LIBRAIIY OF C0N(;HKSS. t\ Ui\ITKI):STATKS OF AMEIMCA.| \^ STANZAS TO QUEES YICTOEIA, AND othe;r po_d]MS. • BY SENNOIA EUBEK. • 1 NEW YORK: FREDERIC A. BRADY, PUBLISHER, No. 22 ANN STREET. 1866. Entered according to Act of Conjrress, in tlip year ISGG, By .TOIi:^ BUIiKE, In tlio Clerk's Office of the District Court of tlie United States for tin t^outhern District of New Yorlt. A. ALVOP.Ii, KI.EOTUOTVI'KIt ANI> I'I'.INTKR. r" PREFACE. • The following Poems touch, in their nearest and dearest interests, all orders and degrees of human beings, — all religious denominations and parties, — all trades, professions, and occupations of life. The farmer, the courtier, the peasant, and the peer, — the orator, the philosopher, and the poet,— kings and subjects, — priests and people, — governors and the governed, — theologians and politicians, — ^master and mistress, — man-servant and maid-servant, — Jew, Gentile, Greek, Barba- lian, — ^bond and free, — will find in this our little Manual of Slavery, not that only which is the subject and the object of abstract reflec- tion, but much also that is calculated to excite to an active benev- olence those individual and personal emotions which vibrate with the force of a moral electricity through all the springs of feeling in the heart. The Methodist, Presbyterian, Unitarian, Baptist, and Episcopal churches and congregations are especially noticed in their attitudes respectively towards negro slavery ; nor does the author fail to mention, alas ! that it should be in terms so incommensurate with their exemplary consistency and sterling merit, the eflbrts of the excellent Society of Friends in the great and glorious cause of eman- cipation from human bondage. 3 PREFACE. These Poems contain, moreover, in the notes and in the text, many salient points for ci^mmendation in oui- freemen, our women, our laws and institutions; and for satire, in Southern Slavery, conventions, fillibusterism, Georgian theology, domestic troubles, etc. Would that the Manual may prove to the public a soul-stirring fountain of whole- some and murmuring waters, — " Querulis fons garrulus undis," The verdict of the Public, be it favorable or otherwise, we trust we shall patiently abide, concluding meanwhile with the motto of Spenser, — " Goe, little Booke : thyself present, As child whose parent is unkent I And when thou art past jeopardee, Come tell me what was said of mee, And I will send more after thee.^ THE PUBLISHEPu BUKDEN OF THE SOUTH. SCENES m CONGRESS. Thou Cambrian pillar of tlie Golden State, The muse of Satire summons thee, though late, To bare thy head and heavenward lift thy hand. Before that dread tribunal of our land, — A people outraged by thy shameful brawls. Within the sacred precincts of those halls Where wisdom, truth, and equity preside, And law and reason flourish side by side. Such brawls are only worthy of the zones Where bears and panthers strive with picaroons, — Worthy the roles of those Francisco hells Where lust of gain with murderous riot dwells, — Worthy the school where blood-stained Herbert, learned In every vice, for civic honors yearned. And gained them, too; to add to our disgrace, The sickening horrors of his brazen face ! Is it for statesmen silvered o'er with age, In ruthless vengeance thus to fume and rage? — To call, in accents savage and untoward, • Their peer " a liar, slanderer, canting coward ?" — To rush -with rampant fury from their chairs (As beasts of prey from out their hidden lairs), And fight with canes, revolvers, or their fists, Like ruffian bullies in our prize-fight lists ; 5 BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. Or creep with velvet footsteps like an ounce, And, unawares, upon their victims pounce ? Ye Gods! Not thus did Jischincs contend ; Not thus Demosthenes, to gain his end. To clicckmate monarchs, or to win a crown. Of Athens worthy — worthy his renown ; Not thus contended Bacori with his peers. Or the whole crew of slanderous garreteers ! When Tally's thunder burst o'er Piso's head, And flash on flash his fiery lightnings sped, They showed how truth and honor were at strife In Piso's public and his private life ; Showed him in both^ a tyrant, fool, poltroon, A swinish sot, a robber and buftbon. Nor less, when Antony and Catiline Their country's freedom sought to undermine. The patriot statesman winged his words of wrath. With tones prophetic, o'er their traitorous path, — Yet not from private malice sought their doom, But as the common enemies of Rome. From Chatham's lips more graceful satire hoar. In whispering, " Gentle shepherd, tell me where !" Or learn from Grattan's most impassioned tongue To be severe, and yet to do no wrong. From Brougham take the thunder and the nod, The forked lightning and the scorpion rod, The barb, the lash, the nettle, and the thorn, The victim skulking from his withering scorn, The quivering uauscle and the neck awry, The conjuring spectre in his glaring eye, Snake-like as cholera; while, with sovereign power, G SCENES IN CONGRESS. He scales the rampart and assaults the tower — The tower of life — and