heritage the worth of our past is measured in many ways each man of the past in his way has given us what we have today A Silent Witness to the passage of time a haunting reminder of man's bond with nature wherein both change and are changed for this land and man are but one and girded streets cannot lock out the lilt of spring bud or drone of Ocean's roar or Melody of Summer's Breeze only man can sing its song or love its [Music] beauty [Music] and of take