Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1837-09-15
A Word from Petitioner, to Congress.



Ay J. PIERPoNT.
What our petitions spurned the prayer
OF thousands--tens of thousands-cast
Unhcard beneath your Speakers chair
But We ,cM hear us, first or last.
The thousands that, last year, We scorned,
Are millions now. Be warnedl Be warned !
Turn not, contemptuous, on your heel:
Ii is not for an act Of grace
That, suppiaDts, at your feet we kneel;
We stand:--we look you in the face,
And say-and we have weighed the word
That our petitions SHALL be heard.
There are two powers, above the laws
Ye make or mar;-They're our allies.
Beneath their shield we'll urge our cause,
Though all your hands against US rise.
We've proved them, and we know their might
The CoEsrITUTIoE and the RIGHT.
We say not, We shall snap the links
That bind you TO your dreadful slaves:
Hug, If we will, corpse that stinks,
And toll on with il 10 your graves!
But that We may go, coupled thus,
We never shall make slaves of us.
And what, but more than slaves, are they
Who're told they ne'er shall be denied
The right of prayer; yet, when they pray,
Their PRAYERS, trnheard, are thrown aside!
Such mockery they will tamely bear
Who're fit an iron chain to wear.
The OK, that treadeth out the corn,
! Thou shalt not muzzle.' Thus saith God.
And will We muzzle the free-born-
| The man--the owner of the sod
| Who gives the grazing OK his meat
And you-his servants here--your seat'
There's a cloud, blackening up the sky!
| East, West, and North, its curtain spreads.
Lift TO its muitering folds your eye
! Beware! for, bursting on your heads,
| IL hath force TO bear you DOWN.
Ills an INsuLTED PEOPLES frown.
Ye may have heard of the Soutan,
And how his Jannissaries fell!
| Their barracks, near the Atmeidan,
| He barred, and fred land their death-ycll
Went 10 the stars,-and their blood ran
In brooks across the Atmeidan.
The dcspot spake: and, in one night,
| The deed was done. He wieds, alone,
The sceptrc of the Ottomite,
| And brooks no brother near his throne.
Even now, the bow-string, at his beck,
Springs round his mightest subjects neck.
Yet will He, in his saddle, stoop-
I've seen him, in his palace-yard-
To take petitions from troop
| Ofoomen, who, behind his guard,
Game up, their several suits to press,
To state their wrongs, and ask redress.
And these, into his house of prayer,
| I've seen him take; and, as he spreads
| His own before his Maker there,
These women's prayers he hears or reads =
For while he wears the diadem,
He is instead Of God to them.
And this he must do. He may grant,
| Or may deny; but hear he must,
| Ware his Sevan Tnmarc IF adamanf
| They'd soon be level'd with the dust,
And public feeling make short work
Should he not hear them-with the Turk.
Nay, start not from your chairs, in dread
Ofcannon shot, OF bursting she'll
These shall not fall upon your head,
As once upon your house they fell.
| We have a weapon, firmer set
And better than the bayonet:
A weapon that comes down as still
As snow-hakes fall upon the sod:
But executes ffeeman's will,
As lightning does the will of God;
And from its force, nor doors nor locks
Can shield you:--'iis the BALLoT-Box.
Black as your deed shall be the balls
That, from that box shall pour like hail!
And, when the storm upon you falls,
How will your craven cheeks turn pale!
For, at its coming though we laugh,
IT will sweep you from your hall like chaii.
Not women, now--the people pray,
Il Hear us--or from us We will hearl
Beware La desperate game We play!
The men, that thicken in your rear
Kings though We be-may not be scorped.
nok IN unur NOVA uour 81 aka 4 Y.sra a.nr,,a,