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 PS 1542 
 D35 F3 
 Copy 1 
 
 
 
 
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 mi. 6oi«jn# ^0- 
 
 Shelf -i-H-^-^ ■ • 
 
 UNITED STATES OP AMERICA. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS 
 
 RHYME AND PROSE 
 
 By JOHN JACOB DICKSON. 
 
 v^S 
 
 We should observe in reading books 
 The stand from which the author looks, 
 And if he has a moral view, 
 Applause in spite of faults is due. 
 
 Until the sects His wisdom seek, 
 And, of His life partake, 
 The independent mind' will speak 
 Or rocks their silence break. 
 
 1896 
 
 \'\X»\(\ 
 
 4* 
 
COPYRIGHTED 1896. 
 
 
^J^fui^ J<A.coi'' ^ceA^^^ 
 
PREFACE 
 
 f^UTHORSHIP is professional. But in these days of printing 
 Ij presses the most obscure may record their thoughts, not for 
 ■q )^ the general public, but for the few. What a pleasure it would 
 «5 " be if we could read the opinions of our ancestors ! That my 
 posterity may have this pleasure is one object in publishing this col- 
 lection, nearly all of which have been published in the newspapers. 
 My first appearance in print was a letter to the Burlington Hawkeye, 
 written in 1868, in which I nominated William Lloyd Garrison for 
 President. My first rhyme, dated May 14, ISVl, and published in the 
 Davis County Republican, was on "The Two Great Commandments." Twenty- 
 one of the rhymes were published in The Chicago Tribune, and most of 
 the others in the Davis County Republican. I am not a poet. 
 
d^^ 
 e^^ 
 
 INTRODUCTORY 
 
 ^^y^ 
 ^-^ 
 
 No measured feet are in my Hues ; 
 I know no rules' for making rhymes, 
 Nor can I, like the poets, see 
 The angel fish that swim the sea 
 Down where the under current laves 
 The mermaid's curls beneath the waves. 
 Nor yet on Fancy's wings to soar 
 Up where the dweller sins no more, ■ 
 And from that star a message bring 
 To Earth from " Heaven's eternal King. 
 The Muse that sings a holy strain, 
 However poor, sings not in vain. 
 For when the mind is serving God 
 The soul will find a new abode 
 Above the world, in God's pure air, 
 Where there is peace beyond compare. 
 
 Near by the river Ohio, 
 
 In South Hanover, long ago, 
 
 There in a cooper shop I learned 
 
 How hoops and staves to barrels turned ; 
 
 I bought land warrants by my trade. 
 
 Five years my adze and driver played 
 
 Around and 'round a tierce or tub 
 
 The cooper's tune of rub-a-dub. 
 
 From Uncle Sam, in Iowa, 
 
 A farm I bought, and own to-day. 
 
 In Hanover there is a school 
 
 That turns out dunces by a rule 
 
 (The more they learn the less they know). 
 
 On public days I used to go — 
 
 "A graduate?" Not I, O! no. 
 
 For books that college men had wrote 
 
 Of unlearned men of mark, I note. 
 
 And so it is, in ev'rN- thing 
 
 The law of life has freedom's ring. 
 
 The text books have no creed, 'tis true, 
 
 But routine rules obstruct the view 
 
 And dwarf the mind, held in their groove. 
 
 Which should by its selection move. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 I was a traveler seeking truth, 
 When war and slav'rj', in my youth, 
 Destroyed my rev'rence for the creeds 
 That justified these wicked deeds. 
 And many years I wandered in 
 The search of truth, to save from sin. 
 Upou the love of God at last 
 My mind and heart are anchored fast. 
 Christ's spirit in the heart alone 
 Is that which does for us atone. 
 Love takes away the stubborn will 
 And gives the power to fulfill 
 The law of God within the heart 
 From which the life should not depart. 
 
 And now I see one little flock 
 
 Whose character stands like a rock. 
 
 Macaulay don't record a deed 
 
 Of their' s against the Savior's creed. 
 
 O! living Friends, do you not know 
 
 Your fathers' record is like snow ? 
 
 No stain of blood, no shameless crime, 
 
 So like the Master, so divine. 
 
 If I should meet with Friends around 
 
 My soul would say, " 'Tis holy ground. 
 
 The carnal mind can never know 
 
 The heights to which the soul can go 
 
 That yields itself to things above 
 
 The world, and lives by faith and love. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 RHYM 
 
 PAGE 
 
 A Dream, ........ 42 
 
 Advice to My Boy, 30 
 
 A Living Faith, ....... 38 
 
 A Parody, 35 
 
 A Prayer, . . . . . . -Si 
 
 Art and Nature, 15 
 
 A Vain Desire, ....... 20 
 
 Christian Love, ....... 44 
 
 Christian Manhood, 40 
 
 Conscience, ....... 52 
 
 " Down with the Fences," . . . . .41 
 
 Faith and Love, ....... 50 
 
 " Flag the Tra.in," ....... 55 
 
 God Alone is Great, . . . . . . 37 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher, . ..... 56 
 
 How to Succeed, ...... 28 
 
 " I Know Not Where They've Laid Him," . . 46 
 
 " In Remembrance of Me," .... 39 
 
 Introductory, 7 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Iowa, . . . . . ■ 13 
 
 John Calvin, ....... 29 
 
 Liberty and Union, ...... 35 
 
 Love, 43 
 
 Manifest Destiny, ....... 20 
 
 Man's Imperfection, ...... 40 
 
 Mary, . . . . . . . . -31 
 
 Mary Magdalene, ...... 36 
 
 My Hero, . . . . . -17 
 
 Nature and Art, ....... 15 
 
 Nettie, 26 
 
 Old John Brown, ...... 32 
 
 Public Worship 38 
 
 "Put Up Thy Sword," . . . . . 48 
 
 " Remember Now Thy Creator m the Days of Thy 
 Youth," ........ 54 
 
 Saving Faith, ....... 49 
 
 Scene in the Temple, ...... 25 
 
 Secret Prayer, . . . . . . . 55 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 RHVMEIS •• 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Seed Time and Harvest, . . . . . • 17 
 
 Set Free, 53 
 
 Slavery, 47 
 
 Some Thoughts, . . . . . . . 32 
 
 Song of the British Soldier, 31 
 
 Tempted, ........ 24 
 
 The Bank Gambler's Game, .... .26 
 
 The Christian's Prayer, ..... 54 
 
 The Cross, ........ 42 
 
 The Cultivation of the Spirit, .... 45 
 
 The Curse of War, . . . . . -56 
 
 The Drunkard's Wife, ...... 23 
 
 The Dying Soldier Boy of Plevna, . . . .21 
 
 The Emancipator, . . . . . . 18 
 
 The Inward Light, . . . . . . 51 
 
 The Lust of Empire, . . . . . . 19 
 
 The Old Conflict, 34 
 
 The "Orthodox" Clergy on Beecher, . . . 27 
 
 The Patriot Soldier's Solilofjuy, . . . -35 
 
 ■ PAGE 
 
 The Quakers, ....... 49 
 
 The Saving Power of Love, ..... 36 
 
 The Savior's Love, ...... 50 
 
 The School of Christ, ...... 54 
 
 The Sermon on the Mount, .... 43 
 
 The Slave's Dream, ...... 22 
 
 The Spirit of God, ...... 46 
 
 The Union Soldier, ....... 34 
 
 The Voice of Jesus, ...... 55 
 
 Three Hundred Heroes, ...... 33 
 
 To a Budding Poetical Genius, .... 14 
 
 To My Mother, . . . . . . .18 
 
 Two Standpoints, . . . . . . 41 
 
 When Jesus Comes, ...... 53 
 
 Who Is My Neighbor? 39 
 
 William Lloyd Garrison, ...... 16 
 
 "Ye Must be Born Again," ..... 37 
 
 Youth and Age, 13 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 PROSE ••• 
 
 PAGE 
 
 An Oriental Opinion of Us, . . . . -75 
 
 Antiquated Theological Schools, .... 74 
 
 Anti-Slavery Martyrs, . . . . . .71 
 
 Anti-War Societies, ...... 68 
 
 Causes of Republican Defeat, . .... 59 
 
 Civil Service Reform, ...... 60 
 
 Evidence of Progress, . . . . . -72 
 
 Family History, . . . . . . . 81 
 
 Franklin and Washington, . . . . .61 
 
 Freedom of Opinion the Basis of Christian Union, 70 
 
 Future Probation, . . . . . . -71 
 
 " Hail Columbia, Happy Land," .... 63 
 
 Intellectual and Accidental Fame, . . . .60 
 
 "Judge Not, That Ye Be Not Judged," . . 72 
 
 Macaulay's and Carlyle's Opinions of George Fox, . 65 
 
 Not " More Money," but Fewer Rascals, . . 65 
 
 Oliver Johnson's Letter, . . . . -77 
 
 Public Sentiment on Slavery, .... 64 
 
 " Put Up Thy Sword," . . .... 74 
 
 Race Prejudice, ....... 63 
 
 Religious Liberty, 
 
 Salvation by Christ, 
 
 The Abolition Movement, . 
 
 The Baptism of Christ, . 
 
 The Baptism of the Spirit, . 
 
 The Ethics of Christ, 
 
 The " Good Roads " Movement, 
 
 The Immutability of Law, 
 
 The Ingratitude of Republics, 
 
 The Kingdom of Heaven, 
 
 The Progress of Truth, 
 
 The Spirit of Christ, 
 
 The Spiritual Life, 
 
 The Spirit and the Symbol, 
 
 The Survival of the Fittest, . 
 
 The Temperance Question, 
 
 Thoughts on Religion, 
 
 Turning the Tables, 
 
 Wanted, .... 
 
 PAGE 
 64 
 
 . 69 
 69 
 
 • 73 
 72 
 
 • 76 
 58 
 
 • 76 
 62 
 
 • 76 
 71 
 
 • 75 
 73 
 
 • 73 
 57 
 
 • 58 
 66 
 
 • 59 
 65 
 
A FARMER'S THOL'GHTS IX RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 Miscellaneous. 
 
 IOWA. 
 
 If I were a poet, I'd write 
 
 A song for the singers to sing, 
 
 Of a land that is blooming and bright 
 In Autumn, in Summer, and Spring 
 
 If I were a singer, I 'd sing 
 
 The song that the poet would write, 
 Far up in the air my voice would ring 
 
 And my heart be joyous and light. 
 
 I 'd sing of its woodlands and flowers, 
 I 'd make every other line rhyme 
 
 To the music of zephyrs and showers 
 That favor that beautiful clime. 
 
 I 'd sing of the blue grass so tall, 
 Of crops never failing to yield. 
 
 Of barns full of grain in the Fall, 
 Of cattle in many a field. 
 
 This garden is fenced on two sides 
 With two of the largest of rivers. 
 
 Encircling the homes where resides 
 
 Two millions of happy good livers. 
 
 YOUTH AND AGE. 
 
 In mem'ry I recall my hopeful days — 
 
 (There was a buoyant spirit once within ) — 
 And brood o'er j'outh's contented, cheerful ways, 
 
 So full of joy and innocent of sin ; 
 For then the world, with its eternal din 
 
 Of creeds, oppression, strife for pelf and war. 
 Had not made me lose faith in all but Him — 
 
 Had not impelled a course my peace to mar; 
 And now I sigh for days in memory afar. 
 
 And yet there is a recompense for Age. 
 
 The purpose of a wise Creator's plan 
 Is found recorded in the sacred page, 
 
 And happiness is for the aged man 
 Who yields a willing soul, whose mind can scan 
 
 Where Freedom feels no license or restraint. 
 Who fears a wrong more than the public ban, 
 
 Yet feels unworthy to be called a saint. 
 Though on the highest mount, serene, above complaint. 
 
 But I am under law e'er since my birth. 
 
 So that I can not soar on angel wings 
 From care and the discordant sounds of earth, 
 
 Far up away from these to fairer things 
 That Faith has pictured, where the dweller sings; 
 
 For love has no opposing foe above 
 To mar its Eden joy, from which there springs 
 
 A peace that earth's contending sects approve, 
 Then take the sword and disobey the Lord of love. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 TO A BUDDING POETICAL GENIUS. 
 
 The flower that crowns a rosary 
 
 Was once a bud unseen ; 
 Your genius may, developed, be 
 
 The world's admiring theme. 
 
 In prosy lines devoid of art 
 
 (If you will read my story), 
 
 I '11 try to act the critic's part, 
 And help you on to glory. 
 
 If you have genius, rare and great. 
 
 No rule can be your bar; 
 Shakespeare made his own law of verse, 
 
 And Bonaparte of war. 
 
 None but the great dare step aside 
 
 From Custom's iron rule ; 
 The common mind must follow her, 
 
 Or be esteemed a fool. 
 
 No genius now upon the stage, 
 Whose great inventions show 
 
 To all the smallness of the age, 
 In things it does not know. 
 
 As Webster said, " there's room above, 
 Where lawyers great may go. 
 
 And so it is in ev'ry thing — 
 There is a crowd below. 
 
 It is our wish you may succeed, 
 
 And laurels crown your brow ; 
 
 And when you do, you will not need 
 The lines we send you now. 
 
 Your ' ' feet " the " measure " fit exact. 
 
 According to the rules, 
 The poets of the past have made 
 
 The text book of the schools. 
 
 Then mount Pegasus' back and soar 
 
 On Fancy's wings away 
 To old Parnassus' mountain shore, 
 
 Where all the Muses play. 
 
 In language pure compose your verse. 
 
 Pathetic or sublime, 
 But at " a sinner" hurl no curse. 
 
 Nor wink at public crime. 
 
 Write from your heart — you'll not cater 
 To kings or reigning wrongs — 
 
 Like Milton, Burns or Whittier, 
 
 Breathe freedom in your songs. 
 
 The poet's sympathies are not 
 
 To party lines confined ; 
 Nature does not dispense the gift 
 
 Upon a narrow mind. 
 
 When wooing for the Muses' grace — 
 
 The favor of the nine — 
 Know this one line of sense is worth 
 
 A thousand of mere rhyme. 
 
A FAKMEA'S THOCGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 NATURE AND ART. 
 
 She hears the lark's sweet symphony 
 (A note of Nature's melody), 
 And sings, unconscious of her power, 
 Beneath the morning-glories' bower 
 Unseen of men. 
 
 The rosy hue upon her face 
 (The mark of honest Nature's grace) 
 She wears, unconscious of her health, 
 Thinks not of conquests, or of wealth, 
 She 's happy now. 
 
 Taught by the music teacher's art. 
 Upon the organ or the harp 
 She plays and sings while men admire; 
 No gentleman would ever tire 
 To hear her sing. 
 
 The rose upon her cheek is paint; 
 On some occasions she will faint 
 And fall into the arms of one 
 That she has fixed her eyes upon 
 So artfully. 
 
 Sweet Nature's artless, modest maid, 
 Down at your feet my heart is laid ; 
 Not all the skill of polished Art 
 Can shoot a dart straight through my heart 
 From Cupid's bow. 
 
 ART AND NATURE. 
 
 The Muse whose fame in Homer's gift would live, 
 Needs something more than polished Art can give; 
 Needs more than " feet " according to the rules 
 Formed by tradition, prescribed by the schools. 
 
