 | Democracy unveiled, or, tyranny stripped of the garb of patriotism |  |
CANTO I.
The Tocsin.
ARGUMENT.
The wight, who led the Royal CollegeTo furious fight, which all acknowledge
Exceeded, nineteen times to one,
All battles else beneath the sun,
Commences war with certain brats,
Who style themselves good Democrats,
Although in ten there's more than nine,
Just nine times worse than Cataline!
And first begins, sans any coaxing,
To sound his ruin-boding tocsin;
An awful prelude to the battle,
He means to wage with such vile cattle.
I trace Democracy's career,
And paint the vices of the times,
While bad men tremble at my rhymes;
Elicit truth from dirty channels,
Describe low knaves in high condition,
Though speaking truth is deem'd sedition.
One scoundrel, high enough to hit,
But should I chance to make omission,
I'll put him in my next edition.
From giving honest people pain;
And only private vice unmask,
Where public good requires the task.
No good man's happiness destroy;
None lives, I say, with honest pride, who
Despises slander more than I do.
To power and public confidence,
The indignant Muse of satire urges
The honest bard to ply her scourges.
That though the risk I run's not small,
I'll lash each knave that's now in vogue,
Merely because he is a rogue;
Of those, who our best men have lied down,
By arts, which honest men despise.
With those who have, or have not .... ears. ...
The Ægis-man, and both the Tonies,
May join with half a dozen Honees.
In presidential favour basking;
With all your scoundrel gang affords,
Who straddle poles, or wear wood swords;
Should be that kind of elevation,
Which happens oft to rogues, less callous,
When they're exalted on the gallows;
To honor me with your abuse;
But let not these, my modest lays,
Be blasted by a scoundrel's praise; ....
This piece of justice from my hands,
I'll string you up, sans ceremonie,
From Duane down to dirty Tony.
My hanging you on satire's gibbet;
Expos'd in dolorous condition,
Like flies impall'd by old Domitian.
As honest Jack Ketch ever knew;
Have chang'd your names, as well as courses,
Like folks who trade .... in stealing horses;
Form in his each metempsychosis,
Though he assumes as many shapes
As Jove for managing his rapes.
As Antifederals then perplex'd us;
Oppos'd the Federal Constitution;
You call'd yourselves good Democrats;
And next to drive deception's game,
Self-styl'd Republicans. ... For shame!
You crowd into your betters' places:
Republicans, by process curious,
Are split to “genuine” and “spurious.”
You're nothing more than demagogues,
And bawl for freedom, in your high rant,
The better to conceal the tyrant!
To bring your leading knaves to justice;
Expos'd on satire's gibbet high,
To frighten others of the fry.
Your Democrats of feather'd kind,
Crows, blackbirds, and rapacious jays,
Dispos'd to plunder fields of maize;
Of such a lawless, plundering crew,
They hang them in conspicuous place,
To terrify the pilfering race.
It is indeed wonderful, (if any thing in the annals of Democracy can be so) that Democrats should, without a blush, affirm that the Sedition Law was “Law against Constitution.” Yet they have not only frequently asserted this among other LIES, but have represented it as a most horrible engine of tyranny, fabricated by the Federalists, for no other purpose but to oppress the people! And this was one, among many other still more atrocious falsehoods, which has formed the basis of their political consequence. The fact is, that this law not only mitigated the rigour of Common Law on that subject, but guarantied to the American Citizen an important right, which, under the domination of the now ruling party, he is not permitted to exercise. A prosecution has been instituted against Harry Croswell for a libel, but our Democratic liberty and equality gentlemen in office, would not permit the defendant to prove the truth of the matter alledged to be libellous!!
The attempting to hew blocks with razors, is a very foolish affair. The more knowing Democrats, who lead by the nose the simpletons of the party, are sensible of it. They therefore work upon their thick-headed supporters, with such sorry tools as the pair of Tonies aforesaid, parson Griswold, &c.
The person who in these times dares to rend the veil of Democracy, and disclose the demon in his naked deformity, must expect that the worshippers of that infernal idol, will vow vengeance on his devoted head. The sword of the duellist, it is to be feared, may merely precede the dagger of the assassin. But it is the duty of every real Republican, to be ready, like the Roman Curtius, to plunge into the gulf, and sacrifice himself to save his country.
I am no farther a foe to any of the characters who are the subjects of the following Satirical Strictures than as they are foes to good order, morality, and to my native country. Personal animosity is not among the motives which produced this Poem.
Reader, I will here present thee with one among many specimens, of the adroitness of our self-styled friends to the people, in the art and mystery of political lying.
At the time that our Envoys to France, Messrs. Marshall, Pinckney and Gerry, were insulted by those infamous propositions, from the French Directory, made through the medium of X. Y. and Z. which justly excited the indignation, not only of America, but of all Europe, it was promulgated by good Democrats among their ignorant supporters, that the dispatches from our Plenipotentiaries, were forged by Federalists at Philadelphia, for the purpose of throwing an odium on our great and magnanimous sister republic!! This impudent falsehood answered good democratic purposes. A full blooded Jacobin was sent to Congress, in retaliation of the aforesaid Federal forgery!!
This however is only one in a million. A long life devoted to the express purpose of detecting the falsehoods of the deceitful demagogues, who have crowded themselves into consequence, would be too short a period for that purpose; but
“Half the tale must be untold.”These pure patriots shall receive, with those mentioned in the preceding lines, the homage of our attention in the 5th Canto of this our Poem!
We are informed by historians, that this Emperor amused his leisure hours, by impaling flies on the point of a needle.
Nothing can exceed in impudence the Democratic false hood, sooften repeated, that the Federalists were Tories under British influence &c.; when the truth is, that the Federalists were, most generally, active supporters of American Independence, while Jefferson was hiding himself in the cave of the mountain, and Tench Coxe was piloting the British army into Philadelphia.
| Democracy unveiled, or, tyranny stripped of the garb of patriotism | |