In those days a Stump-Orator had reason to take care,
How he denounced, derided, and defied the Powers that were.
And if he talked High Treason—Imagine this, my dears!
They put him in the pillory, and sometimes clipped his ears.
A People's Friend, unless he took good heed to what he said,
Was liable to answer for his language with his head.
How venerable soever, a too talkative old Cock,
His eloquence might bring him, though a Statesman, to the block.
But happily we, Brethren, now are men of milder mood,
And not, as were our ancestors, vindictive, stern, and rude.