 Are verses, like a perfect work of art, 
 Cut from cold marble, smooth in every part ? 
 No — Art alone cannot keep off the dust. 
 For leaves mechanical are sure to rust. 
 
 The poet who is read must be inspired. 
 
 And write because he must, is never hired; 
 
 Pursues his theme unbiased — free to soar, 
 
 In search of truth, where none have gone before. 
 
 What are the learned professions but a trade? 
 The poet true is born, but never made. 
 Art strives in vain — no genius e'er returns 
 From her fine schools, and Nature makes a Burns. 
 
 A scholar, smiling says, " No wit." I know it. 
 A rural rhymer may not be a poet; 
 But through the critic's eye in judgment dares to sit, 
 Return the smile and ask, "Ca// learniitii make a wit? ' 
 
A FA TIMER'S THOi'GHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON. 
 
 When Justice stood far off, alone, 
 
 And Truth had fallen in the street, 
 
 And Mercy 'd gone to parts unknown — 
 No man the cast-out poor to greet — 
 
 By unjust laws their rights were crushed, 
 And brave men feared the church's ban, 
 
 And ev'ry voice for freedom hushed — 
 Then Providence raised up this man. 
 
 Zealous for right, an unstained soul, 
 
 Not tempted by the rich man's purse, 
 
 The party men could not control, 
 Nor lust of office ever curse. 
 
 Thus free to act, he loved the least; 
 
 ' Twas hard, when they were sold for pelf, 
 And men were passing with the priest, 
 
 To ' 'Lm^e thy vciglibor as thyself. " 
 
 Because he would not compromise, 
 A price was set upon his head. 
 
 The devil knows where danger lies. 
 And moral courage is his dread. 
 
 " I'll not retreat," he said in youth, 
 
 And fought the wolves in pious guise ; 
 ^\ Then conned the page of sacred truth 
 To aid a crime sustained by lies. 
 
 He seized "the trumpet of reform " — 
 
 Proclaimed aloud, " i will be heard ! " 
 
 Then raged the passion's fiery storm — 
 The Nation trembled at his word. 
 
 Against the Church, against the State, 
 The leaven worked with steady gain ; 
 
 Oppression saw its coming fate, 
 
 And by the sword it drew was slain. 
 
 The crimson beast the churches nursed. 
 The friends of Mammon loved so well, 
 
 In treason's guilt, by Heaven cursed, 
 
 Went through the convict's grave to Hell. 
 
 Did e'er reformer try to lead 
 
 A forlorn hope of nobler aim ? 
 
 Did e'er success attend a deed 
 
 More worthy of immortal fame ? 
 
 I 
 
.-/ FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 MY HERO. 
 
 He's not the polished sample of a trade 
 That seminary schools and creeds have made 
 Without a heart, an automatic tool, 
 Repeating dogmas of a party school. 
 
 No statesman, scheming for the spoils of place 
 (E.xpectant lackeys waiting on his grace) ; 
 No general, whose glory is the shame 
 Of all who praise and wear the Christian name. 
 
 My hero with a moral purpose views, 
 Untrammeled, seeks the truth and that pursues; 
 With soul too large for human lips to guard 
 He stands for right and dies without reward. 
 
 For him the siren's song is sung in vain, 
 Unnoticed Ale.xander's pompous tram, 
 Alike by saint and sinner trampled down — 
 The lowest here, but there the martyr's crown. 
 
 And shall I name the hero in our day 
 Who died to make for Freedom's path a way ? 
 The bravest man "in all the tides of time," 
 John Brown would never compromise with crime. 
 
 The moral hero meets the world's rude shock, 
 And builds his house on the eternal rock ; 
 No monuments erected o'er his dust. 
 No "glory crowns" the mem'ry of the just. 
 
 SEED TIME AND HARVEST. 
 
 There is a time when wheat is sown, 
 A time to reap when it has grown. 
 The seed takes root and then it dies. 
 While other grain the bin supplies. 
 And so it is in human things; 
 Implanted truth no office brings 
 Unto the giver while he lives ; 
 Respect at last the future gives. 
 The moral hero always sows 
 The seed of truth, and when it grows 
 The politician takes the prize. 
 While 'neath the sod the sower lies. 
 
 Our modern prophets do not know 
 That truth must have a time to grow. 
 They organize and " split the board," 
 They grow and die like Jonah's gourd. 
 They want " reform " and office, too ; 
 The last is always kept in view, 
 .\nd just as party " spoils" come near 
 
 ' Reform " gets farther to the rear. 
 You say : "I read that long ago. 
 And you have told me what I know." 
 Of course I have, 'tis very true. 
 For 'neath the sun there's nothing new. 
 Why, just the other day I read 
 That Lowell, Holmes or Howells said 
 ( These names get mixed up in my head) 
 
 'The human mind repeats each thought 
 From age to age, ' tis inward wrought." 
 But these are not the words he said, 
 
 ' Tis but that thought now in my head. 
 
A FAh'MEK\S THOUGHTS !.V RHYME AiVD PKOSE. 
 
 THE EMANCIPATOR. 
 
 The seed of anti-slavery truth 
 Was sown by Garrison in youth. 
 It grew, and was the moving cause 
 Of equal rights and equal laws. 
 
 His trumpet call, " i will be heard! " 
 Came from a soul no fear deterred. 
 
 "■ Emaiuipaiion vojc<!" he cried. 
 The God of love was on his side. 
 The time had come and right the man ; 
 The slaves were freed upon his plan. 
 Though mobbed and jailed the truth was felt, 
 And icy hearts were made to melt. 
 With no Damascus blade of steel 
 But with the truth he made men feel. 
 Against the Church and State he threw 
 The Word of God, unerring, true. 
 Oppression saw its coming fate 
 And hurled its minions at the Slate. 
 At last the Union soldier broke 
 The fetters of Oppression's yoke. 
 On battlefields the blue and gray 
 Died for the slave in God's own way. 
 Our hearts were hard; like Pharaoh, 
 We would not let the people go 
 Until our sons were dead, or lying 
 In hospitals or.iti prisons dying. 
 We can not crusn another race 
 And have the Father's saving grace; 
 
 ' Our God is a consuming fire," 
 To cleanse from all unjust desire. 
 
 By pen and sword the work was done, 
 
 And Justice gave us Garrison, 
 
 The Nation's guest, at Lincoln's call 
 
 To raise the stars o'er Sumter's wall ; 
 
 The starry flag the breezes swell 
 
 Where laws no more "agree with Hell. 
 
 No office came to him on earth, 
 
 The people did not know his worth — 
 
 This always was the just man's fate 
 
 In years of old, or recent date. 
 
 O, who would give the prize above, 
 
 The jewel of the Father's love, 
 
 For. all the specie in the West, 
 
 Or all the stations men love best. 
 
 TO MY MOTHER. 
 
 Oh : mother dear, and can it be 
 
 That thou art dead ? I seem alone ; 
 
 Oh ! what is all this world to me 
 
 Since thou art gone, forever gone? 
 
 Oh 1 no, thy spirit has but left 
 Its weary tenement of clay, 
 
 (My journey here of the bereft) 
 
 We'll meet again some fairer day. 
 
 Thy constant care and love for me 
 Continued till thy latest breath, 
 
 Remembered now ; through tears I see 
 Thy love, unheeded till thy death. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME A.\D PROSE. 
 
 THE LUST OF EMPIRE. * 
 
 The lust of empire stains the years of time ; 
 On Naboth's vineyard is a scene of crime ; 
 And " Fame's eternal camping ground " is built 
 On violated law, a nation's guilt. 
 
 Not many cowards on the battlefields ; 
 The courage of the passions rarely yields ; 
 And thousands rush for " glory " to the fight, 
 With morals rusty and with tinsels bright. 
 
 The crimson pages of historians tell 
 How crime began with pride; how nations fell; 
 How compromise became the doctor's guide. 
 And shameless sins to virtues were allied. 
 
 Religion from morality released, 
 The non-resisting and the weak were fleeced ; 
 And 'neath a "glorious destiny" was found 
 A plea for stealing from the nations 'round. 
 
 A splendid harbor, or a mountain hold, 
 
 A fertile valley, or a mine of gold, 
 
 A cause for war (sought in some trivial grief) 
 
 And they indemnify the ruthless thief. 
 
 The moderns sing of " Freedom's happy home,'' 
 But in their acts resemble ancient Rome — 
 Her flag, the eagle, emblem of her wrath, 
 And desolation marked her soldier's path. 
 
 Those who escaped the sword that stained the soil 
 Were branded slave, and doomed to hopeless toil. 
 In Freedom's guise she did the work of Hell, 
 In "garments rolled in blood" the Empire fell. 
 
 Succeeding States learn nothing by the past; 
 They rise and fall precisely as the last. 
 Go trace the sequence of their crime and fall ! 
 The lust of empire was the cause of all. 
 
 See England's flag o'er India's millions wave — 
 The Heathen by the " Christian" made a slave. 
 Her surpliced chaplains pray with solemn face. 
 Her well-armed soldiers plunder by God's grace. 
 
 And now for "room;'' the Czar of all the North 
 His ever faithful peasant marches forth ; 
 And eyes in many cottage homes will weep 
 For loved ones on the battlefield asleep. 
 
 The winter's cold, the summer's torrid heat, 
 Revolve a year ; six thousand years repeat. 
 And wisdom sees no new thing 'neath the sun 
 In nature's law or man since time begun. 
 
 Written when the Rns 
 
 'the dark, rolling Danube 
 
 with Turkey. 
 
A FAKMER-S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 MANIFEST DESTINY. 
 
 O, tell me not of men who ravage 
 
 Far in Afric's torrid zone; 
 Nor of the raids of Indians savage 
 
 In the land we call our own. 
 
 For we the tramps of all creation — 
 Scrubs, without a pedigree — 
 
 Will raid and steal of ev'ry Nation 
 Like the pirates of the sea. 
 
 Our plea "the destiny of Saxons" 
 
 'Tis our license for the fray. 
 To foot the bill we lay a tax on 
 
 Ev'rybody that vvill pay. 
 
 For Naboth's vineyard we are lying, 
 And by force the red race yield. 
 
 The " Christian " and the " heathen " dying 
 On one common battlefield. 
 
 Behold the moral compass sighting. 
 
 See all races on a level ! 
 O, shame on us, instead of fighting 
 
 Pluck from our hearts the devil. 
 
 A VAIN DESIRE. 
 
 Oh, is there not a righteous world 
 In some unmeasured space, 
 
 Where no discordant words are hurled. 
 Where dwells a happy race ? 
 
 Where no conflicting creeds or wars 
 Disturb the dwellers' rest, 
 
 Where no unholy passion mars 
 
 The peace within each breast? 
 
 O 1 that I knew which is the star, 
 And had the wings to fly, 
 
 I'd leave this wicked world afar 
 And go to that on high. 
 
 O, vain desire, O, hopeless thought, 
 
 I am of earthly birth : 
 If I could reach the star I sought. 
 
 They'd send me back to earth. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE DYING SOLDIER BOY OF PLEVNA. 
 
 \^ 
 
 On far Plevna's field so red, 
 Wounded, left among the dead, 
 
 On the battlefield alone, 
 Where a correspondent found him. 
 His accoutrements around him, 
 
 Dying, there, without a groan. 
 
 O ! thou faithful soldier boy, 
 Were you once a mother's joy ? 
 
 Did you seek the battle fray 
 For a fancied field of glory ? 
 Will your mother hear the story 
 
 Of her boy iipon that day ? 
 
 Moslem mother, fate is stern ; 
 Let your faith in God be firm ; 
 
 Glory in His chastening rod; 
 Give your boy a sacrifice, 
 You will meet in Paradise, 
 
 Allah is a gracious God. 
 
 Unnamed hero of Plevna, 
 No historian will say 
 
 How your brave heart would not yield 
 When, with Osman at the head, 
 Met the Prussian's storm of lead, 
 
 Died on Plevna's gory field. 
 
 Day Millennial far away. 
 All the nations are astray. 
 
 Heathen, Moslem, Christian, too. 
 When hypocrisy shall cease. 
 Holiness will bring forth peace, 
 
 And the dove its song renew. 
 
 Christian, point no finger at 
 Ottoman or Autocrat, 
 
 For your path is red with crime. 
 Christian, O, thou hypocrite ! 
 In sackcloth and ashes sit. 
 
 Pray, you may repent in time. 
 
 Christian, did the Master go 
 With a sword to kill the foe ; 
 
 Like a Turk delight in gore? 
 No, your lusts have conquered you. 
 What would Jesus say to do ? 
 
 " Go, repent, and fight no more.' 
 
.■1 FAKMEK'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE SLAVE'S DREAM. 
 
 Unprotected by law, 
 
 On a pallet of straw, 
 Lay the slave of the Democrat sleeping ; 
 
 His wife had been sold 
 
 To a trader, for gold, 
 And in sorrow was bitterly weeping. 
 
 She, so grieved, wept aloud, 
 
 He, so wronged, was too proud 
 To shed tears, for the Democrat's scorning 
 
 All the world was his foe, 
 
 Children sold long ago. 
 And his wife was to leave in the morning. 
 
 Ah ! the sorrowing slave 
 
 Had no hope but the grave. 
 For the spirit of hell was around him : 
 
 In the Church and the State 
 
 Its malevolent hate, 
 With the criminal fetters had bound him. 
 
 A man jailed for a crime 
 
 Feels the guilt all the time 
 In his conscience, and justice is meted. 
 
 The slave's crime was his skin — 
 
 To be black was his sin. 
 And for that, like a brute he was treated. 
 
 The slave, mourning his lot. 
 
 Fell asleep on his cot, 
 And a glorious sight passed before him. 
 
 He had traveled away 
 
 From the Democrat's sway, 
 To a home with the Northern star o'er him. 
 
 There from slavery's chains freed, 
 There ungoaded by greed, 
 A right motive to labor was given ; 
 'Twas a new birth to him, 
 Like to freedom from sin. 
 When the purified soul enters heaven. 
 
 The slave waking that night, 
 
 By the God of the right, 
 With his wife sought the star in his vision 
 
 That sailors oft sight : 
 
 The slaves' guide in the night, 
 Trav'ling on to his hoped-for elysian. 
 
 To the lash of the whip, 
 And the proud, scornful lip. 
 
 And the Christian's " agreement with hell,' 
 And the auction block's shame — 
 To all these, in God's name. 
 
 They most joyfully bid a farewell. 
 
A FAKMEK'S THOUGHTS I.\' RHYME AND TROSE. 
 
 THE DRUNKARD'S WIFE. 
 
 She stood upon the front door sill, 
 Then at the front yard gate, 
 
 And looked for him who was her " Will,' 
 And mourned her hapless fate. 
 
 She looked in vain, for Will was in 
 The place that leads to crime, 
 
 Where debauchees laugh at their sin. 
 And waste their precious time. 
 
 She mused upon the time he sought 
 From her the marriage state; 
 
 When wooing for her love she thought 
 He never staid too late. 
 
 How well he promised her to be 
 The best of earthly friends, 
 
 Through life's uncertain stormy sea, 
 'Till death the voyage ends. 
 
 " But now," she said, " he loves me not; 
 
 In dens of angry strife 
 He drinks and brawls, a stupid sot. 
 
 And I, a drunkard's wife. 
 
