And, when beneath the city gateway's To stay the mischief on Nebraska's Still day by day some hold of freedom To prayer and toil and manhood's manfalls liest part; Through home-bred traitors fed within Though to the soul's deep tocsin Nature Men whom yourselves with vote and purse The warning whisper of her Orphic pines, Sell your old homestead underneath your A well-meant drag upon its hurrying feet! 395 wheel; While such as these your loftiest outlooks Nor chide the man whose honest doubt hold, While truth and conscience with your To the means only, not the righteous wares are sold, extends Nor fail to weigh the scruples and the So shall your power, with a wise prudence used, 455 Strong but forbearing, firm but not Against the self-sold knaves of gain and Has manly instincts, in his pride revolts, Dashes from off him, midst the glad place: Pity the weak; but with unsparing hand Cast out the traitors who infest the land; world's cheers, The hideous nightmare of his dream of years, From bar, press, pulpit, cast them every- And lifts, self-prompted, with his own Statesmen like those who sought the Its widening circles to the South or primal fount 445 North, Where'er our banner flaunts beneath the stars Of righteous law, the Sermon on the bars, Still spared, Heaven bless him!) honor There shall Free Labor's hardy children 475 And Christian jurists, starry-pure, like The equal sovereigns of a slaveless land. Jay; Preachers like Woolman, or like them who bore The faith of Wesley to our Western shore, 450 And held no convert genuine till he broke Alike his servants' and the Devil's yoke; And priests like him who Newport's market trod, And when at last the hunted bison tires, And dies o'ertaken by the squatter's fires; And westward, wave on wave, the living flood Breaks on the snow-line of majestic Hood; 480 And lonely Shasta listening hears the tread And o'er its slave-ships shook the bolts of Of Europe's fair-haired children, Hesperled; God! And, gazing downward through his hoar- And, South or North, wherever hearts of A late indulgence. What I had I gave. Forget the poet, but his warning heed, My task is done. The Showman and And shame his poor word with your his show, Themselves but shadows, into shadows nobler deed. 1856. ON A PRAYER-BOOK, WITH ITS FRONTISPIECE, ARY SCHEFFER'S 'CHRISTUS CONSOLATOR,' AMERICANIZED BY THE OMISSION OF THE BLACK MAN. It is hardly to be credited, yet is true, that in the anxiety of the Northern merchant to conciliate his Southern customer, a publisher was found ready thus to mutilate Scheffer's picture. He intended his edition for use in the Southern States undoubtedly, but copies fell into the hands of those who believed literally in a gospel which was to preach liberty to the captive. O ARY SCHEFFER! when beneath thine truth and love. Alas, the Church! The reverend head of Of His great love, the dark hands and the white, To William H. Seward 363 THE SUMMONS. [After publishing this poem Whittier wrote to Lucy Larcom: 'I do not quite like the tone of The Summons now that it is published. It was, however, an expression of a state of mind which thee would regard as pardonable if thee knew all the circumstances. It is too complaining, and I hope I shall not be left to do such a thing again.'] My ear is full of summer sounds, Of summer sights my languid eye; And in the noon-time shadows lie. I hear the wild bee wind his horn, The locust shrills his song of heat. Another sound my spirit hears, A deeper sound that drowns them all; TO WILLIAM H. SEWARD.59 On the 12th of January, 1861, Mr. Seward delivered in the Senate chamber a speech on The State of the Union, in which he urged the paramount duty of preserving the Union, and went as far as it was possible to go, without surrender of principles, in concessions to the Southern party, concluding his argument with these words: 'Having submitted my own opinions on this great crisis, it remains only to say, that I shall cheerfully lend to the government my best support in whatever prudent yet energetic efforts it shall make to preserve the public peace, and to maintain and preserve the Union; advising, only, that it practise, as far as possible, the utmost moderation, forbearance, and con5 ciliation. This Union has not yet accomplished what good for mankind was manifestly designed by Him who appoints the seasons and prescribes the duties of states and empires. No; if it were cast down by faction to-day, it would rise again and reappear in all its majestic proportions to-morrow. It is the only government that can stand here. Woe! woe! to the man that madly lifts his hand against it. It shall continue and endure; and men, in after times, shall declare that this generation, which saved the Union from such sudden and unlooked-for dangers, surpassed in magnanimity even that one which laid its foundations in the eternal principles of liberty, justice, and humanity.' ΙΟ 15 ... |