2
Who are these that sweep on to the House of the People,
Cherished like song-birds, warm with their own downy wrappings?
Splendors of feathers we see, as of laces and diamonds;
Splendors of beauty, that shame the adornment of either.
Met by the Marshal, and led to the smile of the Magnate
Bland in his greeting—blandly they please him with curtseys.
Fairest of women tender white hands for his touching;
Men of the haughtiest wait for the nod of their patron.
Has he betrayed the trust that was left to his swearing?
Hush! 't is the Chair Presidential to which we do homage;
Every man cringes where any man may aspire.
One I discovered, haply not seen by my fellows;
Young and a Virgin, wearing her fillet of oak-leaves,
Wearing the green nodding plumes of the Court of the Prairie,
Gyves on her free-born limbs, on her fair arms shackles,
Blood on her garments, terror and grief in her features.
Oh! she was weary, upholding the crown of her promise,
Keeping the watch and the ward that brave men should have kept her.
Oh! she was weary with crying aloud from the West-land,
Faintly and fiercely: “Brothers! will none of you help me?”
Where with hum and confusion scarce tempered by music,
The brilliant assemblage thronged their chief man for his virtue,
Sudden she stood, like a guilty ghost at a banquet.
“I am Kansas,” she shrieked, and her hand gave its menace,
“Kansas,” and seized the crisp locks for a terrible shaking.
“Me dost thou murder—me dost thou sell in thy shambles.
Coined from my blood is the gold that should keep thee in power.
Thou hast heard my loud shrieking—hast counted my struggles;
Scarcely I hold from my heart the death wound of thy Bravos.
Tremble,” she cried, “tho' the battle seem thine for a season,
Not a drop of my blood shall be wanting to judge thee—
Tremble, thou fallen from mercy, ere fallen from office;
The heart of the Nations shall loathe ere it gladly forget thee,
Known for thy vileness alone, and the sorrow it wrought us.”
While she yet spake, from the heaven God's thunder had fall'n;
And I heard: “The crime, not the paltry offender so stirs us.”
Cherished like song-birds, warm with their own downy wrappings?
Splendors of feathers we see, as of laces and diamonds;
Splendors of beauty, that shame the adornment of either.
Met by the Marshal, and led to the smile of the Magnate
Bland in his greeting—blandly they please him with curtseys.
Fairest of women tender white hands for his touching;
Men of the haughtiest wait for the nod of their patron.
Has he betrayed the trust that was left to his swearing?
Hush! 't is the Chair Presidential to which we do homage;
Every man cringes where any man may aspire.
One I discovered, haply not seen by my fellows;
Young and a Virgin, wearing her fillet of oak-leaves,
Wearing the green nodding plumes of the Court of the Prairie,
Gyves on her free-born limbs, on her fair arms shackles,
Blood on her garments, terror and grief in her features.
Oh! she was weary, upholding the crown of her promise,
Keeping the watch and the ward that brave men should have kept her.
Oh! she was weary with crying aloud from the West-land,
Faintly and fiercely: “Brothers! will none of you help me?”
Where with hum and confusion scarce tempered by music,
The brilliant assemblage thronged their chief man for his virtue,
Sudden she stood, like a guilty ghost at a banquet.
“I am Kansas,” she shrieked, and her hand gave its menace,
“Kansas,” and seized the crisp locks for a terrible shaking.
“Me dost thou murder—me dost thou sell in thy shambles.
Coined from my blood is the gold that should keep thee in power.
Thou hast heard my loud shrieking—hast counted my struggles;
Scarcely I hold from my heart the death wound of thy Bravos.
Tremble,” she cried, “tho' the battle seem thine for a season,
Not a drop of my blood shall be wanting to judge thee—
Tremble, thou fallen from mercy, ere fallen from office;
The heart of the Nations shall loathe ere it gladly forget thee,
Known for thy vileness alone, and the sorrow it wrought us.”
While she yet spake, from the heaven God's thunder had fall'n;
And I heard: “The crime, not the paltry offender so stirs us.”
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