This "Sentiment" Was Read On The Same Occasion As The "Family Record," Which Immediately Follows It. The Latter Poem Is The Dutiful Tribute Of A Son To His Father And His Father'S Ancestors, Residents Of Woodstock From Its First Settlement. The Ship Of State! Above Her Skies Are Blue, But Still She Rocks A Little, It Is True, And There Are Passengers Whose Faces White Show They Don't Feel As Happy As They Might; Yet On The Whole Her Crew Are Quite Content, Since Its Wild Fury The Typhoon Has Spent, And Willing, If Her Pilot Thinks It Best, To Head A Little Nearer South By West. And This They Feel: The Ship Came Too Near Wreck, In The Long Quarrel For The Quarter-Deck, Now When She Glides Serenely On Her Way, - The Shallows Past Where Dread Explosives Lay, - The Stiff Obstructive'S Churlish Game To Try Let Sleeping Dogs And Still Torpedoes Lie! And So I Give You All The Ship Of State; Freedom'S Last Venture Is Her Priceless Freight; God Speed Her, Keep Her, Bless Her, While She Steers Amid The Breakers Of Unsounded Years; Lead Her Through Danger'S Paths With Even Keel, And Guide The Honest Hand That Holds Her Wheel! Woodstock, Conn., July 4, 1877.