Page:Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier (1895).djvu/332

300   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.

And for the faithful rank and file,
 * Who know their proper stations,

Perhaps it may be worth their while
 * To try the rice plantations.

Let Hale exult, let Wilson scoff,
 * To see us southward scamper;

The slaves, we know, are “better off
 * Than laborers in New Hampshire!”

of the Slave, and yet the friend of all;
 * Lover of peace, yet ever foremost when
 * The need of battling Freedom called for men

To plant the banner on the outer wall; Gentle and kindly, ever at distress Melted to more than woman’s tenderness, Yet firm and steadfast, at his duty’s post Fronting the violence of a maddened host, Like some gray rock from which the waves are tossed! Knowing his deeds of love, men questioned not
 * The faith of one whose walk and word were right;

Who tranquilly in Life’s great task-field wrought, And, side by side with evil, scarcely caught
 * A stain upon his pilgrim garb of white:

Prompt to redress another’s wrong, his own Leaving to Time and Truth and Penitence alone.

Such was our friend. Formed on the good old plan, A true and brave and downright honest man!