 ' ' With children poorly clad and fed ; 
 
 Ah, what a wretched life ! 
 O, God ! 'twere better I were dead, 
 
 Than live a drunkard's wife. 
 
 " Has he not promised me, alas ! 
 That he would drink no more? 
 
 But well I know he cannot pass 
 The liquor vendor's door." 
 
 The birds flew happy to their rest, 
 
 Each singing to its mate, 
 The night wind blew chill on her breast 
 
 Before she left the gate. 
 
 Now, if a friend should take her part. 
 It rouses jealous blindness, 
 
 The green-eyed monster in his heart 
 Sees crime in human kindness. 
 
 A husband drunk is hell endured. 
 
 No greater down below. 
 Prohibit laws are not secured, 
 
 For morals are too low. 
 
 She got her wish ; for Will returned 
 With nasty, cursing breath — 
 
 (The fire into his brain had burned) — 
 And beat his wife to death. 
 
 O, why should man's angelic mate 
 Be pierced with sorrow through. 
 
 Then by a husband's frenzied hate 
 Be made a martyr, too ? 
 
 In heaven drunkards cannot dwell, 
 
 To hades they must go, 
 But is there not a hotter Hell, 
 
 Called Liquor Vendors'' Woei 
 
A FAKA/EA"S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 TEMPTED. 
 
 (on may day.) 
 
 She was the fairest May-Day Queen 
 That ever graced a sylvan scene, 
 Or broke the heart, or turned the brain 
 Of city swell or rural swain ; 
 And yet, more pure, divine, serene 
 Than Eve before the garden scene ; 
 And Satan knew he could not turn 
 From Duty's path a will so firm. 
 
 A line was formed upon the green, 
 To pass and bow before our Queen ; 
 Around her form so tall and fair 
 Were wreaths of flowers, rich and rare. 
 She bowed to those who gave tulips, 
 But gave no kiss niith her two lips. 
 I cannot tell the reason why. 
 But ev'ry time I passed her by 
 And threw a bouquet at her feet, 
 Somehow my heart did quicker beat. 
 
 Alas for me ! for on that day 
 Old Satan saw an easy prey, 
 And to my heart these words would say 
 ' If you would have on earth the bliss 
 They have in ev'ry world but this, 
 Then kiss the bloom upon her cheek — 
 Its sweetness tongue can never speak — 
 And you will see with open eyes. 
 Be like the Gods, so very wise ; 
 Go kiss the Queen and wish her well, 
 And never be afraid of Hell." 
 
 In Duty's path I try to go; 
 But was a man e'er tempted so? 
 Oh ! you that know Temptation's power 
 Can judge me in that trying hour. 
 The crisis came when through my heart 
 I felt a thrill — 'twas Cupid's dart : 
 He slew the giant Hercules,- 
 And why not conquer me with ease ? 
 'Twas not my will that saved me then, 
 For I'd resolved to kiss her, when 
 One look from her drove Nick away, 
 And in her eyes as plain as day 
 This truth was placed for men to see : 
 ■ These lips of mine are not for thee. 
 Their sweetness is for one alone. 
 And 7iot for him till he's my oivn." 
 
 O, Eve! had you possessed her will 
 This world had been an Eden still. 
 Old Satan back to Hell been driven, 
 And all the race have gone to Heaven. 
 
 From rivulets a stream begins; 
 And if we yield to little sins, 
 They're like the stream, a flood at last. 
 Too late we contemplate the past, 
 The flood sweeps on, beyond control. 
 The passions rage and damn the soul ; 
 Oh ! may we little sins resist. 
 And loi'e the girl that won't he kissed. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 SCENE 
 The Pharisees a woman led 
 Whose drooping eyes and downcast head 
 Proclaimed her shame, proclaimed her sin. 
 They led her weeping unto Him 
 Through the crowded multitude. 
 In the Temple where He stood, 
 Set her in the midst of men, 
 Called the Master unto them. 
 What cared they for woman's fears ? 
 What cared they for woman's tears ? 
 Told Him all the facts they saw — 
 Said 'twas death by Moses' law. 
 
 Why this prominent display 
 In the Temple on that day ? 
 The Temple was the place to pray. 
 His mercy doubtless they all saw, 
 And thought by it to pick a flaw, 
 And gain a victory by the law. 
 They did not know that high above 
 The majesty of law was Love, 
 And to inflict its penalty 
 Is not for human agency. 
 
 Before Him stood, and close allied, 
 The fallen one and righteous pride. 
 The woman felt the sting of sin — 
 They scarce concealed contempt for Him. 
 The woman's sin was known, exposed. 
 They sinned in secret chambers closed. 
 The woman wept in silence where 
 The Pharisee made boastful prayer. 
 He looked within their hearts of steel. 
 And saw these must be made to feel. 
 The law on which they most relied 
 Was now by him to them applied : 
 "Tis true the law says, stone: begin — 
 Let him throw first that's without sin." 
 
 IN THE TEMPLE. 
 
 His searching words went to each heart. 
 And one by one they did depart — 
 None good enough to throw a stone, 
 And she was left with him alone. 
 The witnesses for shame had fled 
 Away from Him with downcast head, 
 While Jesus wrote upon the ground — 
 O, that His words were written down ! 
 When Jesus from the ground arose 
 He asked the woman, " Where are those 
 Accusing thee ?" O, where were they ? 
 They, conscience-smitten, ran away. 
 " No man condemns," she said. Ah ! why ? 
 And Jesus said, " Neither do I. 
 Go on thy way and sin no more." 
 Love can a fallen one restore. 
 
 Long centuries have rolled away, 
 And man is just the same to-day. 
 Sinners abound by men seduced, 
 By men betrayed, by men traduced, 
 By men held up to public shame, 
 By men condemned in Jesus' name. 
 
 You who pass " a sinner" by 
 With affected scornful eye, 
 You, who claim His special aid, 
 See in this scene yourselves portrayed. 
 The Pharisees in silence heard. 
 And went away without a word. 
 
 They who profess to be the best. 
 The seeming good are crudest, 
 They seize " a sinner," loud proclaim 
 Their zeal for Him ; expose her shame. 
 No one can tell them of their sin — 
 No one can follow after Him. 
 The eagle's claws are on the dove. 
 And Hatred triumphs over Love. 
 
26 
 
 A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE BANK GAMBLERS' GAME.* 
 
 THEIR agent's soliloquy. 
 
 " Video meliora proboque, dtteriora seqiwr.^' 
 
 • I see my poor neighbor is deeply in debt ; 
 The shylocks are plotting his substance to get; 
 They will gobble his home. I pity his lot : 
 He will lose no more if I join in the plot." 
 
 • The plot is contraction — no money but gold : 
 Then close every mortgage or lien that they hold ; 
 Then rags for money — though the bears should be 
 
 gored, 
 The price of their ill-gotten land is restored." 
 
 ■ I pity the man, of course, to be sure ; 
 I'll loan him the money, and make it secure 
 By a ' first-mortgage deed.' O ! where is the harm, 
 Although in the end we should gobble his farm ? " 
 
 A pliable conscience is greedy of gain, 
 
 And yields to a wrong that the public sustain : 
 
 While current by law and society here, 
 
 Yet, how will the business appear "over there"? 
 
 Like the boy who was tempted an orchard to rob, 
 Or, the man who bartered the image of God, 
 
 • He blamed and protested, but joined in the plan; 
 He shared in the plunder, but pitied the man." 
 
 NETTIE. 
 
 The babe that was our hearts' delight 
 
 Is called away to God, 
 The face that was so fair and bright 
 
 Now lies beneath the sod. 
 
 The little cherub we called ours 
 (The fairest of all forms), 
 
 No more beguiles our weary hours 
 Infolded in our arms. 
 
 No more her little hands will cling 
 Unto her mother's breast. 
 
 No more her mother's voice will sing 
 Her angel babe to rest. 
 
 Fair as a rose, how sweet she smiled, 
 How innocent her love ; 
 
 The angels took our lovely child. 
 And now she blooms above. 
 
 Nettie, though hard to see thee go. 
 It is His sovereign will, 
 
 'Tis past, and we rejoice to know 
 That thou art happy still. 
 
A FAKMEA'-S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE "ORTHODOX" CLERGY ON BEECHER.* 
 
 The tongues that were tied will be loosened now, 
 And the priest who had silence stamped on his brow, 
 Will blow the loud trumpet, will sound the alarm, 
 That the creeds of the past be protected from harm. 
 
 A wolf in sheep's clothing has entered the fold. 
 Whose silvery tongue is more tempting than gold : 
 Then sound the loud trumpet, you time-serving priest, 
 Warn ! warn all the world 'gainst the cloven-foot beast. 
 
 The great preacher has fallen," it must be true, 
 Because in the faith he is not the true blue : 
 Give glory to God and exultingly tell, 
 That " Beecher's ' a sinner' and must go to hell." 
 
 Andoverf stands ready with stones to begin, 
 Unlike those of old she is pure, " without sin ;" 
 A new way of justice these prophets propose, 
 And that is a "Council" composed of one's foes. 
 
 That "facts" may be proven and Beecher be hurled, 
 Like Lucifer, down, the contempt of the world. 
 
 Ah ! little they reckon the man they assail, 
 
 For their schemes and their plans will never prevail. 
 
 When slavery invaded the land with its lust. 
 They bowed to the beast with their mouths in the dust; 
 Its transparent lewdness they sought to conceal, 
 And they railed at the just who dared to reveal. 
 
 The man they condemn fought the beast till it died. 
 And his speeches turned Albion round to our side, 
 For he stripped off the mask the Confederate wore, 
 And the roar of the lion was heard no more. 
 
 They affect to believe a fallen man's lies. 
 Their visions obscured by their "orthodox" eyes; 
 No witness they need, for he should be impure. 
 To grow in knowledge makes a " heretic " sure. 
 
 Reform is in order, but why don't they try 
 
 The thing on themselves — pluck the beam from their 
 
 eye — 
 Go down on their knees and repent of their sin? 
 Far better do this than to throw stones at him. 
 
 " Written dur 
 t Andover ha' 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 HOW TO SUCCEED. 
 
 The world is a goose : to succeed, you must pick 
 The feathers off nicely by buying on tick. 
 The vulgar pickpocket is sent off to jail : 
 Be polite ; give your note ; and gracefully fail. 
 
 A Satire. 
 
 If you want an office talk loudly of gore, 
 And swear by the God of the cannon's loud roar, 
 That over your boots in blood you will wade, 
 The foe will resign ere you start on your raid. 
 
 If you are a preacher and want to be paid. 
 Your sermons must suit the demands of the trade ; 
 Say never a word against popular sins, 
 The doctrines and rites are the gospel that wins. 
 
 Don't wait the slow process of counting the vote. 
 Just grab the incumbent thief by the throat; 
 Jerk him out, and teach him the jim-jam waltz, 
 Then scoop out the coin in the treasury vaults. 
 
 If you are a lawyer, 'tis proof that you need, 
 Have witnesses ready and you will succeed. 
 The Bible and Blackstone, by twisting them well. 
 Condemn a just man, clear a devil from hell. 
 
 Be gallant and brave when no foe is in sight, 
 A patriot sentinel, ready to fight. 
 A peace man in war, and a war man in peace," 
 The fame of your deeds will forever increase. 
 
 If you are a quack, to succeed you are sure; 
 Your pills are all right if you kill or you cure. 
 The pulse you are feeling is beating for you. 
 Then dose out your toddy, your catnip and rue. 
 
 This fact, I assert, has more truth than a creed : 
 The just and the humble can never succeed. 
 The key to success : Be defiant and bold. 
 And you will have honors, position and gold. 
 
.4 FAf!.\fEk'S THOIGHTS IX A'HYME AXD PROSE. 
 
 JOHN CALVIN. 
 A Satire. 
 
 " You can, and you can't; 
 
 • You will, and you won't; 
 You shall, and you shan't ; 
 You'll be damned if you do, 
 You'll be damned if you don't." 
 
 — Lorenzo Doiv. 
 
 " O, Thou wha in the Heavens dost dwell, 
 Wha, as it pleases best Thysel ; 
 Sends one to Heaven and ten to Hell, 
 
 A' for thy glory. 
 And no for onie guid or ill 
 
 They've done afore Thee!" 
 
 — Burns. 
 
 The ordained chief of God's elect, 
 To whom was sent from Heaven direct. 
 The book of Fate shut close and sealed, 
 In which God's purpose is revealed — 
 Chosen by Him the Book to read. 
 And tell mankind what is decreed, 
 The purpose of their destiny, 
 Ordained from all Eternity. 
 
 He breaks the seal, turns o'er and reads : 
 ' My will's the source from which proceeds 
 Whate'er exists or is to be ; 
 I made all things for my glory. 
 The laws of Time cannot affect 
 The future fate of the elect ; 
 The councils of Eternity 
 Decreed their future destiny; 
 Long ere Time's circling years began 
 It fixed the fate of ev'ry man. 
 
 ■ The burning of Servetus 
 
 A wicked life cannot effect 
 
 A change of fate for the elect ; 
 
 Nor can a holy life compel 
 
 A change for those ordained to Hell. 
 
 For be it known no works J' II men : 
 
 Siilvation IS by grace alone." 
 
 He lifts his eyes from off the book. 
 And speaks but with a haggard look ; 
 His grace is for a chosen few 
 His partial wisdom always knew, 
 And they alone are saved by Him ; 
 The rest are ' passed by for their sin.' 
 .\nd infants ' non-elect ' must dwell 
 Forever in the flames of Hell; 
 XnA, elect mothers, you must see 
 Your spanless infants yet to be 
 (Decreed to die ere they were born) 
 In Hell, the imps' contempt and scorn ; 
 Nay, more — desire, rejoice to see 
 The writhings of their agony. 
 
 His ' glory ' is sufiicient cause 
 For stamping out all moral laws. 
 How happy the elect will be 
 When they from Paradise can see 
 Their children in eternal fire 
 Stirred by devils who never tire, 
 Singing ribald songs, with jeers 
 Mocking at their infants' tears." 
 
 \\'ith gloomy eye and look of hate 
 He sealed again the Book of Fate. 
 No Nathan told him of his sin ; * 
 But Heaven's glories wait for him. 
 
3° 
 
 A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 ADVICE TO MY BOY. 
 
 A Satire. 
 
 Don't labor with your hands, my boy^ 
 
 No "gentleman" will do it; 
 Of plows, and planes, and spades be coy. 
 
 And you will never rue it. 
 
 No " lady " smiles upon a man 
 Whose hands are hard and dirty ; 
 
 With idle men she'll play and plan, 
 And be a little flirty. 
 
 So, if you find you are inclmed 
 
 To things in silks and satin. 
 Then in your books employ your mind. 
 
 And study Greek and Latin. 
 
 The working man can't make it pay, 
 Can't make the dollars jingle, 
 
 Like one whose name o'er the door-way 
 Is painted on a shingle. 
 
 From labor rested, you will feel 
 Your keeping, and be spunky ; 
 
 Have " cheek," play fast, and turn a reel 
 As graceful as a monkey. 
 
 One " case " a week, an hour or two. 
 
 Will pay all your expenses ; 
 While he who works the six days through 
 
 Has less, with worried senses. 
 
 Don't be a fool, and moralize 
 On things that can't be mended; 
 
 Be wise to-day, and seize the prize 
 While pride and grace are blended. 
 
