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imprisonment of Hanway and others for treason. While they were in Moyamensing, John G. Whittier wrote and published his "Lines" to them. Horace E. Scudder, in his excellent and complete "Cambridge edition" of Whittier, classes the following with three other poems, "called out by the popular movement of Free State men to occupy the territory of Kansas." In this he is mistaken. This poem, now entitled "For Righteousness' Sake," was originally "inscribed to Friends under arrest for treason against the slave power," and was directed especially to Hanway, Lewis and Scarlet. The concluding stanza is deeply imbedded in popular appreciation of the best in our national literature.] Not walk; with blood too pale and tame To pay the debt they owe to shame; Buy cheap, sell dear; eat, drink, and sleep Down-pillowed, deaf to moaning want; Pay tithes for soul-insurance; keep Six days to Mammon, one to Cant. In such a time, give thanks to God, That somewhat of the holy rage With which the prophets in their age On all its decent seemings trod, Has set your feet upon the lie, That man and ox and soul and clod Are market stock to sell and buy ! The hot words from your lips, my own, To caution trained, might not repeat; But if some tares among the wheat Of generous thought and deed were sown, No common wrong provoked your zeal; The silken gauntlet that is thrown In such a quarrel rings like steel. The brave old strife the fathers saw For Freedom calls for men again Like those who battled not in vain For England's Charter, Alfred's law; [133] Wage in your name their ancient war With venal courts and perjured trust. They touch the shining hills of day; The evil cannot brook delay, The good can well afford to wait. Give ermined knaves their hour of crime. Ye have the future grand and great, The safe appeal of Truth to Time! [The End] |
