The Late Robbery and Its Import

Has honor died out of our land, and God 
Out of His universe, that old grey Fraud 
Can lift his head in triumph, glorified 
By all the Serpent's brood, whose unclean breath 
Sickens the air with poison, sowing wide 
The rank contagion of their moral death?
What! have we sunk so low that infamy 
Is infamous no longer? a sworn lie
No more a thing abhorrent? Is success 
The only god we honor, though he climb, 
Foul from the sewers of corruption's stye, 
To thrones left spotless by the righteousness 
Of the great fathers of a nobler time?

Have we breathed stench so long in neighborhood
Of the old shambles of that impious lie
                 Misnamed Democracy,
That every sense is deadened, evil is good, 
And vile seems virtuous? Is robbery
The clearest road to honor and to power?
What man is this — what nestling of the brood 
Of human vipers swarming at this hour, 
Who dares annul the law of righteousness 
Proclaimed in Sinai thunders, peal on peal, 
Echoing, "Thou shalt not lie! Thou shalt not steal!"
     A man, whose hope to win success, 
     Must "count out" God to make it less 
               Than utter blasphemy?

Backed by what allies, by what power is he 
So swollen with arrogance he dares defy 
That other "voice of God," the majesty 
Of a free people — a voice that shall be heard 
Out of the whirlwind, if we give no ear
               To its low, whispered word,
Soft as the silence, as a clarion clear!

Sons of con-"fusion," brothers of the snake 
That stings the freedman into flight or death, 
And slays his pale defender, ye mistake 
The temper of the north wind, the harsh breath
That makes our hills the columns of a temple 
Sacred to Liberty, as the broad heavens, ample, 
And filled with the hoarse anthem of the gales 
In her perpetual worship! Treason fails 
When it confronts the granite and the roar 
Of ocean charging on our rock-bound shore.
Aye, dark conspirators, ye live too far 
From the rank fens of the assassin crew, 
Whose ballot is the bullet — too near the blue 
Pavilion of that loyal star
               Forever to Freedom true.
Star of the North, our symbol and our guide;
Too far from your reserves, whose arms are dyed 
With woman's blood and man's, and all too near 
The unconquered Pine Tree, whose leaves, never sere,
Hiss you to scorn in the free northern blast, 
For even a moment's hope to win at last, 
A moment's victory in your mad career!

This is no wrestle to maintain
     A name or party for the passing hour 
No conflict narrowed to our glorious Maine
     Snatched at by law-defying power,
‘Tis the great battle, ever lost and won, 
Of Light and Darkness, closed and rebegun, 
Never to end till virtue reigns alone.
‘Tis the same rattlesnake erst coiled in black 
On Georgia's rebel flag, that, scotched, comes back
               To serve the cause lost once, 
               Forgetting for the nonce,
Our pines are loyal; 'tis the red garrote 
Of desperate treason, closing on the throat 
Of popular sovereignty, not for one lone State, 
But for an empire glorious and great.
When for a moment It had hope to win, 
You saw behind the mask the fatal grin 
Of the old Ku Klux skull. But too elate 
The mask slips off, and naked to the day, 
The wrath of Freedom, In her own calm way, 
Shail crush the spectre with an empire's weight.

Count out a people's ballot and defy
All visible powers below, and Power on high:
But know ye, robbers, while your peans begin,
               God will be counted in!

The grand forbearance of a people great 
Has saved a nation while it saved a State;
But you, dishonorers of a noble name, 
Descend to swift oblivion or long shame.
The indignant virtue of a people, slow 
To holy wrath, shall burn with whiter glow, 
And smite your power to ashes. Not alone 
Under our gallant Pine Tree, and the zone 
Of Freedom's watch-fires — stars that never set
               But over all the land where yet
Secrecy woos the assassin, and red gold
Caresses Murder — "fusion" of Fraud and Force
               The twin conspirators,
That seek a realm to plunder and to hold!