Page:Harris Dickson--The unpopular history of the United States.djvu/170

The Unpopular History of the United States steady tread, moving forward, forward, forward, to the final triumph of mankind.

Did you ever hear this piece of poetry by a country editor in Mississippi?

"Onward, upward, press the peoples

To that pure, exalted plane,

Where no throne shall cast a shadow

And no slave shall wear a chain.

"They are lighting fires of freedom

On a million altar stones,

With the torches they have kindled

At the blaze of burning thrones."

We couldn't keep our hands off this war. This war would not keep hands off us. I'm perfectly willing to hoe my own row, and let the other fellow hoe his. But Divine Right wants to cultivate the whole field, and makes no bones about it. I'm nothing but a hard-headed, striped-pants Yankee, but some facts are so plain that you can't shut your eyes to 'em. If we sit down, with both hands in our pockets, and let Divine Right organize all [152]