The writings of John Greenleaf Whittier, Volume 3.
John Greenleaf Whittier, Ed.

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[121]
     And slavery with the practice!
Our smooth words fed the people's mouth,
     Their ears our party rattle;
We kept them headed to the South,
     As drovers do their cattle.

But now our game of politics
     The world at large is learning;
And men grown gray in all our tricks
     State's evidence are turning.
Votes and preambles subtly spun
     They cram with meanings louder,
And load the Democratic gun
     With abolition powder.

The ides of June! Woe worth the day
     When, turning all things over,
The traitor Hale shall make his hay
     From Democratic clover!
Who then shall take him in the law,
     Who punish crime so flagrant?
Whose hand shall serve, whose pen shall draw,
     A writ against that ‘ vagrant’?

Alas! no hope is left us here,
     And one can only pine for
The envied place of overseer
     Of slaves in Carolina!
Pray, Moses, give Calhoun the wink,
     And see what pay he's giving!
We've practised long enough, we think,
     To know the art of driving.