Page images
PDF
EPUB

"Let bogus votes 19 and bogus laws 20

Stand as the will of God! Drive out 21
The villain cursed who talks about

The Higher Law!' 22

Let him not spout

23

His treason here!

The righteous cause

"Of slavery is recognized

By the first law of man and God;-
Kansas we own, and on her sod

Shall stand no man, unless he nod
To our great Truth, and be baptized

"And taken into fellowship

With all the dear, beloved ones

Who are not classed with Freedom's sons.
Give to Northern men solid tons

Of iron hail! and then let slip

"The dogs of War! Let no church ope
The door to him who cannot pray
For Slavery's cause! 24 Let no man stay
On Kansas soil, who casts a ray
Of heavenly light on sinking hope."

Brave Kansas! Now thy bitter hour
Comes like a gale of piercing woe,-
And where fair Freedom stands, the foe
Unsheathes his sword. Her friends bend low
The neck beneath usurping power.

PARDEE BUTLER.

Strange craft appears upon the breast

Of swift Missouri's stream,

[ocr errors]

a boat

Of two logs made, bound fast to float,
With Pardee Butler, who of note

Had made his name.

Upon his crest

The letter "R" is stamped;-and flags
Of divers kinds, with mottoes rare
And quaint, lend to the ambient air
Weird and vile visions of despair:-
But Hope cheers him while Justice lags.

25

CHARLES W. DOW.

Now falls the innocent young Dow,
Whose manly breast the fatal shot
Received unarmed. No fiend, "come hot
From hell," would his base honor blot,
With deed so base as this foul blow. 26

WILLIAM PHILLIPS.

Brave Phillips, to the call of Truth,
Protests against the fraud which made
Proud Kansas fall within the shade
Of Slavery's night, and he is laid
Beneath its heel with no relenting ruth.

Torn from his home, where tender ties

[ocr errors]

Bind fast the heart, borne to the den Of slimy Vice and Hate, and then Shorn of his hair, and bare as when On earth he came, prostrate he lies, A fresh victim to Slavery's cause.

Game of the knights of tar and rail! Doomed to the auction block and sale! He passed a work of rare entail According to the "bogus" laws.

This done, and sanctioned by a call
Of Slavery's "law and order" men,
A band of ruffians from their den,
Into his bright home, where children
Clasp his knees, and tender cries fall
On his sad heart, and where dear wife
Implores and prays, and where to save
A life the law protects a slave

As well as king, came this conclave
And there struck down a sacred life. 27

THOMAS W. BARBER.

And Barber fell in rural shade,

Where loving wife had taught to twine Around his door the blooming vine, Who shared his kiss in love divine

And his bright home an Eden made. 28

How sad and cold the wintry day,

When his soul passed within the vale Of death. The winds took up the wail Of grief, and bore it on the gale.

Then freemen gazed on his cold clay,

And called on Heaven, and raised the hand
And swore to sow, and then to reap
The seed which Freedom cast, nor sleep
Till the avenging sword shall sweep
Her base-born foes from out the land.

ANDREW H. REEDER.

Then Reeder's life they seek. 2 9

The red

Hand of Murder now waits to strike.
His manly justice they dislike,
And bowie knife and deadly pike
Admonish him. Then sad he fled;

For he had learned to love this land
Of blooming verdure and renown.
'Neath shade of night, no name to own,
Disguised, he stole away unknown,
Dreading the blow of Slavery's hand.

Then in his secret refuge waits

For his escape,

what oaths he hears!

What direful threats! what torture bears ! What serves the honors that he wears?

All these would fall by Southern hates.

Now sees, within his recess dim,
The dagger waiting for his life.
How breaks his heart in secret strife,

How yearns for home, where weeping wife And waiting children pray for him!

THE INVASION.

Blow now the blast of direful War!

Call in the hordes of

Southern Rights!"

Come from Virginia's mountain heights!
Come from the ocean, where delights
To float the flag with the "Lone Star."30
And let Missouri now stand forth,

A solid phalanx on the call

Of sheriff! Let her bring her small Arms and weighty cannon, and all Her chivalry, to crush the North. 31

LAWRENCE.

Why? Nestled in the lovely vale
Where now the Kansas gently flows
Serene, and where the lily grows,
Like drooping Love beside the rose,
And where the powers of Peace prevail,
There Lawrence stands, a lovely queen

Of May. Sweet Lawrence! Freedom's child!
Cradled in love, and taught the mild
And gentle ways of Truth, she smiled
In graceful beauty not unseen.

« PreviousContinue »