 Take my advice, my boy, and turn 
 
 Away from manual labor, 
 And with your mind a living earn 
 
 From sweat-drops of your neighbor. 
 
./ FAA.VEA'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AXD PROSE. 
 
 SONG OF THE BRITISH SOLDIER. 
 
 With weapons bright and banners gay 
 
 (So hist'ry tells the story), 
 A thousand years we've marched away 
 
 And died for England's glory. 
 
 Our chaplains pray in surplice gowns, 
 
 We swear in language rare. 
 And march to find a place \o prey., 
 
 And take the lion's share. 
 
 We march beneath the lion's frown, 
 
 Our path is dark and gory ; 
 We go wherever plunder's found. 
 
 And fight for England's glory. 
 
 O'er Europe marched a soldier great — 
 All nations fell that fought him ; 
 
 When England's flag waved in the fight 
 The British soldiers caught him. 
 
 The Northern Bear went south for " rights ' 
 
 (He scented Turkey meat), 
 We interposed, and gobbled up 
 
 Old Cyprus Island neat. 
 
 Our feet on India's millions stand; 
 
 We made the Afghans squeal ; 
 In Zululand to-day we fight 
 
 Men worthy of our steel. 
 
 Our Catling guns' unceasing fire 
 The startled Zulus wonder; 
 
 We're shooting in their curly heads 
 Old England's right to plunder. 
 
 The fighting men of ev'ry land, 
 On seas or mountains high, 
 
 Who crossed our path, have always had 
 A splendid chance to die. 
 
 With weapons bright and banners gay 
 
 (So hist'ry tells the story), 
 A thousand years we've marched away 
 And died for England's glory. 
 
 MARY. 
 
 UNPL'BLISHEO. 
 
 Not knowing the causation, 
 
 I feel an inclination 
 
 To make this presentation 
 
 Of regard upon my part. 
 The cause, is it election? 
 Or has it the complexion 
 Of an inward affection 
 
 In the region of my heart? 
 
 -John. 
 
 Thealiovcjine 
 
FARMER'S THOVGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 "OLU^" JOHN BROWN. 
 
 He "remembered those in bonds" 
 (The Lord of love was guide:) 
 
 He stamped his foot on bogus law. 
 And for religion died. 
 
 He charged upon the front 
 
 Like Arnold Winklereid, 
 And compromise was ended 
 
 By one heroic deed. 
 
 The front was where the law 
 And religion had combined 
 
 To rivet fast the fetters 
 
 On a race of human kind. 
 
 No protection from the law, 
 
 No sacred marriage tie ; 
 The thieves had robbed the black man, 
 
 And priests were passing by. 
 
 How manly and unselfish was 
 
 The soul of Old John Brown, 
 
 To carry out a purpose 
 
 To strike oppression down. 
 
 The "chivalry" so boasting 
 Of the Old Dominion fled, 
 
 Before the moral power 
 
 The brave old hero led. 
 
 And soldiers of the Nation 
 
 To capture Brown were sent ; 
 
 The arsenal was battered, 
 
 And they entered at the rent. 
 
 And old John Brown, though wounded, 
 Was sabered on the head; 
 
 One son by him lay dying. 
 Another son was dead. 
 
 They put the gives upon his limbs, 
 And then (as runs the tale), 
 
 The State troops took the Fed'ral game 
 In safety off to jail. 
 
 And there he lay, the bravest man 
 That ever trod the ground, 
 
 And silently they gazed on him, 
 As on a lion bound." 
 
 In jail, to canting priests he said : 
 
 ' ' Pray for yourselves, not me ; 
 A settlement will surely come : 
 The negro will be free." 
 
 Before five years had rolled away 
 The martyr's words came true, 
 
 And many homes were mourning for 
 The dead in gray and blue. 
 
 And now Emancipation 
 
 Is sung by ev'ry tongue; 
 Now all approve the deed for which 
 
 The brave old man was hung. 
 
 SOME THOUGHTS. 
 The Partingtons with mop and broom may try 
 To wipe the waters of the ocean dry. 
 And saner be than they who think to bind 
 The birthright freedom of the human mind. 
 
 The man whose thoughts are confined to a creed 
 Is but the echo of another's deed ; 
 And in eternity will stand for naught 
 Save the appendage to another's thought. 
 
 The man whose reason and whose conscience turns 
 Away from theories, and duty learns 
 From Jesus' sayings (man's unerring guide), 
 Builds on the rock, and all is sand beside. 
 
 I 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AXD PROSE. 
 
 POLITICAL 
 
 THREE HUNDRED HEROES. =^ 
 
 The sunset's glow shines o'er the trees, 
 The pine leaves rustle to the breeze, 
 
 The feathered warblers prattle; 
 But man is vile, the evening star 
 Looks on a crimson scene of war — 
 
 The carnage of a battle. 
 
 On come the legions of the Gray — 
 (" The Union must be shot away") 
 
 All Howard's corps is broken. 
 The Babel noise proclaims the tale, 
 Which through the pines the evening gale 
 
 The fearful news has spoken. 
 
 O, for ten minutes more of time 
 To get the cannon into line, 
 
 And stop by rapid shelling 
 The onward charge of Jackson's corps, 
 Who, louder than the Babel roar 
 
 Of fugitives, are yelling. 
 
 The old Third corps 's a mile away, 
 Fast pushing forward to the fray, 
 
 But Stonewall's corps is nearing. 
 To live with Fame's heroic dead 
 A forlorn hope must now be led 
 
 To death the Union cheering. 
 
 Up rode Commander Pleasanton, 
 " Align those pieces, man each gun," 
 
 He said, "be quick and steady. 
 Charge, Keenan, charge upon the foe " 
 And hold them back until you know 
 
 Our batteries are ready." 
 
 " John Bright (England's Quaker Si 
 liberty and union was justifiable. ••Ihe I: 
 and prevent anarchy. The last part of thi; 
 
 ;signed his place 
 
 in Gladstone' 
 
 ror to evildoers," 
 
 and must hav 
 
 popular folly. 
 
 
 Brave Keenan, smiling, made reply. 
 You had as well said I must die, 
 
 For yon pine woods are gory. 
 But you command; I will obey." 
 They charged, they died, they saved the day, 
 
 They turned the tide of glory. 
 
 The charging legions of the Gray 
 Were by three hundred held at bay 
 
 Until the guns were sighted ; 
 Then on they came with louder yell, 
 But they were stopped by shot and shell, 
 
 And Jackson's charge was blighted. 
 
 This praying, fighting, brightest star 
 The rebels had in all the war 
 
 Was shot, the danger braving ; 
 But Treason's guilt his glory mars, 
 -And Fame above the fallen bars, 
 
 Halos the old flag waving. 
 
 Three hundred heroes rode away ; 
 Their bodies in the pine woods lay : 
 
 Their deed of martial glory. 
 Though unsurpassed on bloody plams. 
 Is yet unsung in measured strains. 
 
 Nor read in hist'ry's story. 
 
 An exit that all men admire. 
 An e,\it that the brave desire, 
 
 Is where the lead is flying. 
 It is the soldier's "hallowed ground" 
 To fight in battle and be found 
 
 Among the dead or dying. 
 
 islry because of his war in Africa, but held that our war for 
 'er to enforce it. Our war was a police force to enlorce the law 
 
34 
 
 ^ FARMER-S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE OLD CONFLICT. 
 
 How long and dreary is the night 
 
 Of cruelty and pain ! 
 O! when will dawn the morning light 
 
 And love begin to reign ? 
 
 We waved the flag of Freedom o'er 
 
 Our virgin Western soil ; 
 There, solemnly to God we swore 
 
 No slave should ever toil. 
 
 'Twas then the South, united, strong, 
 
 Resolved to have a fight, 
 For in Oppression's cruel wrong 
 
 They claimed a sacred right. 
 
 A fort in Charleston's harbor stormed 
 
 To fire the Southern heart, 
 A Rebel Government was formed — 
 
 Eleven States depart. 
 
 A Democratic President 
 
 Saw in secession charms, 
 And found no power to prevent ; 
 
 But Lincoln called " to arms.'' 
 
 Nine hundred thousand men called out 
 To make the traitors yield ; 
 
 And still was heard the Rebel shout 
 Upon the battlefield. 
 
 The Proclamation came at last. 
 With freedom for the slaves : 
 
 A dusky row of soldiers passed, 
 
 And we were saved from knaves. 
 
 ' Withdraw the troops;" 'tis done. To-day 
 A victory is claimed, 
 And unrepenting Rebels say, 
 
 " The cause we lost is gained." 
 
 And rifle clubs the lash restore — • 
 The Negro's blood is shed : 
 
 No troops are sent to stop the gore 
 For Liberty is dead. 
 
 And 'neath the States-right scheme we see 
 
 A purpose to despoil 
 The freedmen of their liberty, 
 
 And live upon their toil. 
 
 And freedmen from the polls ejected 
 And wronged without redress. 
 
 Come North where Labor is protected, 
 And ail their rights possess. 
 
 If we to foes our friends betray : 
 Our friends in time of need. 
 
 What attribute of God will stay 
 His vengeance for the deed ? 
 
 How long and dreary is the night 
 
 Of cruelty and pain 1 
 01 when will dawn the morning light 
 
 And love begin to reign ? 
 
 ten during Hayes" Administration. As we get farthc 
 
 nciled to Hayes' policy. 
 
 THE UNION SOLDIER. 
 
 The traitors that met thee with insolent pride 
 Fell back in disorder, surrendered or died : 
 The battles thou won broke the chain of the slave, 
 And Law, Peace and Union are over thy grave. 
 
 While Time's circling years to Eternity roll, 
 
 The fame of thy deeds will ennoble the soul. 
 
 And fair ones, with tokens from woodlands and bowers, 
 
 Will come to thy grave and drop tears with the flowers. 
 
M FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE PATRIOT SOLDIER'S SOLILOQUY. 
 
 'Tis over twenty years ago 
 
 We left our home to fight the foe 
 
 Upon the battlefield ; 
 With patriotic soldier's pride 
 We marched away; and brave men died 
 
 To make the traitors yield. 
 
 How sad the news of Sumter's fall, 
 How hope revived at Lincoln's call 
 
 (Our martyred president) ; 
 Ah ! those were grand, heroic days 
 (Unsung by bard in measured lays) 
 
 Contrasted with the present. 
 
 The camp, the march, the rattling roar 
 Of shot and shell; the crimson gore 
 
 Where the combatants fought, 
 Are all by folly misnamed "glory," 
 The widow's wail, the orphan's story 
 
 Is not in folly's thought. 
 
 We never thought of pensions then. 
 But of our character as men ; 
 
 Our country was assailed. 
 We fought for government and laws. 
 And for fair Freedom's glorious cause, 
 
 And law and right prevailed. 
 
 When we recall those scenes, somehow 
 The past seems sacred to us now. 
 
 For some who fought the gray. 
 Though having all that pelf can give 
 For comfort here, they seem to li\e 
 
 For self alone to-day. 
 
 A PARODY. 
 
 " To the victors belong the spoils." — Democratic Motto. 
 ' ' All they that take the sword shall perish with the 
 sword." — -Bible. 
 
 Spoilsmen, rest! thy work is o'er; 
 Better men thy places taking ; 
 Dream of public pap no more. 
 
 Days of hunger, nights of waking. 
 
 Does it hurt? Thy slogan shout 
 
 In the fight so loudly ringing 
 Was to "Turn the rascals out," 
 
 Now the sword in thee is stinging. 
 
 Spoilsmen, rest ! " Go, sin no more ;" 
 .\11 thy dreams of plums are o'er : 
 
 Every day thy boots are shaking, 
 Better men thy places taking. 
 
 LIBERTY AND UNION. 
 
 The Declaration was sublime ; 
 Emancipation stopped our crime, 
 
 And made us a free Nation. 
 Now Albion and Dixie see 
 'Tis best that all men should be free. 
 
 That Right has no probation. 
 
 The L'nion flag is waving o'er 
 
 The North and South, unstained by gore; 
 
 A happy consummation. 
 May the united Nation sing 
 The song of Miriam, and bring 
 
 To God no vain oblation ! 
 
36 
 
 A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 l^axi II. 
 
 RELIGIOUS. 
 
 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, 
 and take up his cross, and follow mt."^Jesus Christ. 
 
 For the grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation 
 to all men, instructing us, to the intent that, denying 
 ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly 
 and righteously and godly in this present world; 
 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the 
 glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ : who 
 gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from 
 all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people 
 for his own possession, zealous of good works." — Paul. 
 
 ' The humble, merciful, just and devout souls are every- 
 where of one religion, and when death has taken off 
 the mask they will know one another, though the 
 diverse liveries they wear here make them strangers." 
 — William Penn. 
 
 THE SAVING POWER OF LOVE. 
 
 His sweet forgiveness Mary saw. 
 
 With tears she washed the Savior's feet ; 
 
 (Men would have judged her by the law '.) 
 Saved by His mercy, it was meet. 
 
 From whence came these now serving God ? 
 
 From tribulation in their day ; 
 They washed their robes in Jesus' blood, 
 
 .\nd God shall wipe their tears away. 
 
 MARY MAGDALENE. 
 
 When death had closed the solemn scene, 
 And Jesus slept in Joseph's tomb; 
 
 The weeping Mary Magdalene 
 
 Came there in sorrow's deepest gloom. 
 
 Behold ! the stone was rolled away ; 
 
 An angel sat within who said. 
 Come! see the place where Jesus lay. 
 
 For He is risen from the dead.'" 
 
 Go tell them all He is not here ; " 
 Then she remembered Jesus' word, 
 
 .And Mary, for her love and care, 
 Was first to see her risen Lord. 
 
 His love had cast the devils out, 
 Then did her faith in Him appear; 
 
 All men had fled in fear and doubt. 
 But Mary's love had brought her near. 
 
 No one to love " a sinner " now ; 
 
 No one to follow after Him; 
 No voice of love, " Why weepest thou?" 
 
 No one forgives a woman's sin. 
 
A FAKMER'S THOUGHTS IX RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 GOD ALONE IS (iREAT. 
 
 How transient are all earthly things 
 
 The years of time relate: 
 The creeds of men like leaves lie dead, 
 
 And God alone is great. 
 
 The truth that lights the world to-day 
 
 >k) partisan will teach : 
 No large conception ever conies 
 
 When bounds are set to speech. 
 
 And, like the past, the truth to-day 
 Was brooded o'er in sorrow ; 
 
 No pangs await the birth of truth 
 That time will bring to-morrow. 
 
 How vain are they who think to bind 
 Men's thoughts within their groove ; 
 
 For like the world, the human mind 
 Is ever on the move. 
 
 The Present knows more than the Past: 
 There is more light to-day, 
 
 And future thought is sure to cast 
 Our views of truth away. 
 
 There are no written statements here 
 To-morrow will not spurn ; 
 
 And when we see the truth more clear 
 Should we refuse to learn ? 
 
 The Lord made Israel depart 
 
 From Pharaoh's tyranny : 
 From creeds as hard as Pharaoh's heart 
 
 Will He not set us free ? 
 
 Are we not trav'ling, too, though in 
 
 A wilderness of views. 
 To where opinion is no sin. 
 
 And all are free to choose ? 
 
