Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1877-06-29
The Westburg Poet Again.
WEsTBURG JUNE 90 1877.

ESIBURG, y UNE ~, 1911.
EDITOR BULLETIN:-I am an unas-
Stunning man, and so much fettered with
modesty and bashfulness that | am at
times, in cases of emergency, prevented
from disclosing my ideas with due pro-
priety. Yet, if | get some opinion we'll
established in my head, there is no way
that opinion can be got out unless the
head be cut off, and this stubborn ten
acity of purpose [ inherit, no doubt,
from some of my Scotch ancestors.
These few words of introduction,
think, will sufficiently explain with what
ditfidence and reluctance [ enter into
this discussion with Brother Barnhart
on our conflicting views. But [ must
now, to use pugilistic" phrase, Ell
ther come to time or give up the belt. "
This | will not do, but, like the noble
though defunct Confederacy, die IN the
last ditch. | have been lying for few
days past with shut matches, expecting
broadside from the Conservative. IT'S
true, he has given me volley of blank
cartridges, more to scare, no doubt, than
hart me. But, in his hurry and confu-
sion, he neglected to close his port
holes, neglect which gives me an OPP
portunlty to use my wee bit 1oop-gun to
good effect. So now to my subject.
lis well known fact that no member
OF the Iowa press can stand more per-
sonal vituperation with the same stole
Indifference as Bro B. Nature has con-
stituted him with the right thickness Of
shell to make good editor Yet l find
IVY
able spot in his armor. Touch that lit
tie jet from whence his springs of sym
pathy flow towards his friends, and you
touch a very tender spot. Just hear
how this pugnaciOus editor lectures the
Westburg Poet for giving expression to
his honest convictions, and how he crit
cises the only four lines of fair poetry
the Poet has ever written. Yet we own
in all justice the Poet needs criticising,
catechising, and above all, Chrtstianiz-
ing. The editor says the Poet is bitter
and unforgiving; so was Moses of old
when the Israelites aroused his right.
eous Indignation to such a pitch that he
broke the whole ten commandments
His wrath got the supremacy of his
meekness to see the chosen people
kneeling like abject slaves before Aar
on $ secession calf, just as some of oul
weak minded Americans at the present
day are prostrating themselve before the
secession calves Of the Southern Con
federacy. Yet no editor of that
time put Moses through a course OF
castigation. According to Sacred Writ
the Devil and his angels were the first
sccessionists, and like the Southern reb
els, were conquered in the field, but We
have no account that they have either
been forgiven or elevated to power The
Devil, actuated by pride, ambition and ;
deadly hate, went to war and was con
quered. The Southern rebels were ac
tuated by the same motives, but by /;
happy turn of circumstances are now
the virtual rulers of the nation. Oul
loyal members should feel themselves
very much humbled to sit in council
with a company Of unrcpentant, unpor
doned criminals. What woeful exam
pie to future ages 1t is patent fo
crime and premium for treason! Bro
b. seems ready to explode with thu
pressure of his ecstacy at the reception
his noble friend received from the loya
citizens of Brookly Ign. He says, How
would it sound to apply the line, Sc,
our heroes laid low while the miscreant:
live, to Mr.. Pryor the orator of thu
day, or to the dispenser Of bread anC
butter to the BULLETIN. We will en-
deavor to accommodate the editor b,
applying the line to his friend, the no
BILE Roger 4. Pryor, for it seems quit
natural that that old breechless gun o
the Confederacy, that personifcation o
iniquity and ghost of secession, should
like the spectre of Brutus, appear be
fore his Brooklyn admirers. But woul'
it not have been more beftting plac
to have met those admirers on the hal
lowed ground of Andersonville, or tn
Libby? There the noble orator nigh
have entertained his heroes with tn
dramatic performance of hugging tn.
Union to the music of the Dead March
and the ill-starred lines would fit NIGEL.
as prologue or dismission hymn
And now a word for the dispenser o
bread and butter, who owes his eleva
ton to the linsey- woolsey -milk-and
water policy of Hayes. Some of thes,
days, when he gets firmly seated in hi
saddle, and finds time to make up hi
jewels, Brother B. will most likely b
found among the number. And Broth
B. concludes his arguments with wha
he considers a knock down argument
which is that we would not even for
give the three millions of people who
century ago rebelled against their gov
ernment, among whom We're Georg
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, an
other worthless, who every mothers so
of them were rebels. o! land of libel
ty to hear your glorious old tyrant ia
mer, with his well earned laurels, com
pared with the Confederate chief 4
petticoats! We find many cases on rec
ord where rebellion was justifable. Th
rebels of the Revolution rebelled agains
taxation without representation, agalns
a foreign power, and against laws the
never helped to make. They did no
stake their lives, their fortunes an
their sacred honor to perpctuate the dl
vine institution of slavery. They rebel
led that they might establish a mode
government, resting on the firm basis o
liberty and liberation, where the emf
grant from every cline might find a
asylum, and the child of every cree
might roam free as the winds fror
heaven. Thomas Jefferson regards
slavery as a calamity, an entail left o
the fair escutcheon of the infant Re
public by the British government, IL
says, | tremble for my country when
remember that God Is just" The inau
gurators of the slave holders rebellio
wanted to cut loose from the greasy me
chanics and laborers of the North, 70
the purpose of establishing a gram
Southern Aristocracy, whose basis wa
human bondage, and where the fe,
would rule the many. They envied tn
prosperity of the hated Yankee and hi
free institutions that had wrunc out