The Anarchiad A New England Poem |
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| 3. | AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.—No. III.
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 | The Anarchiad |  |
AMERICAN ANTIQUITIES.—No. III.
EXTRACTS FROM THE ANARCHIAD, ON PAPER MONEY.
Messrs. Meigs and Dana:—The readers of newspapers through the several States in which the two first numbers of American Antiquities have been published, will doubtless remember that the subject of Paper Money was more than once mentioned. That subject forms so beautiful an episode in The Anarchiad, that it would be unpardonable not to make extracts from it. All the episodes ought to have some reference to the promotion of the principal action, as the underplots in a regular drama should conspire to the development of the main plot. Such is the superlative advantages of this very poetical digression. For it will scarcely be denied, in any part of the United States, that paper money, in an unfunded and depreciating condition, is happily calculated to introduce the long expected scenes of misrule, dishonesty, and perdition. On this point the citizens of the Union must be considered as competent judges, because they are inhabitants of the only country under heaven, where paper (of that predicament) is, by compulsory laws, made of equal value with gold and silver.
The society of critics and antiquarians, who have spared neither expense nor trouble, in recovering those valuable remains of antiquity from oblivion, cannot help flattering themselves that their disinterested labors will continue to be rewarded with the plaudits of a grateful public. They are conscious that the manuscripts from which they have already given specimens, as well as many others in their possession, contain performances in poetry and prose of a very different complexion from those which commonly appear in American newspapers. While they publicly disclaim all title to any merit in these productions, except that of assiduity in deciphering and preparing them for publication, they would advise the several printers on the continent to peruse them attentively, and to publish at least such pieces as may be applicable to their particular States. The society who are, will henceforward prosecute their research with redoubled diligence, only thinking it necessary to engage, on their part, that nothing shall appear sanctioned by them, unfavorable to freedom, literature, or morality.
It is to be remarked that the following speech is addressed, by the old Anarch, to a council of war, consisting of his compeers, his general officers, and counselors of state:
Their fairest claim to my paternal love!
Call'd from the deck with pop'lar votes elate,
The mighty Jacktar guides the helm of state;
Nurs'd on the waves, in blust'ring tempests bred,
His heart of marble, and his brain of lead,
My foes subdued while knavery wins the day,
He rules the senate with inglorious sway;
Sails in the whirlwind, and enjoys the storm.
His mate, great O---n, bustles while he sleeps;
There G---n stands, his head with quibbles fill'd;
His tongue in lies, his hand in forg'ry skill'd;
To him, my darling knave, my lore I teach,
Which he to C---s lends in many a pompous speech.
Fraud, tendry, paper bills, whate'er thy name;
That medium still, which prompts th'eternal sigh,
By which great villains flourish, small ones die.
Plant of infernal seed, without hell's heat,
Say in what mortal soil thou deign'st to cheat?
Fair from the Gen'ral Court's unpardon'd sin,
Ap'st thou the gold Peruvian mines within?
Wak'd to new life, by my creative power,
The press thy mint, and dunghill rags thy ore.
Where grow'st thou not? If vain the villain's toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil;
Fix'd to that isle, it nowhere passes free,
But fled from Congress, C---s dwells with thee.
All hail! ye knav'ries of yon little isle.
There prowls the rascal, cloth'd with legal pow'r,
To snare the orphan, and the poor devour;
The crafty knave his creditor besets,
And advertising paper pays his debts;
Bankrupts their creditors with rage pursue,
No stop, no mercy from the debtor crew.
Arm'd with new tests, the licens'd villain bold,
Presents his bills, and robs them of their gold;
Their ears, though rogues and counterfeiters lose,
No legal robber fears the gallows noose.
A pen of dragons, and a cave for bears;
A nest of vipers, mix'd with adders foul;
The screeching night-bird, and the greater owl:
For now, unrighteousness, a deluge wide,
Pours round the land an overwhelming tide;
And dark injustice, wrapp'd in paper sheets,
Rolls a dread torrent through the wasted streets;
While net of law th'unwary fry draw in
To damning deeds, and scarce they know they sin.
New paper struck, new tests, new tenders made,
Insult mankind, and help the thriving trade.
Each weekly print new lists of cheats proclaims,
Proud to enroll their knav'ries and their names;
Like lot from Sodom, from Rhode Island run.
As it is vain to expect that a whole epic poem, containing twenty-four books, should be republished in a newspaper: as it is equally impracticable to insert all the names of the worthies who were principal actors in it: and as it is the wish of the society to avoid the imputation of partiality, they direct me, as far as it may be done, to eternize those subaltern heroes here on earth, by informing the public that honorable mention is made of Mr. G--- I---, as well as of most of the horse jockies and bankrupts in the State; and particularly, that not a single name is omitted of all those persons who have given due notice in the public gazettes, of their having lodged, agreeably to law, with some justice of the peace, paper bills, for the payment of certain honest debts. These good people are specified individually, in proportion to the sums deposited, as proper to be captains over tens, over fifties, over hundreds, and over thousands, whenever the army shall be raised for the support of anarchy, or whenever that new state, (whereof the rumor runs so rise on earth,) the State of Confusion, shall be properly organized, and admitted into the confederacy. The characters of the Judges of the Supreme Court, of the Governors, Green and Bowen, the Generals, Varnum and Miller, President Manning, Dr. Hitchcock, the Colonels Sherburne and Olney, the officers of the late army, with a long catalogue of names, (comprising all the honest men in the State,) are represented as the antipodes of the preceding. These are the thousands who have never bowed the knee to Baal, and who have never sacrificed their honor or their honesty at the shrine of Paper Money.
| The Anarchiad | |