 O, when we learn of Christ alone, 
 And heed His law within, 
 
 All needful things will be made known 
 With power to conquer sin. 
 
 How transient are all human things 
 The years of time relate ; 
 
 The creeds of men like leaves lie dead. 
 And God alone is great. 
 
 "YE MUST BE BORN AGAIN. 
 
 O you whose consciences are dead. 
 You fallen, shameless men ; 
 
 For you the words that Jesus said : 
 "Ye must be born again." 
 
 O you who ask, '' What lack 1 yet ? " 
 
 You law-abiding men, 
 A sacrificing spirit get, 
 
 " Ye must be born again." 
 
 Be lowest here if you would rise ; 
 
 Look on your Savior — then 
 See in the Cross the Christian's prize, 
 
 And thus " be born again." 
 
38 
 
 A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 A LIVING FAITH. 
 
 " Brother, I have need to be all on fire, for I have 
 mountains of ice about me to melt." — Garriscn. 
 
 My soul is on fire 
 
 With a holy desire 
 That the negro's distress may be felt ; 
 
 For the priest has passed by 
 
 Without heeding his cry : 
 There are mountains of ice I must melt. 
 
 See the frozen hard heart 
 
 That can make parents part, 
 Sell the child, leave the mother forlorn ; 
 
 While the heart-broken youth 
 
 Wails a sad bitter truth 
 On the ether to Heaven upborne. 
 
 I have need to be warm 
 
 To create a reform, 
 For the conscience in men is asleeping ; 
 
 They are tramping God's laws 
 
 In the dust without cause, 
 And the angels in Heaven are weeping. 
 
 I will take no word back ; 
 
 For the soul of the black 
 Is as dear to the Lord as the celt; 
 
 I will stand for the right 
 
 Though I fall in the fight ; 
 There are mountains of ice I must melt. 
 
 The good work he begun, 
 Made the Gospel to run, 
 Blest the land like the sunshine and rain, 
 
 And the guilt and the shame 
 On fair Liberty's name, 
 Passed away with the slave's broken chain. 
 
 Tell a world of its sin. 
 
 Once a God perished in, 
 When the darkness around could be felt. 
 
 Ah, the world yet has crime; 
 
 There is war all the time ; 
 But no one the ice mountains to melt. 
 
 PUBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 I love to hear the bells a-ringing, 
 Callmg to the house of prayer; 
 
 I love to hear the voices singing 
 Of the Savior's love and care. 
 
 I love to hear the preacher warning 
 Sinners from a wicked way, 
 
 And then proclaim a glorious morning 
 For the hearers who obey. 
 
 I fain would think there is no sorrow 
 While the saints in worship be; 
 
 But O, alas! upon to-morrow. 
 
 Comes the state of things we see. 
 
 The Christian now, O, sad condition. 
 Goes along the world's highway, 
 
 And uses men for his ambition 
 As the eagle does his prey. 
 
 To public worship is not given 
 Future happiness of mind, 
 
 O, friends, if we would go to Heaven, 
 Mammon must be left behind. 
 
y/ FAKMEH'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR? 
 
 Oh, tell me who my neighbor is; 
 
 Oh, where shall he be found ? 
 That I may love him as myself 
 
 Though all the world pass round. 
 
 Is he my neighbor whose good name 
 
 The lying tongues assail, 
 While prudent men are looking on 
 
 In silence as they rail? 
 
 Is he the one whose burning thirst 
 
 Is stronger than his will, 
 And drags him down to want and crime 
 
 Caused by the damning still 'I 
 
 Is he "a sinner" cast away, 
 Whose drooping eyes proclaim 
 
 I would return to virtue's path 
 But for your cold disdain ? 
 
 Is he my neighbor whom disease 
 Has stricken helpless down ? 
 
 Or, is he in the convict's cell 
 With iron fetters bound ? 
 
 Can I surmount^ the proud world's scorn 
 
 His odium partake, 
 And "Love my neighbor as myself" 
 
 And suffer for his sake ? 
 
 Am I a soldier? can I die 
 
 As Lovejoy died before, 
 And wear a martyr's glorious crown 
 
 Upon the other shore ? 
 
 Oh, tell me who my neighbor is 
 
 Ere I return to dust, 
 That I may love him as myself 
 
 For Jesus says I must. 
 
 And I will help him on the way 
 
 Whoever he may be 
 When time shall end, the Kmg will say, 
 
 ' ' Ye did it unto me." 
 
 "IN REMEMBRANCE OF ME." 
 
 Dear Lord, shall I remember Thee 
 With bread and wine on bended knee, 
 And think for this thou lovest me? 
 
 Or shall I look above the sign 
 Up to Thy Cross, Thy life Divine, 
 And strive to make my life like Thine ? 
 
 Dear Lord, I will remember Thee, 
 For Thou didst first remember me. 
 And by Thy Spirit I am free. 
 
 Dear Lord, Thy words are bread, indeed; 
 Thy Spirit is the wine I need, 
 On these my soul delights to feed. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 CHRISTIAN MANHOOD. 
 
 Tradiiion has no power to bind 
 
 The man whom truth has freed, 
 
 The Inward Light directs his mind 
 Untrammeled by a creed. 
 
 He does not worship through a rite 
 A human priest or king; 
 
 They are unholy in his sight 
 As any earthly thing. 
 
 His faith looks up to God alone 
 In humble, grateful prayer; 
 
 He pleads the merits of His son, 
 And trusts His guiding care. 
 
 A Son of God" is called to be 
 
 An independent saint, 
 A freedman of the Lord is free 
 
 From other men's restraint. 
 
 While holding fast his liberty 
 
 He grants the right he claims, 
 
 And uses no authority 
 
 To further on his aims. 
 
 But to the reason and the right 
 Alone he makes appeal, 
 
 Believing in their power to smite 
 The heart, and make it feel. 
 
 All creeds are his, in ev'ry sect 
 A germ of truth appears. 
 
 Though clouded by their dialect 
 Evolving through the years. 
 
 .\ superstitious mind believes 
 His dogma has a charm ; 
 
 An independent mind receives 
 The truth without the form. 
 
 Forms are for time, for children made 
 And all religious youth : 
 
 Advancing thought keeps up for aid 
 To God's eternal truth. 
 
 Until the sects His wisdom seek. 
 And of His life partake. 
 
 The independent mind will speak 
 Or rocks their silence break. 
 
 MAN'S IMPERFECTION. 
 The man who thinks God is too kind 
 
 To punish actions vile. 
 Is bad at heart, of unsound mind, 
 
 Or very juvenile. 
 
 The man who sees a Father kind 
 
 Who punishes for cause. 
 Will feel no license in his mind 
 
 To disobey His laws. 
 
 The highest state of mind or soul 
 Is joy without complaint; 
 
 No wayward passion to control, 
 No license or restraint. 
 
 Oh! who can live above complaint, 
 
 All calm serene within, 
 Have all the virtues of a saint 
 
 Without a thought of sin ? 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 'DOWN WITH THE FENCES." 
 
 Now the party priest who thinks 
 That his partial views are meet, 
 
 Will behold a smile in love, 
 For his creed is obsolete. 
 
 Now the Christian sees a friend 
 Where he once beheld a foe, 
 
 Christ is coming back to earth 
 And the fences downward go. 
 
 Long the sects have gone astray 
 In their zeal for creed and form. 
 
 Long they builded far away 
 From His sayings in the storm. 
 
 Long they built their fences high, 
 Partners in oppression's crime. 
 
 Crime and fence by Heaven's wrath 
 Perish in the march of Time. 
 
 Hail the day-spring from on high ! 
 
 May the Christian build anew 
 On the sayings of the Lord, 
 
 Evermore to Him be true. 
 
 No more schism in the Church, 
 All that love the Lord do find 
 
 In the liberty He gives 
 
 Sweet employment for the mind. 
 
 No more dogmas prominent. 
 Love to God and man the test, 
 
 And the teaching be of things 
 Jesus on the mountain blest. 
 
 t 
 
 TWO STANDPOINTS. 
 
 HOPE. 
 
 I see in the Present a welcoming sight — 
 
 A union of hearts all in search for the Right. 
 
 Blest union of hearts, 'twill bring peace to the world- 
 
 The war-flags of nations be lowered and furled. 
 
 No armies, no war-debt, no enemy neighbor. 
 No taxes consuming the products of labor ; 
 The signs of the times say these things yet shall be, 
 The world is in bondage and longs to be free. 
 
 See warring sects throwing their dogmas away. 
 Nevermore to appear in battle-array — 
 All striving to conquer the foe in each breast, 
 The sayings of Jesus the governing test. 
 
 DESPAIR. 
 
 I come from the Past, and I say to the world 
 The war-flags of nations will never be furled : 
 The war-debt of nations will never be paid — 
 Ere one is adjusted, another is made. 
 
 Tradition is holding the churches apart — 
 The head has more power in them than the heart; 
 A few are untrammeled, and work for things better- 
 The rest are in bonds to the past and the letter. 
 
 Each party is sure that its creed is the best, 
 And the sayings of Jesus will not be the test. 
 Ah! Hope in its youth thinks the future is fair — 
 Time always reveals that it died in despair. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 A DREAM. 
 
 I dreamed that I died and was wafted away, 
 
 Through time and through space to the last judgment day. 
 
 All Nations were gathered, His will now obeyed, - 
 
 The Son on His throne in glory arrayed; 
 
 Dividing mankind as he said that he would, 
 
 The sheep from the goats, the bad from the good. 
 
 The sheep were the righteous; they loved the distressed, 
 And the King said to them, '• Come, ye are the blessed." 
 The goats were the wicked ; they lived to secure 
 The best for themselves, and they passed by the poor. 
 The King said to them, " O, ye selfish in heart, 
 Ye lived for yourselves ; from my presence depart." 
 
 I gazed on the scene and shuddered aghast. 
 For the heart of each one was seen as they passed. 
 I looked at the King as He sat on His throne, 
 And saw that He hwked at the heart alone. 
 For there He beheld what they measured below, 
 And gave the same measure they used to bestow. 
 
 The goats told their story, were patiently heard ; 
 The King passed His sentence, none dared to disturb. 
 And many who passed on the earth for the first 
 Received the dread sentence, " Depart, ye accursed." 
 And sinners were saved that were scorned on the way 
 By Pharisee teachers of forms in their day. 
 
 Sublime was the scene that enraptured my sight, 
 And solemn the thought of the vision that night. 
 How happy the man from whose heart and whose mind 
 Come tokens of love for his sorrowing kind, 
 Or lacking the power his wants to supply. 
 Will speak a kind word ere he passes him by. 
 
 THE CROSS. 
 
 'Though lie slay me, yet will I trust in Him." 
 
 Around my bark the billows roll. 
 On thee, O God! my trust is staid ; 
 
 I hear Thy voice within my soul : 
 " Be not afraid." 
 
 Tossed by the storm nearer the shore. 
 Thy love is doing all things well ; 
 
 I cannot see what is before 
 The sparrow fell. 
 
 And cared for, too, and though I fall, 
 I know that Thou wilt care for me ; 
 
 Have I not promised to give all 
 And follow Thee? 
 
 How vain ! alas ! what have I got. 
 Save that which Thou hast given me ? 
 
 Know this, my soul, "That I have naught 
 To give for Thee ! " 
 
 I know Thou art the One that gives, 
 I know Thy love is in my breast, 
 
 I know that my Redeemer lives," 
 And I am blest. 
 
 Though every sorrow should be mine, 
 I will remember Thy dear Son, 
 
 The cross, it is a cup divine ; 
 " Thy will be done.''' 
 
 \ 
 
A FAA'.VEA"S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT. 
 
 When Martin Luther was a beardless youth, 
 His vision saw what seemed to him the truth, 
 When doing penance on his knees made known — 
 "Salvation is by faith in Christ alone." 
 Armed with these words against the Pope and hell, 
 This bold Reformer threw his inkstand well ; * 
 Protected by crowned heads he had fair play 
 (What some just men had not within our day). 
 But hark! when Luther searching Scripture read — 
 " But know, vain man, that faith alone is dead." 
 '"Tis spurious," he said with .^solemn look, 
 And cast St. James' letter from the Book. 
 And there the Reformation stands to-day, 
 The Sermon on the Mount is cast imuj)'. 
 
 Why wonder at the church's moral fall 
 
 When Jesus' sayings are not on her wall ? 
 
 What good can faith produce, though mountains move, 
 
 Without the fruit of holiness and love ? 
 
 Alas ! alas ! the doctors will not heed ; 
 
 Uncompromising truth cannot succeed. 
 
 A Gospel pure and holy is not good news 
 
 To modern Christians or to ancient Jews. 
 
 This is the feast, go out and call them in ; 
 
 The way to Heaven is the way from sin. 
 
 The call is vain, "with one consent" they say, 
 
 "Let me alone, I cannot come to-day; 
 
 I have a creed that says I need not go 
 
 'Jesus paid it all, all the debt I owe.'" 
 
 The flight of years through time this truth attest, 
 Mankind by moral means will not be blest. 
 How often Jesus looked on men and sought 
 To show a better way, but they " would not." 
 The rising sun no fairer day shall see, 
 And as it was, it is, and e'er will be. 
 Until He comes with power from above 
 To rule the world in holiness and love. 
 
 LOVE. 
 
 tudy, thought he saw 
 
 the Mount is the mosi 
 t has afforded of the 
 e to establish upon the 
 
 the devil, and threw liis 
 
 , complete and comprehei 
 principles of the Kingdo 
 earth."— i^»f«« Abbott. 
 
 Now rings the world with scheme and plan. 
 
 And fierce the party strife; 
 Then they that loved their fellow man 
 
 Will have eternal life. 
 
 How vain are all philosophies. 
 How worthless are our creeds ; 
 
 His ever present vision sees 
 And makes a note of deeds. 
 
 Not public acts with graceful art. 
 
 Nor washings of a priest; 
 But acts of kindness from the heart 
 
 In mercy to " the least." 
 
 A garden may be clean of weeds, 
 
 And have no blooming rose ; 
 A man may do no evil deeds 
 
 Whose heart no mercy shows. 
 
 A heart of love will be the test, 
 
 When time has passed away ; 
 For they that love will be the blest 
 
 Upon the judgment day. 
 
A FAKMEK-S THOUGHTS IN RHYME A AD PKOSE. 
 
 CHRISTIAN LOVE. 
 
 When knowledge o'er the darkness cast 
 
 Her light illuming rays, 
 Frail superstition stood aghast 
 
 At her denuding gaze. 
 
 Long centuries the priests had kept 
 The Book the people sought, 
 
 And many honest souls had wept 
 Because they had it not. 
 
 But Knowledge, with her torch of light, 
 Her partner Reason took ; 
 
 And Conscience said the deed was right. 
 And opened wide the Book. 
 
 Then for a while the years of Time 
 With Truth went marching on; 
 
 And many laws protecting Crime 
 She bade from earth begone. 
 
 The new-born faith would not dispel 
 The gloom that slavery cast; 
 
 But nursed the unclean beast from Hell 
 Lentil it breathed its last. 
 
 And now the church for worthless things 
 
 In many factions fight ; 
 And no great party's slogan rings 
 
 The triumph of the right. 
 
