Nature's Nobleman

When winter's cold and summer's heat Shall come and go again, A hundred years will be complete Since Marion crossed the main, And brought unto this wild retreat His dark-eyed wife of Spain. He was the founder of a free And independent band, Who lit the fires of liberty The revolution fanned:-- His patent of nobility Read in the ransomed land! Around his deeds a lustre throngs, A heritage designed To teach the world to spurn the wrongs Once threatened all mankind:-- To his posterity belongs The peerage of the mind.