cries, This soul is mine, Nor soul or body shall I e'er resign, Till I have made them both subserve the cause Of truth and justice, liberty and laws ! Yet Brougham never dealt destructive blows. With arms unchartered, on his bitterest foes. And who confesses not that perfect hit, Of venomed satire from O'Connell's wit. Pronouncing D'Israeli to have mourned his loss. Like his ancestral type — the thief upon the cross ? Yea, learn from Statesmen who are all our own, Clay, Benton, Webster, Pinckney, and Calhoun, To be sarcastic ; yet from reverence, fear To wound or jar a Senatorial ear. Ah me ! from Polyglotts of camps and mines, 'Tis hard to learn a language that refines The want of culture in one's early life. With social rules is war unto the knife. " But G. from poverty has waxen rich !" What, then, but that it aggravates his itch, — The itch of vainly striving to be great, When God and nature thwart a high estate, In him and Herbert, who has-failed to scan The boy as father to the full grown man. No truth more clear, nor creed revealed from heaven, Than this : " 'Tis hard to rid us of old leaven !" Clear as that Bruins, black, or white, or hoary, Are more deserving chastisement than glory ; Clear as that blustering violence and wrath, And scurvy juggles on our brilliant path r BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. Of Empire — check not speed the march of States, "Which else would seek admission at our gates. From heroes of a vigilance committee, Our chiof attention turn we next to thee, Thou Machiavelian necromanoer — Slidell 1 In diplomatic orchestras, first fiddle. Pallas came armed from the head of Jove, Or poets lie, take which side you approve ; In Slidcll's brain conceived a great white house. Has, as we feared, but issued in a mouse, .Or other far more loathsome little thing, By Walcott sung, when George the Third was king. Yet is he in his generation wise, A gladiator skilled in hows and whys — Skilled with his fellow-broker financiers, To trij, if possible, by bribes and fears, Their slaves and slave-dominion to retain In Cuba, purchased from the crown of Spain, Through schemes devised by Judah Benjamin ! Ah ! can our Hebrews ever cease to see How wide the gulf 'twixt bondmen and the free ; Forget how Moses slew an o/erseer, O'er captive exiles taught to domineer ; Forget a cruel tyrant's tale of bricks, The clanking chains, the blows, the brutal kicks, Fjom which, through Moses and Jehovah's might, They found deliverance in the darkest night Of human thraldom yet endured by slaves, 'Midst desert sands and overwhelming waves ; Forget, in short, their own and Egypt's plagues. And all but Cuba, pelf, and base intrigues ? Oh, Slidell ! Slidell ! Now in thy old age. Dare thou be honest, though the rabble rage, ADDRESSED TO ALBERT FIKE. Though threats thine ears and gibbets greet thine eyes, And wreck and ruin seize the vaulted skies, This truth recall — " the honest are the wise^ ADDRESSED TO ALBERT PIKE, A DISTINGIJISHED CITIZEK OF AEKAKSAS. I. Albert Pike ! Albert Pike !* with the courage to strike The monster of Slavery down, Or wound him, at least, as a venomous beast, From his soles to the scalp of his crown, Thou wouldst add to thy name a new chaplet of fame, Far beyond thy poetic renown. II. Thy platform views, well adapted to cruise 'Neath the flag of a Know-Nothing barque, Were never designed for the popular mind On the deck of our Federal ark. What seals up thine eye, that thou canst not descry, As in old Massachusetts, the sins. And the ruin and blame, and the sorrow and shame, That litter where slavery reigns ? III. Nor sorcery binds thee, nor interest blinds thee, To see nothing else but a fee * There may be many who do not know that Mr. Pike is a fine, portly looking man. He is of middle age, dignified presence, and high intellectual endowments. His hair and beard, long, thick and grizzled, and flowing to his breast, and mas- sive shoulders, are not unbecoming such a figure. His manners are courteous and prepossessing. He would be looked upon, in any assembly of high-bred gen- tlemen, as a man of mark. 9 BURDEN OF THE SOUTH. In an African slave, or a Seminole knave, Creek, Choctaw, or vile Cherokee. 'Tis not that thou failest, for want of due ballast. And often receivcst such shocks. As light, bounding minnows escape amidst billows, Which Tritons* transfix on a rock : As waders and suckers and divers and duckers Eschew, both on land and on sea, In risks which environ from lead and cold iron, The dashing, the fearless, the free. IV. Thou never canst mount, man, to Helicon's fount, man, Till lifted on Liberty's wing ! With Pegasus spavined, cribbed, crippled, and bavined, | As thine is, no mortal can sing. Thy vein will not run in the shade or the sun, J Or fall like the rain-drops or dew ; 'Tis an icicled prism, untouched by that chrism Poured out on the hallowed few. * S. R. does not here mean the marine divinities of that name {Tritonpsq^ie citi Phorciquc exerciius omnis), of whose aid Xeptune availed himself, according to Virgil, to save the fleet of Eneas from the rocks and quicl