 One sect alone has made its stand 
 
 On God's eternal rock : 
 And all are sinking in the sand 
 
 Except one little flock.* 
 
 How strange it is, that having seen 
 
 The Idols of old Rome, 
 That each should have a thing unclean, 
 
 An Idol of its own. 
 
 Some build on fate; some on a rite, 
 And some on faiih alone; 
 
 All destitute of moral sight. 
 And lifeless as a stone. 
 
 The schoolmen's subtle skill has failed, 
 The world is full of fraud ; 
 
 Their theories have not availed 
 
 To go the way He trod. / 
 
 to 
 A dogma or a ri^t brings on /U ^^^ 
 
 Debate, division, strife ; 
 
 The emphasis should be upon 
 
 A holy Christian life. 
 
 Could all the warring seels unite 
 
 On Christian love alone. 
 How soon the triumph of the right, 
 
 The world the truth would own ! 
 
 Oppression, war and strife would cease. 
 The world with plenty blest, 
 
 The victory of the Prince of Peace 
 Would give the people rest. 
 
 It is the fool's wild dream of peace 
 The world and church will fight ; 
 
 The wise of each will never cease 
 With s7cords, and icvrds to smite. 
 
 The Book is opened wide to all, 
 There is the Master's way. 
 
 The " still small voice," a constant call : 
 But men will not obey. 
 
 Unholy things will be the test 
 Within the creeds of men. 
 
 Reform will be a standing jest 
 Until He comes again. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 45 
 
 THE CULTIVATION OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 The soul is like a garden where 
 All worthless weeds are growing, 
 
 If fruit that's good is wanted there 
 The weeds are killed by hoeing. 
 
 There is a heavenly state for all 
 
 Who work and cultivate 
 The good intentions given them 
 
 Before it is too late. 
 
 For wicked thoughts are in the heart, 
 
 And they will germinate 
 To evil deeds, unless we work 
 
 Before it is too late. 
 
 Humility must conquer pride, 
 And love must conquer hate. 
 
 The tillage must be done to-day ; 
 To-morrow is too late. 
 
 ' God's mercy will be after death. 
 Yea, always will endure," 
 That may be true and idle men 
 Make their destruction sure. 
 
 • I am too weak to overcome 
 The wrong I feel within, 
 I may be one that God has left 
 To perish in my sin." 
 
 A partial God, whose name is Love ! 
 
 O, no ! that cannot be, 
 Your manly sense of God rejects 
 
 A partial mean decree. 
 
 If we resist the Spirit now. 
 
 Refusing to be led. 
 Then by our act our heart becomes 
 
 To moral motives dead. 
 
 Procrastination is a thief 
 That steals our time away; 
 
 The longer we put off the work 
 The harder to obey. 
 
 If we obey the "still small voice," 
 
 The monitor within, 
 We shall be happy in our choice 
 
 And triumph over sin. 
 
 There is a straight and narrow road, 
 The righteous walk therein. 
 
 The Holy Spirit is their guide. 
 They travel on from sin. 
 
 They work and strive against a foe 
 
 Unseen by mortal eyes, 
 They fall and rise and travel on 
 
 From earth to paradise. 
 
46 
 
 ./ FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF GOD. 
 
 In the Bible we read, 
 
 ('Tis the Christian's creed) 
 The directions for us in this life ; 
 
 With our freedom to choose, 
 
 We have numberless views. 
 For the combative partisan's strife. 
 
 But the Book was not made 
 
 Like an artisan's trade. 
 Turning out every piece just the same ; 
 
 It has one Golden Rule, 
 
 But no great party school 
 Will insist upon that for His aim. 
 
 In the letter we find — 
 
 For the ignorant mind 
 Seeks a visible thing for its aid — 
 
 A sure promise to be, 
 
 'Tis a plausible plea, 
 And our hopes for the future are laid. 
 
 Would you punish a child 
 
 For its vagaries wild. 
 That its parents and teachers believed ? 
 
 You would teach the young mind, 
 
 Of the truth it was blind, 
 That it may never more be deceived. 
 
 Like the child we are blind, 
 
 But our Father is kind ; 
 For the words of the Book and our creeds 
 
 Nevermore shall stand still, 
 
 'Tis our Teacher's good will, 
 And the spirit the form supersedes. 
 
 As the letter recedes. 
 
 So the spirit precedes. 
 And in time we may not need its rod ; 
 
 For in man is a light 
 
 Ever showing the right, 
 From the life-giving Spirit of God. 
 
 I KNOW NOT WHERE THEY'VE LAID HIM. 
 
 When Mary sought at dawn of day 
 The sacred tomb where Jesus lay, 
 Behold ! the stone was rolled away : 
 The Lord had risen from the dead, 
 And bitter were the tears she shed ; 
 And to the angel's question said : 
 I know not where they've laid him." 
 
 Now, many party schools have laid 
 The Savior in the creeds they made ; 
 With many reasons they persuade 
 Themselves that He is in their plan ; 
 Their narrow visions cannot scan 
 The wideness of God's love to man ; 
 He is not where they've laid Him. 
 
 To hungry souls the Savior said : 
 ' I am the life, the living bread ; 
 Drink of my Spirit and be fed." 
 'Tis not a ritual we need, 
 No moral life can e'er proceed 
 From forms. We have the Lord, indeed, 
 When in our hearts we've laid Him. 
 
.■/ FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 SLAVERY- 
 
 And is it tiue that Christians sold, 
 
 Forever in the female line, 
 Their brothers in the Church for gold, 
 
 By right Divine ? 
 
 That Christians, with their hounds and whips. 
 Pursued the fleeing, North-bound slave. 
 
 While priests looked on with close-sealed lips, 
 Dumb as the grave? 
 
 Alas, that men who claimed to be 
 
 The faithful followers of Him, 
 Should be so blind they could not see 
 
 Their shameless sin ! 
 
 No Prophet in " the Church " arose 
 
 To tell the Nation of its sin; 
 But Providence a Prophet chose 
 
 To speak for Him. 
 
 With faith that God was for the Right, 
 With will that could not be deterred. 
 He gave the signal for the fight : 
 
 " I WILL BE HEAKD ! " 
 
 Emancipation ncnv ! — io-day ! 
 
 To-morrow is Eternity; 
 Our time is WOTi'. To-morrow? Nay, 
 
 'Twill never be. 
 
 Justice demands their liberty, 
 
 And we must let this people go 
 In peace, or through the deep Red Sea 
 
 As did Pharaoh. 
 
 If man his fellow-man may sell, 
 
 And be a worthy Christian, too, 
 I'll say to Crime, There is no Hell *" 
 
 In store for you" 
 
 Awakened conscience loud appealed 
 To higher laws than human source; 
 
 But when did tyrants ever yield 
 To moral force ? 
 
 •An Unlearned Lesson. 
 
 The truth proclaimed exposed the guilt 
 
 So long concealed by pious liars; 
 .\ system that on force was built 
 In blood expires. 
 
 Tenets and rites can never lead 
 The soul of man away from sin ; 
 
 Alas, the doctors will not heed 
 The law within ! 
 
 Salvation is "by faith alone," 
 
 The creed in all the churches read, 
 
 The Master's life is still unknown. 
 And faith is dead. 
 
 Anise and mint are emphasized; 
 
 The heart's affection bid to hush ; 
 The Savior's love is stigmatized 
 
 The " Gospel-gush." 
 
 The parties strive for present gain. 
 Bound by traditions dead and cold ; 
 
 The love that bears the Cross is slain. 
 Now as of old. 
 
 O when will Christians cease to ban 
 Save for a crime, or selfish deed — 
 
 With love to God and love to man 
 Their only creed ? 
 
 As well attempt to stay the waves 
 When ships are driven on the shore, 
 (y~^ i)is raise the coffined from their graves 
 And life restore. 
 
 These Jesus did, the rulers saw 
 
 His power, His love, but would not turn 
 
 From ceremonies of the law 
 And of Him learn. 
 
 Come, O Thou long expected King, 
 And throw our idols in the sea, 
 
 And from our hearts an ofT'ring bring 
 To honor Thee. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 PUT UP THY SWORD." 
 
 There is a field where just men work, 
 
 A high untrodden plain, 
 Above the jostling crowd below. 
 
 That strive for present gain. 
 
 Where men by love of truth inspired 
 
 Go forth to work and die, 
 That God's eternal truth may have 
 
 A dwelling 'neath the sky. 
 
 The doctors wrangle through the years 
 
 On issues past and gone ; 
 A Providential man appears 
 
 And truth goes marching on. 
 
 O, who will work for God to-day 
 And let the ' ' dead past " go ? 
 
 War stays the 'progress of th\s truth : .'" 
 O who will meet this foe ? 
 
 And blow " the Trumpet of Reform " 
 So loud, so clear, so strong, 
 
 'T will rouse the nations of the world 
 Against the giant wrong? 
 
 The party men have fed the flock 
 On dogmas' worthless food. 
 
 And they have drifted from His rock 
 Tossed by the passion's flood. 
 
 Ye " Five and twenty" chosen men,=i= 
 
 Will ye prepare a creed 
 Defining sin, proclaiming war 
 
 To be the devil's deed ? 
 
 Make no more creeds in Jesus' name 
 
 While ye are slaying men, 
 For all your bloody fields proclaim 
 
 " Ye must be born again." 
 
 » The theological, if not all lineal i 
 :onncil at St. Louis arranged for a c 
 V creeti or interpretation of the Bible 
 
 Your task is greater now than when 
 Your fathers sailed away ; 
 
 May Plymouth Rock be typical 
 Of what ye do to-day. 
 
 O may ye build a new Mayflower 
 To stem the world's rude shock, 
 
 Above the passions of the hour 
 On God's eternal rock. 
 
 O for a faith that overcomes, 
 A faith in God and right ; 
 
 Then saints would put His armor on 
 And Christians would not fight. 
 
 O for a Garrison to lead 
 This moral movement on, 
 
 ( Untarnished by a selfish deed) 
 Until the work is done. 
 
 To stand and wait for God to work, 
 Shows lack of common sense ; 
 
 The lazy work their gardens thus 
 And get no recompense. 
 
 Are all the virtues waiting for 
 Some great propelling power? 
 
 Are weeds and vice the only things 
 Not idle for an hour ? 
 
 Men see this wrong from age to age, 
 This bloody, damning crime, 
 
 And say, "mysterious Providence," 
 And idle pass their time. 
 
 O sluggish soul, arise and work 
 For truth and right to-day ; 
 
 A holy purpose kept in view, 
 And God will show the way. 
 
 Your labors may be fruitless now, 
 
 You may not live to see 
 The victory of the Prince of Peace, 
 
 But what is that to thee ? 
 
A FARMER'S THOOGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE QUAKERS. • 
 
 A sincere purpose to do right, 
 
 Proceeding from within ; 
 A walking by the Inward Light 
 
 Protects the soul from sin. 
 
 George Fox, the Friend, built on this rock, 
 
 The building stands secure; 
 The only sect the world's rude shock 
 
 Has left unstained and pure. 
 
 They sought the Heavenly Father's care, 
 
 No thronging crowds around : 
 They bowed their heads in silent prayer. 
 
 And that is " holy ground." 
 
 No titled men — no useless forms 
 
 Within their building found ; 
 No unpaid toil, no clash of arms, 
 
 Ah, there is " holy ground." 
 
 Though men of peace, they charged upon 
 
 The citadel of sin ; 
 Moved by the Holy Spirit on. 
 
 They conquered foes within. 
 
 They make no compromise to gain 
 
 The world's admiring throng; 
 Their record is without a stain 
 
 Of blood, or crime, or wrong. 
 
 If Heaven is for those alone 
 
 Who have subdued the tares 
 The enemy of souls hath sown. 
 
 What great reward is their's? 
 
 The war-like sects for dogmas fight. 
 And with the world unite; 
 
 Their morals in a rusty plight. 
 Their fighting weapons bright. 
 
 The eagle's claws are on the dove 
 Since Adam's race begun ; 
 
 O Prince of Peace, O God of Love, 
 When will Thy will be done ? 
 
 SAVING FAITH. 
 
 Not a priest, or a church, in his name, 
 Has the power on earth to proclaim. 
 The forgiveness of sins through a form ; 
 Such a building can't weather the storm. 
 
 When the winds and the floods beat around. 
 It will fall, for the base is unsound ; 
 'Tis the virtues that stand the world's shock; 
 They are likened by Christ to a rock. 
 
 When the Council of Trent did decree 
 That the sacraments are heaven's key 
 It gave life unto Luther's dogma. 
 Where the Protestant sects stand to-day. 
 
 But the faith that is saving has power, 
 (Not by creeds, not by forms of the hour) 
 By the grace of the Lord, over sin. 
 In the soul that is loyal to Him. 
 
A FAKMEJi'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME A.\D PROSE. 
 
 FAITH AND LOVE 
 
 The Savior said: " Behold, 1 give 
 
 The bread of life away.'' 
 The soul that feeds on Him shall live 
 
 Beyond the judgment day. 
 
 Not by our doing do we prove 
 
 His spirit in our hearts, 
 No outward form can give the love 
 
 The grace of God imparts. 
 
 If we suppose that God demands 
 
 Obedience to a form, 
 Then we go back to such commands, 
 
 Before the Christ was born. 
 
 To types and shadows of a King, 
 
 Who w-as to set us free. 
 From Jewish forms which was the thin^ 
 
 That made the Pharisee. 
 
 The victim of self righteous pride, 
 
 (No sins to be forgiven). 
 His formal service had supplied 
 
 For him the grace of Heaven. 
 
 The Savior came, the law fulfilled. 
 
 Which man could never do ; 
 And now by faith and love instilled, 
 '//L We keep his lite in view. 
 
 The law was the Creator's rod, 
 
 To make us look above : 
 And now the Christian comes to God, 
 
 Through Christ, by faith and love. 
 
 God's love is for all of our kind, 
 ' Tis like the ocean broad ; 
 
 'Tis not for human hands to bind 
 The boundless love of God. 
 
 God's spirit conies to all our hearts. 
 And whispers " Faith and Love;' 
 
 If heeded, it new life imparts. 
 And will a blessing prove. 
 
 THE SAVIOR'S LOVE. 
 
 Tliey told me that the Savior's love 
 Was kinder than a brother's. 
 
 And then they broke the riiarriage tie 
 And sold the weeping mothers. 
 
 They told me that the Savior's love 
 Should be the Christian's guide, 
 
 And then they fought on Naboth's land 
 And holy angels cried. 
 
 And still they say the Savior's love 
 
 Is purer than the air ; 
 And now they scheme in legal ways 
 
 To get the lion's share. 
 
 The Savior's love is not received, 
 
 E.xternal laws are dead ; 
 The faith that overcomes the world 
 
 Is by His Spirit led. 
 
./ FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 A PRAYER. 
 
 Father, 'neath Thy guiding care 
 All events are passing here ; 
 Ever since Creation's birth 
 All the changing scenes of Earth 
 
 Have a purpose known to Thee. 
 We are children, wand'ring, lost, 
 On the ocean tempest-tost; 
 Thou the mighty waters ford — 
 Thou art gu4 ding all on board 
 
 To Thy home across the sea. 
 
 Jesus, come from Thine abode! 
 Come again and show the road ! 
 All the flock have gone astray, 
 On the mountains far away. 
 
