"Make haste and set the captive free!"
Are ye so free that cry?
The lowest depths of slavery
Leave freedom for a sigh.
What is your whole Republic worth?
Ye hold out vulgar lures;
Why will ye be disparting earth
When all of heaven is yours?
He's governed well who rules himself,
No despot vetoes him;
There s no defaulter steals his pelf,
Nor revolution grim.
'Tis neither silver, rags, nor gold,
'S the better currency;
The only specie that will hold,
Is current honesty.
The minister of state hath cares,
He cannot get release,—
Administer his own affairs,
Nor settle his own peace.
'Tis easier to treat with kings
And please our country's foes,
Than treat with Conscience of the things
Which only Conscience knows.
There's but the party of the great,
And party of the mean;
And if there is an Empire State,
'Tis the upright, I ween.
[138]
