Our President

If his policy was broad and strong,
He sealed it as he went along;
If all men saw in our chosen chief
One built for war, or joy, or grief,
We saw a statesman, gentleman.

The faults he had the world could view,
With smiling equanimity;
His prestige ever greater grew,
On either hand beyond the sea,
At home, he was our countryman.

His home life, too, was free from blame,
The husband with the lover came
To cheer and soothe a lifelong mate,
When ill, despite the cares of state,
He wooed her back to life again.

So let the doubter wrack his brain,
Our history he may search in vain
To show or find a fairer blend
Of soldier, statesman, husband, friend,
Than he, our valiant countryman.

Then flashed in hate from savage hands
The lurid flame the Red commands,
And like the martyred Garfield fell,
The People’s Friend, we loved him well,
This gentle Christian gentleman.

Brooklyn.