 From Thy sayings in the storm. 
 Led by wolves to rob the least. 
 Without garments for the feast, 
 Proud and stubborn as of old. 
 Storms are beating on the fold — 
 
 Come and keep the flock from harm. 
 
 Holy Spirit, grieved away, 
 Wilt Thou never come to stay ? 
 On our substance is the stain 
 Of the robbers' stolen gain. 
 
 And our hearts are hard and cold. 
 Father, send again Thy Son, 
 That Thy will on earth be done ; 
 Thine the work — we have no power — 
 We are looking every hour 
 
 For the Shepherd of the fold. 
 
 THE INWARD LIGHT. 
 
 The Conscience is the voice of God, 
 The " still small voice within ; " 
 
 That ever shows the right-hand road 
 That leads the soul to Him. 
 
 With awe we read His precepts ten, 
 
 And Jesus' words so true; 
 But in the mind and heart of men 
 
 God makes a record, too. 
 
 The truth which feeds the hungry soul 
 
 The Inward Light made clear. 
 Before a church or parchment scroll 
 
 Proclaimed it to the ear. 
 
 It made the ancient prophets wise, 
 
 And holy men to-day 
 Look inward still, and thus arise 
 
 Above the trammeled way. 
 
 The church stands still in Custom's groove- 
 
 The letter has no life ; 
 The Inward Light the dry bones move, 
 
 And truth is born with strife. 
 
 Then let us mind the Inward Light 
 
 That ever in us pleads ; 
 In everything say, "A // ri^ht!" 
 
 And go where Conscience leads. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 CONSCIENCE. 
 
 The conscience is guarding the soul, 
 God's sentinel showing the right ; 
 
 No passion will ever control 
 
 The man who is heeding its light. 
 
 The candle of God in the soul, 
 
 Approved by the world's living Light, 
 
 Who said (though He read in the scroll) 
 " Ye judge of yourselves what is right." 
 
 The creeds of the past are out-worn, 
 Too small for the growth of the truth ; 
 
 And conscience demands they be borne 
 Away to the relics of youth. 
 
 Some doctors say, " No, you must own 
 The creeds of the saints who are dead; 
 yL They kn^w all the truth to be known, 
 
 And you must not think, but be led." 
 
 Is man but a parrot to prate 
 
 Like Poll every word she is taught ? 
 
 Or has he the right to forsake 
 
 Whatever seems wrong to his thought ? 
 
 'Twas men, in the past, made the creeds 
 The progress of truth now refuses, 
 
 Our business to-day is its needs 
 
 As truth and the conscience now chooses. 
 
 The partisan ties to the letter; 
 
 Our hold on the text is receding, 
 The life of the spirit is better, 
 
 And for it the conscience is pleading. 
 
 The ritual, doctrinal creeds 
 
 Are helpless the world's crimes to bar, 
 A man will not do evil deeds 
 
 Whose conscience is hitched to a star. 
 
 (A beautiful star from above 
 
 Once guided the shepherds to Him — 
 The babe in the manger whose love 
 
 Is savmg the world from its sin.) 
 
 The conscience is loyal to God, 
 
 The dust-covered creeds of the sects 
 
 Are sent to their silent abode 
 
 As God in the conscience directs. 
 
 ' Follow me," the voice within pleads, 
 God's spirit of love ever lives, 
 Surviving the last of men's creeds 
 To Jesus all glory it gives. 
 
 The tenets of men pass away, 
 
 They come from the head, not the heart: 
 The love of the Master will stay — 
 
 A creed that will never depart. 
 
 The conscience is God in the soul. 
 Revising men's creeds from above ; 
 
 How swiftly they pass from the roll ! 
 But conscience is loyal to love. 
 
 When doubting what course to pursue. 
 The passions all seeking control. 
 
 The conscience is faithful and true — 
 God's sentinel, guarding the soul. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 WHEN JESUS COMES. 
 
 In rituals perform our part 
 In ev'ry act with perfect art : 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test; 
 We may perform and not be blest. 
 
 In sweetest strains loud anthems sing 
 In praising God, our Heavenly King : 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test; 
 We may thus sing and not be blest. 
 
 In nature trace the Author's plan, 
 Tell how the moss became a man : 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test ; 
 We may know earth and not be blest. 
 
 With eloquence the Gospel preach, 
 In foreign lands the heathen teach ; 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test ; 
 We may preach well and not be blest. 
 
 Pray long and loud with graceful ease 
 Like old or modern Pharisees : 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test; 
 We may pray well and not be blest. 
 
 Our faith so great the mountains move 
 (But in our hearts no Christian love) : 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test; 
 We may have faith and not be blest. 
 
 A martyr be and die for Him 
 Who loved all men and knew no sin : 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test ; 
 We may be burned and not be blest. 
 
 Give alms from our abundant store, 
 Yea, all our goods to feed the poor : 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test ; 
 And we may give and not be blest. 
 
 Commandments keep, yea, all the law 
 In every thing without a flaw : 
 When Jesus comes 'tis not the test ; 
 We may obey and not be blest. 
 
 When Jesus comes our measure then 
 Be what we measured unto men ; 
 
 A heart of love tvill be the test ; 
 The merciful will be the blest. 
 
 SET FREE. 
 Romans, vi : 7. 
 
 When death has freed my soul from clay. 
 And friends are weeping 'round my bed, 
 
 may no watcher mournful say 
 That I am dead. 
 
 1 am a prisoner from my birth. 
 There is a Ransom paid for me; 
 
 And, when my spirit leaves the earth 
 Say I am free. 
 
 Then, by my Heavenly Father's grace, 
 
 In spirit I new life begin 
 (When Jesus has prepared a place) 
 
 Freed from all sin. 
 
54 
 
 A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN PRAYER. 
 
 Father, I am too weak to bear 
 The cross Thou gavest me ; 
 I need Thy sovereign aid and care — 
 
 God, I call on Thee. 
 
 Thy law is written in my heart — 
 
 1 see, I know the way; 
 Self-sacrifice, that is my part — 
 
 My will will not obey. 
 
 To love my neighbor, poor, oppressed, 
 
 Be silent when assailed. 
 To cast the evil from my breast — 
 
 Alas! my strength has failed. 
 
 I see the world, its base alloy. 
 
 Eternity is nigh ; 
 But cannot bear the cross with joy, 
 
 And like a child I cry. 
 
 Dear Father, I confess my sin — 
 
 On Jesus' name I call ; 
 O hear me for the sake of Him, 
 
 Who is the Lord of all. 
 
 Come, Holy Spirit ! with Thy power 
 
 Help me to overcome. 
 Like Jesus in the trial-hour, 
 
 And say, "Thy will be done." 
 
 "REME.VIBER NOW THY CREATOR IN THE 
 DAYS OF THY YOUTH." 
 
 Remember thy God in thy life's opening bloom. 
 Ere sorrow shall fall like the frost from the sky. 
 And hope, like the flowers, shall wither and die. 
 
 And life without pleasure pass on to the tomb. 
 
 Remember thy God, and thy conscience obey. 
 
 No passion will ever thy action control ; 
 
 For the light that the Lord has placed in thy soul, 
 Through life's changing scenes, ever shows the right way. 
 
 Remember thy God, and with faith, hope, and love. 
 Build up a foundation to anchor thy soul, 
 When the tempest shall rage and the waves high roll. 
 
 Thy trust will be stayed on the Pilot above. 
 
 THE SCHOOL OF CHRIST. 
 
 If we learn in Jesus' school 
 We will use the Golden Rule, 
 
 We will have a heart of love. 
 We will pass the judgment test 
 Christ has given, and be blest 
 
 By the Father's love above. 
 
 If our thoughts are all for self, 
 If we seek the golden pelf 
 
 In some legal stealing way; 
 Then we cannot pass the test 
 Christ has given, and be blest 
 
 On the great and final day. 
 
FAKA/EA"S THOUGHTS TV RHYI\!^ AND PROSE. 
 
 55 
 
 THE VOICE OF JESUS. 
 
 I heard the voice of Jesus say, 
 
 " My mission from above 
 Is in the spirit that I live 
 
 That men may learn to love ! " 
 I learned of Jesus and he gave 
 
 To me the spirit life; 
 And now I live by faith and love 
 
 Above the storm and strife. 
 
 SECRET PRAYER. 
 
 God does not come to us so near 
 
 Where crowds attend, 
 And in some party name appear 
 
 To seek their Friend — 
 
 "FLAG THE TRAIN.'^ 
 
 A landslide on the railroad laid ; 
 
 Around the curve the engine flew, 
 And Kennah at his post was true. 
 
 He thought of other lives and said : 
 
 " Go, boys, and flag the other train " — 
 Rolled with his engine and was slain. 
 
 The passions govern every land. 
 
 The Father's children take the sword, 
 On Naboth's land theif blood is poured. 
 
 Now, who on Jesus' words will stand. 
 Stop with His flag the crimson train, 
 In ranks now forming to be slain? 
 
 As in some secret solitude 
 
 (Free from all care). 
 No wondering eyes on us intrude, 
 
 We bow in prayer. 
 
 Our spirit up to God ascends 
 
 In holy quest; 
 The Spirit of our Lord descends 
 
 And we are blest. 
 
 Oh ! let us seek that blest retreat 
 
 For grace to view 
 The Golden Rule (a measure meet) 
 
 In all we do. 
 
56 
 
 A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN' RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE CURSE OF WAR. 
 
 Near nineteen centuries have rolled 
 
 The years of time away, 
 And there is war as when Christ told 
 
 The rulers in His day. 
 
 " My kingdom is not of this world, 
 My servants do not fight ; " 
 
 The Prince of Peace no missiles hurled 
 His wicked foes to smile. 
 
 The sects are fighting with the pen 
 The battle of the creeds ; 
 
 Their dogmas are more sacred than 
 Men's lives, or holy deeds. 
 
 The Church and World are in this woe. 
 Whose curse no tongue can tell ; 
 
 The Friends alone refuse to go 
 The road that leads to Hell. 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHER. 
 
 From preconceived opinions free 
 He searched for truth in liberty. 
 And saw that truth must ever be 
 To man, without finality — 
 That like a bud, an opening flower 
 It is unfolding ev'ry hour. 
 
 Another truth his vision saw. 
 The moving cause, preceding law. 
 Primordial, and high above 
 Its majesty, the Father's love. 
 These truths are growing day by day 
 And narrow creeds will pass away. 
 
 But Faith and Reason say : " Be strong. 
 
 The good alone will last ; 
 The years to come will right this wrong 
 
 And out the evil cast." 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 57 
 
 PROSE. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS. 
 
 THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST. 
 
 Darwin's theory of creation is now, we believe, gen- 
 erally accepted. The "survival of the fittest" is the law 
 of progress in the affairs of men as well. We are not 
 competent to write on this subject largely, going back to 
 the beginning of government among men. The object of 
 this brief article is, if possible, to make clear what prog- 
 ress we, as a Nation, have made in the science of gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 Destruction is easier than construction. An idiot can 
 tear a building down, but he can not construct one. In- 
 dependence brought responsibility. The problem which 
 the founders of our Government had to solve was : how to 
 make a government that would protect the people without 
 oppressing them ? Shall there be a government with fed- 
 eral power ? Or, shall the colonies be independent — sov- 
 ereign ? That was the question upon which parties were 
 formed. The Federalists wanted a government with Na- 
 tional power. The Anti-Federalists wanted the States to 
 be sovereign, and the Union Government a league of such 
 
 sovereignties from which the Stales could withdraw at 
 their pleasure. These parties were nearly equal in num- 
 bers, and the constitution they made was a compromise, 
 each party interpreting it to suit its views of government, 
 as the sects do the Bible. 
 
 Now, after a hundred years' e.xperience, what has sur- 
 vived? What has proved to be the fittest? In i860, the 
 anti-federal idea bore fruit, in the secession of eleven States. 
 Secession was resisted and conquered. The Union was 
 restored. The amendments to the Constitution have de- 
 stroyed the last vestige of State sovereignty, or pretext 
 for nullification, in that instrument. The federal idea 
 of government has survived. Our fundamental, constitu- 
 tional principles are Hamiltonian. Now we have local 
 government for local affairs, and national government for 
 national affairs. Is not this the discovery which can 
 make the whole world one government, disarm nations, 
 and end war? As the National Government has authority 
 over the State governments, so a Congress, or High Court 
 of all Nations, would settle disputes between nations, and 
 " organized murder ' would cease. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE "GOOD ROADS" MOVEMENT. 
 
 It seems as if every generation must learn by expe- 
 rience. (Some twenty years ago the farmers lost money 
 by taking stock in railroads, but that doesn't prevent them 
 from taking stock in woolen mills and creameries to-day.) 
 About forty years ago there was a plank-road craze. 
 This played out in a few years. Some lost money, but 
 they had experience, which, Dr. Franklin said, " is a 
 dear school." Now the same, no, greater waste of money, 
 and inevitable failure, is demanded. There is nof the 
 necessity now for expensive roads there was then. We 
 have railroad stations every few miles. If we had turn- 
 pike roads alongside of our present dirt roads, and the 
 farmers had to pay toll on both, the dirt road would 
 take in the most money, for a dry-dirt road is the best 
 road there is. We could put a roof over our roads (don't 
 laugh). It would cost less than a pike road, and it would 
 protect travelers and their goods from sunshine and rain. 
 Is it not strange that this movement, to put a bonded 
 debt upon our farms, should be urged, when our county 
 towns will not tax themselves to make a "good road" 
 around their court houses ? We have a suspicion that 
 this universal " good road" scheme is gotten up by per- 
 sons who have "axes to grind." To make roads that 
 would be good on our mud would be an oppression a 
 thousand times more grievous than the petty tax on tea, 
 which so enraged the farmers of Massachusetts that they 
 drove the disciplined soldiers of King George from Con- 
 cord to Boston and from Boston to their ships, nevermore 
 to return. 1893. 
 
 THE TEMPERANCE QUESTION. 
 
 Burke (England's greatest statesman) says : " It is 
 the business of the speculative philosopher (reformer) to 
 mark the proper ends of government. It is the business 
 of the politician, who is the philosopher in action, to find 
 out proper means toward those ends and employ them 
 with effect." Let us apply this wisdom to the temperance 
 question. Our first duty is to prohibit all intoxicating 
 drinks from our own mouths, and then, by moral suasion, 
 induce our neighbors to have nothing to do with the liquor 
 business. Next, our political duty. We would put the 
 following plank in the Iowa Republican platform : The 
 Republican party of Iowa reaffirms its faith in the funda- 
 mental principles of the party, which were so grandly 
 proclaimed by Daniel Webster in his reply to Mr. Hayne: 
 " It is, sir, the people's constitution, the people's govern- 
 ment, made for the people, made by the people, and 
 answerable to the people." This was reaffirmed by Pres- 
 ident Lincoln in the closing words of his Gettysburg 
 address. Therefore, in applying this principle we submit 
 the question of temperance legislation to the people. 
 The people of Iowa at a non-partisan election demanded 
 a prohibitory law. The legislature, in obedience to the 
 people, made the present prohibitory law. If the people 
 desire this law to remain, or wish any change, they can 
 make it known through their representatives in the legis- 
 lature. 
 
 By this plan the people in every county can have 
 their wishes made known in the legislature, untrammeled 
 by a State platform. 1893. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND /'ROSE. 
 
 CAUSES OF REPUBLICAN DEFEAT. 
 
