What do you say? Am I a tyrant then?
Second Phantom
Already have you thought of arming men
Without the sovereign sanction of the law.
First Phantom
But if I don’t mad Treason will have gained
Such progress that it will have quite attained
Its purpose to bind down and overawe
Conciliation or resistance even.
Second Phantom
You arrogate the very will of heaven,
As tyrants do, and in your purpose find
A small reflection of the eternal mind.
What do you know of this? But if you rest
On human will and thought you must concede
A contradiction in your dream, who break
The law a rebel spirit to arrest.
This is a way of sowing nettle seed.
Once you were faithful to a better creed,
That men may found new nations when the old
No longer have the people’s fair consent.
Rights are not hostile. If this be a right
How may you overthrow it with your might?
First Phantom
Have you not heard this story of me told:
At New Orleans I saw the children cry
When from the auction block their sire was sold.
I then resolved to strike this curse a blow
If ever Heaven gave
My arm the strength. It is my deepest hate.
Second Phantom