97. XCVII.
SUGGESTS A “PSALM OF SADNESS” FOR HIS FRIENDS
SOUTH.
Saint's Rest, (wich is in the Stait uv Noo Gersey,) }
September the 12th, 1865.
The utter and abgect state uv cussitood into
wich the Dimokrasy find theirselves, North and
South, makes a day uv fastin approprit. Ef the
Lord is ever a goin 2 help us, now 's his time.
Ef my clerikle brethrin uv the Church South
deside to appint a day uv fastin and prayer, I
submit the follerin ez a sam uv agony, approprit
for the occasion:
A SAM UV AGONY.
On the street I see a nigger!
On his back a coat uv bloo, and he carryeth a
muskit.
He is provo-guard, and he halteth me, ez wun
hevin authority.
And my tender daughter spit on him, and lo!
he arrested her, and she languisheth in the guardhouse.
My eyes dwell on him, an my sole is a Artesian
well uv wo; it gusheth with greef.
For that nigger wuz my nigger! I bought him
with a price.
Alas! that nigger is out uv his normal condishn;
he is a star out uv its speer, which sweepeth
thro the politikle hevens, smashin things.
Normally, he wuz wuth gold and silver—now
he is a nitemare.
Wunst I wuz rich, and that nigger wuz the
basis thereof.
Wo is me! I owned him, sole, body, muscles,
sinoos, blood, boots, and brichis.
His intellek wuz mine, his body wuz mine, likewise
his labor and the froots thereof.
His wife wuz mine, and she wuz my conkebine.
The normal results uv the conkebinage I sold,
combining pleasure and profit in a eminent degree.
And on the price thereof I played poker, and
drank mint-gooleps, and rode in gorgus chariots,
and wore purple and fine linen every day.
Wuz this miscegenashun, or negro equality?
Not any. For she wuz mine, even as my ox, or
my horse, or my sheep, and her increase wuz
mine, even as wuz theirs.
Ablishn miscegenashun elewates the nigger
wench to his level. I did it for gain, wich degraded
her muchly.
And when the wife of my buzm lifted up her
voice in complaint, sayin, “Lo, I am abused—this
little nigger resembleth thee!” half the price uv
the infant chattel wood buy a dimund pin with
wich to stop her yawp.
And my boys follered in my footsteps, and grate
wuz the mix, but profitable.
But my dreem is bustid.
The nigger is free, and demands wages for the
work uv his hands.
His wife is free, and she kin decide whether
she 'll cleave to her husband, or be my conkebine.
Yisterday I bade her come to me, and, lo! she
remarkt, “Go 'way, white man, or I 'll bust yer
hed.”
And I gode.
Her childern are free—they are mine, likewise,
but I can't sell em on the block, to the highest
bidder.
Therein Linkin sinned—he violatid the holiest
and highest instinks uv our nacher; he interposed
a proclamashen atween father and child.
We took the heathen from Afreka, and wuz a
makin Christians uv em. Wo to him who stopt
us in our mishnary work.
It is written—“Kin the Ethiope change his
skin?” I wuz a changin it for him, I and my
fathers, and we hed mellerd it down to a brite
yaller.
Dark is my fucher.
I obeyed the grate law uv labor, ez I served in
the army, by substitoot. Now shel I hev to stane
my hands with labor, or starve.
In what am I better than a Northern mudsill?
I kin git no more dimund pins for the wife uv
my buzm, and she yawpeth continyooaly.
Arrayd in hum-spun, she wrastles with pots and
kettles in the kitchen.
Weighed down with wo, she dips snuff in silence.
She asks uv me comfort—wat kin I say, whose
pockits contane only Confedrit skrip?
Save us from Massychusits, wich is ornery and
cussid.
Protect us from nigger soljers, wich is grinnin
feends.
Shelter us from the ghost uv John Brown, wich
is marchin on.
Petroleum V. Nasby,
Lait Paster uv the Church uv the Noo Dispensashun.
