Shall your true birth-right in this stream be sold?
Your River dammed, by stealth, as in the night?
And yet no protest made? no sign of fight?
Cowards! The Trappers would have risen of old
In their primeval manhood, — they were bold, —
They would have bled for this riparian right;
But you, though weaponed with the ballot's might
Tamely submit — sheep sheared within the fold!
If men are craven, as they seem to be,
Submitting to such robbery at their door,
Thou mighty Stream! alone vent thou thy wrath:
Rise! till a thousand torrents thundering roar
Headlong, and in thy wild, avenging path,
Sweep this abomination to the sea!