What do you see in your visions at night,
Jefferson D., Jefferson D.?
Does the spectacle furnish you any delight,
Jefferson D.?
Do you feel in disgrace
The black cap o'er your face,
While the tremor creeps down from your heart to your knee,
And freedom, insulted, approves the decree,
Jefferson D.?
Oh! long have we pleaded, till pleading is vain,
Jefferson D., Jefferson D.!
Your hands are imbrued with the blood of the slain,
Jefferson D.!
And at last, for the right,
We arise in our might,
A people united, resistless, and free,
And declare that rebellion no longer shall be!
Jefferson D.!
H. S. Cornwell.
Davis was inaugurated on February 18, 1861, and declared in his inaugural that the attitude of the Southern States was purely one of self-defence. "All we want," he said, "is to be let alone."
THE OLD COVE
"All we ask is to be let alone."
[February 18, 1861]
As vonce I valked by a dismal svamp,
There sot an Old Cove in the dark and damp,
And at everybody as passed that road
A stick or a stone this Old Cove throwed.
And venever he flung his stick or his stone,
He'd set up a song of "Let me alone."
"Let me alone, for I loves to shy
These bits of things at the passers-by—
Let me alone, for I've got your tin
And lots of other traps snugly in;—
Let me alone, I'm riggin' a boat
To grab votever you've got afloat;—
In a veek or so I expects to come
And turn you out of your 'ouse and 'ome;—
I'm a quiet Old Cove," says he, with a groan:
"All I axes is—Let me alone."
Just then came along on the self-same vay,
Another Old Cove, and began for to say—
"Let you alone! That's comin' it strong!—
You've ben let alone a darned sight too long;—
Of all the sarce that ever I heerd!
Put down that stick! (You may well look skeered.)
Let go that stone! If you once show fight,
I'll knock you higher than ary kite.
You must hev a lesson to stop your tricks,
And cure you of shying them stones and sticks,—
And I'll hev my hardware back and my cash,
And knock your scow into tarnal smash,
And if ever I catches you round my ranch,
I'll string you up to the nearest branch.