Happy Birthday America!

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Julia Ward Howe February 1862

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord:
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
(Chorus)
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
Chorus
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with His heel,
Since God is marching on."
Chorus
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Since God is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat:
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
Chorus
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
Chorus
Chorus
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
While God is marching on.
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on.
Chorus
Chorus
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Glory, glory, hallelujah!
Our God is marching on.

This song appeared during one of the darkest years of American history. After the publication of this tune in Atlantic magazine, Union forces pushed to the gates of the Confederate capital of Richmond only to be turned back. Many thousands of men perished from Virginia to Texas. It looked like the United States and its great constitutional experiment would collapse to the glee of old Europe.

Union soldiers made this song popular because it appealed to the sense of mission that many of them carried with them. It compares their sacrifice for freedom with Christ's sacrifice for humanity's salvation. This hymn expresses an America triumphant because it is one of the only in history where people "die to make men free."

Reflect upon that for a second. Our national mission is not to own or dominate others, but to serve as the scourge of tyranny and the protector of freedom. In Ronald Reagan's words to the Normandy veterans in 1984, "These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war."

America often seems a contradiction. We truly hate war, but when engaged we fight it vigorously. Some in other countries and even a few in our own see that as hypocrisy. They could not be more wrong. America historically loves freedom more than it hates war. We will not dip our flag to tyrants to preserve a false peace. We could have continued bearing the burden of taxes while not enjoying representation in Parliament. We could have cut off trade with Britain in 1917. Hitler was desperate to accomodate himself to America until late 1941. America could have avoided most of its wars, but the country and the people love freedom and hate tyranny.

It is right to wish the United States of America a happy birthday today. We live in one of the only nations in history that has from the beginning "fought to make men free." We have not always lived up to our standards, but overall the world and its people enjoy more freedom and prosperity than if there had been no United States. It is because of our values, our actions, and our sacrifices that this is so. Human civilization never advanced so far in any other 230 year span as it has since the United States of America came into existence.

Happy birthday! So long as you remain free, may there be many more.