Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1866-08-10
From the Atlantic Monthly for july
rRE DEATH or SLAYERK.


3 WILL An CULLEN BRYANT.
o. thou great Wrong, that through Ghs slOw-pao,
years,
Didst hold Thy millions fsttered and didat wielI
/ Tne seourge that drove the Izborer to she held,
Aud turned stony gaze On human tears,
Thy cruel reign is o'sri
Thy bondmen crouch no more
In terror at the menace Of thJn5 eye;
For he who marks the bounds or guilty power
Long suffering hath heard the eapyives cry,
And touched his shaekies a. the appointed hour,
And loi they fall and he whose limbs they CALLED
stands in hIs native manhood disenthralled.
shout or JOY from the redeemed is sent;
Ten thousand hamets swell the hymn OF thanks;
Our rivers roll exultIng, and their banks
Send up hosanRas 90 the armament.
Fields, where the bondsmen toll
No more shall trench the soil
Seem now to bask in a serener day;
The meadow birds sing sweeter, aud the airs
OF heaven with more caressiag s0rtness play
Welcoming man 10 liberties like theirsy
A glory clothes ths Iaud from sea 80 sea,
For the great land and ali its coasts are free.
Within that iand vert thCu enthroued Of late,
And they b. whom the nations laws were made,
And they who flied its judgment seat obeyed
Thy mandate, rigid the vii OF fate.
Fierce men AT thy right hand,
With gesture or command,
Gave forth the word tnat none might dare gainsay;
And grave and reverend ones who loved thee not.
shrank from Thy presence, and in blank dismay,
Choked down, unuttered the rebslIious thought;
While meauer towards, mingIing with thy train,
Proved from the book Of God, thy right to reign
Great as thou ert, and feared from shore to shore
The wrath OF heaven o'ertooE thee in thy pride;
Thou sittest CHASTITY shadow BY thy side
Thy once strong arms hang nerveless eveemore,
And they who quailed but now
Before thy lowering brow
Devote thy memory to seorn and shame,
And scoff' at the pale, powerless thing thou art;
And they who ruled in thine imperial name,
subdued and standing sulenly apart,
soowlat the hands that overthTew thy reign,
And shat Uttered at a blow the prisoners chain.
Well was thy doom deserved; thou dust not spare
Lies tenderes: ties, but cruelty dIdst part
Husband and wife, and from the mother's heart
Didst wrest her children deaf 70 shrek and prayer;
Tie inner lair became
The haunt of guilty shame;
The lash dropped blood, the murderer, at thy side
Showed his red hands nor feared the vengeance due
Thou didst SOW earth with crime; and far and wide
harvest OF uncounted miseries grew,
Until the measure Of Thy sins at last
was full, and then the avengiDg bolt was. cast.
Go now, accurst Of God, and take thy place
With hateful memories Of the elder tim,
With many wasting pest, aud nameless crime,
And bloody that thinned the human race;
WITH the Black Death, whose way
Through waiting cities lay,
Worship Of Moloeb tyrannies that built
The Pyramids, and cruel deeds that taught
To avenge a fancied guilt by deeper guilt
at ha IA ha haf hon
10, the foul phantOms silent il the gloom
OF the flown ages part to yield thee room.
Isee the better years that hasten by
Carry thee backinto that shadowy past;
Where, in tia dusty spaces void and vast
The graves Of those whom thou hast murdered lie.
Toe slave pen, through whose door
Thy victims pass more,
Is there, and there shall the grim block remain
At which the slave sold; while at thy feet
Scourges and engines OF restraint ami pain
Mouder and rust by thine eternal seat
There, mid the symbols that proclaim thy crimes,
Dwell thou, warning to the coming times.