101. CI.
A PSALM OF GLADNESS. — VETO OF THE CIVIL
RIGHTS BILL.
Confedrit × Roads (wich is in the Stait uv Kentucky), }
April 7, 1866.
[1]
I am a canary, a nightengale. A lark, am I.
I raise my voice in song. I pour forth melojus notes.
I am a lamb, wich frisketh, and waggeth his tale, and leapeth,
ez he nippeth the tender grass. I am a colt, wich kicketh up
its heels exuberantly.
I am a bridegroom, wich cometh from his bride in the
mornin feelin releeved in the knowledge that she wore not
palpitators, nor false calves, nor nothin false, afore she wuz
hizn.
I am a steamboat captin with a full load, a doggry keeper on
a Saturday nite, a sportin man with four aces in his hand.
All these am I, and more.
For we sought to establish ourselves upon a rock, but found
that the underpinnin wuz gone out uv it.
Even slavery wuz our strong place, and our hope; but the
corners hed bin knocked out uv it.
The sons uv Belial hed gone forth agin it; Massachoosetts
hed assailed it, and the North West hed drawd its bow
agin it.
Wendell Phillips hed pecked out wun stun, Garret Smith
another; and the soldiers hed completed what they hed
begun.
And Congris, even the Rump, hed decreed its death, and
hed held forth its hand to Ethiopia.
It passed a bill givin the Niggers their rites, and takin away
from us our rites:
Sayin, that no more shel we sell em in the market place,
Or take their wives from em,
Or be father to their children,
Or make uv em conkebines aginst their will,
Or force em to toil without hire,
Or shoot em, ez we wuz wont to do under the old dispensashun,
Or make laws for em wich didn't bind us as well.
And our hearts wuz sad in our buzzums; for we said, Lo!
the nigger is our ekal; and we mourned ez them hevin no
hope.
But the President, even Androo, the choice uv Booth, said,
Nay.
And the bill wuz vetoed, and is no law; and our hearts is
made glad.
And from the Ohio to the Gulf shel go up the song uv gladness
and the sounds uv mirth.
The nigger will we slay, for he elevated his horn agin us.
We will make one law for him and another for us, and he
will sigh for the good old times when he wuz a slave in
earnest.
His wife shel be our conkebine, ef she is fair to look upon;
and ef he murmurs, we'll bust his head.
His daughters shel our sons possess; and their inkrease will
we sell, and live upon the price they bring.
In our fields they shel labor; but the price uv their toil shel
make us fat.
Sing, O my soul!
The nigger hed become sassy and impudent, and denied that
he wuz a servant unto his brethren.
He sheltered hisself behind the Freedman's Burow, and the
Civil Rights Bill, and the soldiery, and he wagged his lip at us,
and made mouths at us.
And we longed to git at him, but because of these we durst
not.
But now who shel succor him?
We will smite him hip and thigh, onless he consents to be
normal.
Our time uv rejoicin is come.
In Kentucky, the soldiers voted, — them ez wuz clothed in
gray, — and we routed the Abolishnists.
Three great capchers hev we made: New Orleens we
capcherd, Kentucky we capcherd, and the President — him
who aforetime strayed from us — we capcherd.
Rejoice, O my soul! for yoor good time, wich wuz so long a
comin, is come.
We shel hev Post Offisis, and Collectorships, and Assessorships,
and Furrin Mishns, and Route Agencies, and sich; and
on the proceeds thereof will we eat, drink, and be merry.
The great rivers shel be whisky, the islands therein sugar,
the streams tributary lemon joose and bitters, and the faithful
shel drink.
Whisky shel be cheap; for we shel hold the offises, and kin
pay; and the heart uv the barkeeper shel be glad.
The Ablishnist shel hang his hed; and we will jeer him, and
flout him, and say unto him, “Go up, bald head!” and no bears
shel bite us; for, lo! the President is our rock, and in him
we abide.
Blessed be Booth, who give us Androo.
Blessed be the veto, wich makes the deed uv Booth uv sum
account to us.
Blessed be Moses, who is a leadin us out uv the wilderness,
into the Canaan flowin with milk and honey.
Petroleum V. Nasby,
Lait Paster uv the Church uv the Noo Dispensashun.
