Copywork

for

Early American History

The Pledge of Allegiance

1I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands,

2 one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

3 Rules for the flag:1. All present should stand at attention.

2. A flag must never touch the ground.

4 3. When a flag is so tattered that it can no longer serve as a symbol of the United States, it should be destroyed in a dignified manner, preferably by burning.

Star Spangled Banner Francis Scott Key, 1814 – National Anthem

1Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

2 Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thru the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?

3 And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

4 O say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

America the Beautiful Katharine Lee Bates and Samuel Ward

1O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain!

2 America! America! God shed his grace on thee And crown thy good with brotherhood From sea to shining sea!

3 O beautiful for pilgrim feet Whose stern impassioned stressA thoroughfare of freedom beat Across the wilderness!

4 America! America! God mend thine every flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law!

5 O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife. Who more than self their country lovedAnd mercy more than life!

6 America! America! May God thy gold refine Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine!

7 O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years Thine alabaster cities gleam Undimmed by human tears!

8 America! America! God shed his grace on thee Till nobler men keep once again Thy whiter jubilee!

Among the MultitudeBy: Walt Whitman, 1819-1892

1Among the men and women the multitude, I perceive one picking me out by secret and divine signs,

2 Acknowledging none else, not parent, wife, husband, brother, child, any nearer than I am,

3 Some are baffled, but that one is not--that one knows me.

4 Ah lover and perfect equal,I meant that you should discover me so by faint indirections,And I when I meet you mean to discover you by the like in you.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic Julia Ward Howe

1Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where grapes of wrath are stored; he hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on.

2 I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps; They have built Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

3 I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps, His day is marching on.

4 He has founded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat; He is sifting out the hearts of men before His Judgement Seat,

5 Oh! Be swift, my soul, to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet! Our God is marching on.

6 In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea, With a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me;

7 As he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free, While God is marching on.

8 Glory, Glory Hallelujah,Glory, Glory Hallelujah, Glory, Glory Hallelujah,His truth is marching on.

Martha WashingtonFirst Lady, 1732-1802

1When Martha was 17 years old, she married Daniel Parke Custis, one of the wealthiest planters of eastern Virginia. Eight years later her husband died, leaving her with two children.

2 When she was Characterized at the time as "the prettiest and richest widow in Virginia," she met Colonel George Washington in 1758. They were married a year later.

3 They made Mount Vernon their home where Martha managed her husband's plantations in his absence.

4 As wife of the president, Martha was a gracious hostess, both in New York and in Philadelphia, and known for her official receptions every Thursday afternoon at the Executive Mansion.

George Washinton’sRules of Civility and Decent Behavior

1When in company, put not your hands to any part of the body, not usually discovered.

2 If you cough, sneeze, sigh, or yawn, do it not loud but privately; and speak not in your yawning, but put your handkerchief or hand before your face and turn aside.

3 Show not yourself glad at the misfortune of another as though he were your enemy.

4 In visiting the sick, do not presently play the physician if you be not knowing therein.

5 When a man does all he can though it succeeds not well blame not him that did it.

6 Be not hasty to believe flying reports to the disparagement of any.

7 Wear not your cloths, foul, ripped or dusty but see they be brushed once every day at least and take heed that you approach not to any uncleaness.

8 If others talk at the table, be attentive but talk not with meat in your mouth.

9 Never express anything unbecoming, nor Act against the rules moral before your inferiors.

10 Gaze not on the marks or blemishes of others and ask not how they came.

11 Think before you speak pronounce not imperfectly nor bring out your words too hastily but orderly & distinctly.

12 In company of these of higher quality than yourself speak not til you are asked a question then stand upright put of your hat & answer in few words.

To God be the GloryBy Fanny J. Crosby

1To God be the glory, great things he hath done! So loved he the world that he gave us his Son,

2 who yielded his life an atonement for sin, and opened the lifegate that all may go in.

3 O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood, to every believer the promise of God;

4 the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.

5 Great things he hath taught us, great things he hath done, and great our rejoicing thru Jesus the Son;

6 but purer, and higher, and greater will be our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.

7 Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice!

8 O come to the Father thru Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done!

An Awful Tempest Mashed the AirBy: Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

1An awful tempest mashed the air, The clouds were gaunt and few;

2 A black, as of a spectre's cloak, Hid heaven and earth from view.

3 The creatures chuckled on the roofs And whistled in the air, And shook their fists and gnashed their teeth, And swung their frenzied hair.

4 The morning lit, the birds arose; The monster's faded eyes Turned slowly to his native coast, And peace was Paradise!

Besty Ross

1Besty Ross was a seamstress, born in 1752.

2 Operating an upholsterer's shop in Philadelphia, Betsy Ross is credited with making the first stars-and-stripes flag.

3 She did so at the request of George Washington, Robert Morris and George Ross.

4 The stars-and-stripes was adopted as the national flag by a resolution of the Continental Congress on June 14, 1777.

Poor Richard’s AlmanacBenjamin Franklin

1Eat to live, and not live to eat.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

2 Early to bed and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

3 If you would not be forgottenAs soon as you are dead and rotten,Either write things worthy reading,Or do things worth the writing.

4 He that riseth late, must trot all day, and shall scarce overtake his business at night.

5 Does thou love life? Then do not squander time; for that's the stuff life is made of.

6 Work as if you were to live a hundred years,Pray as if you were to die tomorrow.

7 Fear not death; for the sooner we die, the longer shall we be immortal.

8 Doing an injury puts you below your enemy; revenging one make you but even with him; forgiving it sets you above him.

Paul Revere’s RideHenry Wadsworth Longfellow

1Listen my children and you shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five;Hardly a man is now alive

2 Who remembers that famous day and year.He said to his friend, "If the British marchBy land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch

3 Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--One if by land, and two if by sea;And I on the opposite shore will be,

4 Ready to ride and spread the alarmThrough every Middlesex village and farm,For the country folk to be up and to arm."

5 Then he said "Good-night!" and with muffled oarSilently rowed to the Charlestown shore,

6 And so through the night went his cry of alarmTo every Middlesex village and farm,---A cry of defiance, and not of fear,A voice in the darkness, a knock at the door,And a word that shall echo for evermore!

7 For, borne on the night-wind of the Past,Through all our history, to the last,

8 In the hour of darkness and peril and need,The people will waken and listen to hearThe hurrying hoof-beats of that steed,And the midnight message of Paul Revere.

Declaration of Independence

1We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights,

2 that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.

3 That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government,

4 laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

Preamble of the Constitution

1We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,

2 establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense,

3 promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity,

4 do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.