AMERICAN CARAVAN

Caravels bobbing in a storm-swept sea,
De Soto on the tramp by the River Grande;
John Smith in Virginia, an, Pocahontas,
The Puritans at Plymouth planting the lans.

Charters and quarrels and fights with the Indians,
Hunger and disease and religious strife;
Anios in New England, and the Stuart tyranny,
Battles in the forests with rifle and knife.

Taxes, stamp-acts, writs of assistance,
Massacre at Boston and at Bunker Hill;
Jefferson writing the Great Declaration,
Life forever climbing up the hill.

The Revolution's end under iron Washington,
The Constitution framed, then Jefferson;
Strict construction and loose construction,
Liberty endangered and Liberty won.

The banks again, crawling from the jungles,
Negro slavery and Chapultepec;
Texas and gold mines, steamboats on the rivers,
Railroads then with the iron track.

Uselss nagging of the mettlesome Southland,
War for supremacy to rule and tax;
Shiloh, Gettysburg, an, death for thousands,
The Constitution changed for the sake of the blacks.

Sly-fox Seward, sophistical Webster,
Chase and Sumner with the false Appeal
To strike down Douglas, the brave, true-hearted
Whose soul to the country's faith was less.

Stumbling on with the people dreaming
That the way was forward to better days;
Corrupt elections, the tariff and monopoly,
Lincoln and Johnson and mediocre Hayes.

Japan humbled at Nagasaki;
Hawaii siezed as a stepping stone
To reach the Orient, after the Philippines,
Then imitation of sceptre and throne.

World war at last and mixing in Europe's
Never ending quarrels, with hosts in arms;
World war II with millions of soldiers
Feeding on labor and the burdened farms.

Lies all the time like the mouth of Satan
Spitting out toads; we couldn't obey
The word of Washington and keep the republic
True to the good American way.