“Might patriots rule her, and could reasoners guide;
When all to vote, to speak, to teach, are free,
Whate’er their creeds or their opinions be;
When books of statutes are consumed in flames,
And courts and copyholds are empty names:
Then will be times of joy - but ere they come,
Havock, and war, and blood must be our doom.”
The man here paused - then loudly for Reform
He call’d, and hail’d the prospect of the storm:
The wholesome blast, the fertilizing flood -