Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-01-15
The Present CRISIS.
By CLARENCE BUTLER.

When deed is done for Freedom, thro the broad
earths aching breast
Runs thrill of joy prophetic trembling on from
And the slave wherein he covers. feels the soul
within him climb
To the awful verge Of manhood, as the energy sub
lime
OF century bursts. full-blossomed, on the thorny
stem of time.
For mankind are ono in Spirit and an instinct bears
along
Round the Earths electric circle the swift flash of
Whether conscious or unconscious, yet Humanity's
vast frame
Through its ocean sundered bres feels the gush of
And in the Gain or loss of one race all the rest have
equal claim!
Once to every man and nation comes the moment
to decide
In the strife of Truth with falsehood for the good
evil side
Some great cause Gods new Messiah, Offering each
the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand, and the sheep
upon the right.
And the choice goes by forever twixt that darkness
and that light.
Hast THOU chosen, my people, on whose party
THOU shalt stand
Ere the doom from its sandals shake the dust
against our land:
Thro the cause of Evil prosper yet It's Truth alone
is strong.
And, although she wander outcast now, see around
Troops ofbeautful tall angels enshield her from
all wrong.
Careless seems the great avenger, History's pages
but record
One death-grapple in the darkness twiXt old sys-
tens and the word.
Truth forever on the scafold wrong forever on the
throne:
Yet that scaford sways the future, and behind the
dim unknown
standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch
above his own.
Slavery, the Earhbon CyclOps fellest of the giant
brood,
Sons of british force and darkness who have rench
ed the Earth with blood;
Famished in his sef-made desert, blinded by our
purer day
Gropes in yet nnblasted regions for his miserable
Shall We guide his CORY fingers where our helpless
children playE
Then to rise with Truth is noble, when we share
her wretched crust
Ere her cause brings fame and profit, and tits pros
Then it is the brave man chooses. while the coward
stands aside.
Doubling in his abject Spirit till his Lord be cruel
fed.
And the multitude make virtue of the faith they
had denied.
But Humanity sweeps onward-where. to-day. the
Martyr stands
On the morrow crouches Judas, with the silver in
his hands;
Far in front the Cross stands ready and the crack
While the ho0tine mob of yesterday in sieut awe
return
To CLEAN up the scattered ashes into IIistory's gold
nurn.
lis as easy to be heroes a. To sit the idle slaves
of a legendary virtue carved upon our Fathers
graves.
WOrshippers of light ancestral make the present
light a crime:
Was the May Flower launched by towards: steered
by men behind their time!
Turn those tracks toward PAST or FUTURE, that
make Plymouth Rock subime.
They have rights who dare maintain them: we are
traitors to our SireS,
SmOthering in their holy ashes Freedoms neW-lit
ate" fires.
New occasions teach new duties: Time makes an
Cient good uncouth
They must upward still, and onward, who would
keep abreast of Truth
10. before US CLEAN her camp-fres we ourselves
must pilgrims be.
Launch OUR May Flower, and steer boldly thro' the
desperate winter sea!