 Men looking from different standpoints present 
 different opinions of the causes which led to the defeat of 
 the Republican party. 
 
 The first and primary cause is the decay of patriotism. 
 
 The "Solid South" should have been met by a 
 " Solid North," but Northern Democrats preferred party 
 affiliation with the enemies of the Union, to the party that 
 used all the power of the Government to preserve it. 
 
 This decline of patriotism is the fruit of the anti- 
 federal or State-sovereignty idea of government inherited 
 by the Democratic party. 
 
 The second and last cause is best come at by a brief 
 summary of preceding events. 
 
 The Republican party emancipated the slaves, 
 conquered the belligerent enemies of the Union, and 
 placed the thirteenth, fourteenth and fifteenth amend- 
 ments in the constitution. All this grand work having 
 stood the test of " talents and of time," there was nothing 
 more for the Democratic party to do in the way of opposi- 
 tion to the laws. So a general and indefinite charge of 
 " rascality " was commenced against the Republican party. 
 The poor man was told every day in the year that his 
 poverty was due to the party in power alone. Then the 
 third parties commenced their tirade of abuse. The 
 Prohibition and Greenback parties kept up a continuous 
 fire on all sides. The Mugwump, wearing a non-partisan 
 cloak, joined in the chase. A drouth in the West or a 
 labor strike was made available by the traducers for their 
 purpose. The "independent" Republican lent a hand 
 by his criticism. (The writer did a little work in this line.) 
 
 Freedom of thought and of speech is the strength and 
 weakness of the party. 
 
 These were the causes which led to the defeat of the 
 Republican party. The end is not yet. The party that 
 was born with a moral purpose has no more idea of dying 
 now than it had after the battle of Bull Run, 1892. 
 
 "TURNING THE TABLES." 
 
 Congressman W. C. T. Breckinridge gives his rea- 
 sons why Mr. Cleveland should be elected, from which 
 we extract the following : 
 
 "The Republican party was formed to limit the 
 spread of African slavery; and men of widely variant 
 views on all other subjects united in its formation. In 
 the development of the great problem it became the war 
 party of the Union, and it fell to its lot to free and en- 
 franchise the negro, and to finish the work of reconstruc- 
 tion. It can, in the very nature of the case, have no 
 further work to do." 
 
 But ' ' men of widely variant views on all other sub- 
 jects " were in the Democratic party, and " it fell to its 
 lot" to extend the area of slavery, and " in the develop- 
 ment of the great problem it became the war party " of 
 disunion. " It can, in the very nature of the case, have 
 no further work to do." 
 
A FAKMEK-S THOUGHTS TV RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 CIVIL SERVICE REFORM. 
 
 In the year 1888 we circulated the following petition, 
 getting forty-three signatures (only one person refused to 
 sign it), and sent it to my representative. General Weaver, 
 who wrote me, approving the object of the petition, and 
 said he would present it to Congress. Of course, one 
 humble petition would receive no attention. If one-half 
 of the time and talent which have been given to the life- 
 tenure plan had been given to the elective plan, the spoils 
 system would now be a thing in the catalogue of evils past. 
 " To the Honorable Senate and House of Represen- 
 tatives of the United States of America, in Congress 
 assembled : 
 
 " We, the undersigned voters of West Grove, Iowa, 
 belonging to all parties, do respectfully submit and urge 
 you to take the necessary constitutional process to remove 
 the appointing power from the President to the people — 
 that is, make all the offices elective, except the President's 
 Cabinet, Foreign Ministers, etc. — for these reasons: 
 
 Fhst. We believe that the appointing power is not 
 in harmony with government by the people. 
 
 Stro/id. That it is a corrupting thing, fast destroying 
 the purity of elections, and when that is done our political 
 experiment will soon end. 
 
 Third. If the party in power, or expecting to come 
 into power, had no offices to give away, the election of a 
 President and a Congress would be upon measures of pub- 
 lic interest, entirely free from personal promotion or emol- 
 ument, excepting the candidates. 
 
 Foialli. Were the offices elective, the President and 
 Congress would have all their time to devote to their 
 duties, uninfluenced or harassed by office-seekers. 
 
 Fifth. The motive to fraud (an imminent danger) 
 at Presidential elections would be reduced to a minimum. 
 Therefore, for the peace and welfare of our country, we 
 
 most sincerely urge this important matter upon your con- 
 sideration, hoping you will make the necessary legislation 
 called for in our petition, for which we shall ever pray." 
 
 INTELLECTUAL AND ACCIDENTAL FAME. 
 
 There is a fame that owes all its luster to a superior 
 mind, and nothing to fortune. Our history furnishes an 
 eminent trio of each. Franklin, Webster and Beecher; 
 Washington, Lincoln and Grant. " It was Franklin who 
 chiefly educated the colonies in a knowledge of their 
 rights." " He snatched the lightning from the clouds, 
 and the scepter from kings." Webster is "the great 
 expounder of the Constitution," for "liberty and union," 
 which is the " survival of the fittest." His speech, "The 
 Constitution not a Compact," is "the master-effort of 
 American oratory." The best thing in Lincoln's Gettys- 
 burg address is borrowed from that speech. Beecher 
 broke the "iron creed" of Calvinism with the love of 
 God. In the war for the LTnion he bearded the British 
 lion in his home. 
 
 Where he tore off the mask the Confederate wore, 
 And the roar of the lion was heard no more. 
 
 These men were not accidental leaders in revolutions. 
 They were reformers in principles of governments who 
 make revolutions. 
 
 Washington, Lincoln and Grant were accidental 
 leaders in revolutionary movements which they did not 
 make. They were "dark horses," "favorites of for- 
 tune," riding on reforms the thinkers made. 
 
 1895. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 FRANKLIN AND WASHINGTON. 
 
 Editor Register : Franklin precedes Washington 
 in age and service for his country. The popular super- 
 stition believes that Washington "achieved our independ- 
 ence." The cause for this delusion is to be found in the 
 blind veneration the people have for men who happen to 
 command their armies in war. Colonel Washington was 
 43 years old when British soldiers were sent to Boston. 
 He did not have as wide a reputation then as Colonel 
 Henderson or Colonel Hepburn, of our State, has now. 
 He had done nothing to educate the people against British 
 tyranny. To Franklin, more than to any one man, be- 
 longs that honor. His diplomatic resistance at the Court 
 of St. James to the oppressive laws of the British Parlia- 
 ment had its effect in the " Boston Tea Party." If there 
 had been no resistance to British tyranny, Washington's 
 name would not have been in history; or if John Adams 
 had not thought it necessary to unite the colonies by 
 selecting a Southern man to command the army. Col- 
 onel Washington was chosen to command the Continental 
 army, not from any supposed pre-eminent fitness — super- 
 seding Generals Prescott, Putnam and Ward — but for 
 political reasons. The war had commenced. The battles 
 of Lexington, Concord and Bunker Hill had been 
 fought. A Northern army was concentrating around 
 Boston. It was necessary to unite the colonies, and a 
 Southern man must command the army. Franklin said 
 (in the Continental Congress): "We must, indeed, all 
 /irt/zf,' together, or, most assuredly, we shall all hang sepa- 
 rately." Washington was the dark horse of that day. 
 Thus, at the beginning of our government, concession 
 and compromise were made with the South in order to 
 have union. This policy was continued until the advent 
 of the Republican party in i860, when the North felt 
 strong enough to stand for the right and maintain the 
 Union by force if necessary. 
 
 General Washington was not a great soldier. Mili- 
 tary men have said that General Greene, who commanded 
 the Southern army, was his equal. But notwithstanding 
 almost continual defeat and retreat, the Continental Con- 
 gress had confidence in him ; partly because of his tenac- 
 ity of purpose and partly because no other commander 
 gave any promise of doing better. Washington won one 
 brilliant victory, crossing the Delaware river, full of float- 
 ing ice, in boats at night, in a storm, and marching to 
 Trenton, surprising and defeating the British. The last 
 victory at Yorktown could not have been achieved with- 
 out the French fleet and army. Another fortunate cir- 
 cumstance was the jealousy of the British commander at 
 New York, General Clinton, who would not come to the 
 aid of Cornwallis. Clinton had 5,000 men, a large army 
 then. But it was Robert Morris who planned the cam- 
 paign against the British on the Yorktown peninsula. 
 Washington and the French generals proposed to attack 
 the British at New York, but Morris would not furnish 
 supplies for that purpose, and Washington had to adopt 
 Morris's plan, which resulted in the surrender of Corn- 
 wallis. 
 
 The people worship and honor with civil office the 
 men who happen to command their armies. Fortunately, 
 Washington was wise in politics, though not a lawmaktr. 
 When independence was secured, what then? Colonial 
 independence (State sovereignty) or a National Govern- 
 ment? Washington read the arguments of Hamilton for 
 a National Government, and of Jefferson for local govern- 
 ment, and it is not too much to say that but for his great 
 influence with the people, the National idea of govern- 
 ment might have failed. This was his greatest service. 
 The people had been so long oppressed by the abuse of 
 power they were jealous of National power. 
 
 Dr. Franklin, driven penniless from home when a 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 boy, in competition with the world, without lamily influ- 
 ence or the accident of shoulder straps, by his industry 
 and his genius, becomes the greatest philosopher, inventor 
 and diplomat of his age, or any age — the greatest univer- 
 sal genius of the world. His services at the Courts of 
 England and France were invaluable to the American 
 cause. No other man could have filled his place. Hor- 
 ace Greeley said : " It was Franklin's power and popu- 
 larity, alike in the salons and at court, that gained us the 
 French Alliance, which gave us Yorktown." It is not our 
 purpose to enumerate Franklin's services to his country 
 and to mankind, but to make it clear that we do not owe 
 our liberty to any one man. 
 
 O, Justice ! take the bandage from thine eyes, and 
 with impartial vision give the prize to all who did the 
 work that made us free. Not to one man is due our lib- 
 
 erty. 
 
 1894. 
 
 THE INGRATITUDE OF REPUBLICS. 
 
 The first anti-slavery society ever organized in this 
 country, upon the principle of immediate abolition, was 
 formed January 6, 1832, in Boston, with twelve signatures 
 — the apostolic number. We quote the preamble to the 
 constitution : 
 
 "We, the undersigned, hold that every person, 
 of full age and sane mind, has a right to immediate 
 freedom from personal bondage of whatsoever kind, 
 unless imposed by the sentence of the law for the com- 
 mission of some crime. We hold that man can not, con- 
 
 sistently with reason, religion and the eternal and immut- 
 able principles of justice, be the property of man. We 
 hold that whosoever retains his fellow-man in bondage is 
 guilty of a grievous wrong. We hold that mere difference 
 of complexion is no reason why any man should be de- 
 prived of any of his natural rights, or subjected to any 
 political disability. While we advance these opinions as 
 the principles on which we intend to act, we declare that 
 we will not operate on the existing relations of society by 
 other than peaceful and lawful means, and that we will 
 give no countenance to violence or insurrection." 
 
 Although these sentiments are in harmony with the 
 Sermon on the Mount and the Declaration of Independence 
 yet for asserting them in their lives the abolitionists were 
 imprisoned and made to pay heavy fines for feeding the 
 hungry and clothing the naked. The agitation which 
 they created gave vitality to the sentiment against the 
 extension of slavery which led to the formation of the Re- 
 publican parly, followed by the secession movement and 
 the emancipation of the slaves as a war measure. There- 
 fore, to the abolition movement we owe the triumph of 
 the truth "that all men are created equal." And our 
 Fourth of July celebrations are not a glittering sham. 
 But public sentiment gives the politicians and army 
 officers all the credit for the freedom of the slaves. The 
 future historian will write: 
 
 "The United States, like all other republics, remem- 
 bered not her moral heroes. Honors, office and pen- 
 sions were given her military heroes, and monuments 
 were erected to perpetuate their memory, but those who 
 sacrificed their property, their reputation and their lives 
 to establish the republic upon the rock of equal laws and 
 equal rights for ^11 men were forgotten." 1895. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 RACE PREJUDICE. 
 
 Race prejudice is the last to give way. English and 
 Irish, French and German, hate each other. It seems to 
 be a weakness of human nature to look down on some- 
 body. The Irishman, galling under British oppression, 
 lands in New York and says " damn the nigger." Even 
 the Southern slave thought himself above the ' ' poor white 
 trash " who lived in cabins on the back part of his mas- 
 ter's plantation. Race prejudice is on trial before the bar 
 of public opinion in our country to-day. It is not toward 
 the African race alone that it is manifested. The Mongo- 
 lian feels its pressure. It inspires contempt. It leads to 
 injustice and violence. It palliates crime. It is Pharisai- 
 cal. It says (by its actions) that the Golden Rule is not 
 applicable to the race it despises. In short, it is anti- 
 Christian. 
 
 There are personal rights which are sacred, which it 
 is wicked for any one to take away. There is no social 
 eciuality among white people, and any attempt to force 
 social equality would be preposterous. It regulates itself. 
 Every person has a right to choose his or her associates. 
 It must be reciprocal. This is understood, and no one 
 complains. It is an inalienable right. But many people 
 think the negro should not have this right. Hence, in 
 some parts of our country the law, or mobs, will not per- 
 mit a white man to marry a colored woman, or a white 
 woman to marry a colored man, thus infringing upon the 
 rights of white persons, all the while boasting of our liberty. 
 
 The spirit of caste or race prejudice is universal, not 
 confined to any sect or party or section, and so much that 
 is respectable, and stands for Christian example, manifests 
 this unchristian spirit that it affords a strong argument for 
 the doctrine of Future Probation. For people who have 
 this spirit have not the kingdom of heaven within them. 
 
 and as they are dying in their sins, may they not have a 
 chance to repent and accept the spirit of Jesus after 
 death? 1800. 
 
 "HAIL, COLUMBIA, HAPPY LAND." 
 
 The break in the "Solid South" is the most import- 
 ant event in our political history since Lee surrendered. 
 The South has given notice that it will no longer stay 
 solid on dead issues for the special benefit of Northern 
 demagogues. In this they conquered their prejudices 
 against the Republican party. In leaving the Democratic 
 party they did not go to the Populists. This is signifi- 
 cant. Secession is, indeed, dead! "Hail, Columbia, 
 Happy Land ! " Let us kill the fatted calf and have a 
 general jubilee. This movement is permanent and will 
 spread if the Republican party acts wisely. The South, 
 by its action, says: "The Democratic party has disap- 
 pointed us; we discredit the Populist party The war 
 issues are dead. We want no more sectional strife. We 
 want stability and prosperity. The Republican party has 
 run the Government successfully for thirty years. We 
 will trust it. Trust us." This is the common sense of 
 the Anglo-Saxon race, manifested under hard conditions. 
 The South has its troubles with the ignorant colored peo- 
 ple, as the North has with its equally ignorant foreigners. 
 Between these the intelligent American is the balance 
 wheel of our civilization. The widening confidence in 
 the Republican party brings a greater responsibility. We 
 want broad-minded statesmen — men who will get out of 
 local and sectional ruts into the " clear upper sky," and 
 look at all questions from a national and moral standpoint. 
 Are our party leaders equal to the occasion ? The party 
 can not live on its past achievements. There are econo- 
 mic questions pressing for solution. The people are not 
 in a mood to be satisfied with platitudes and promises. 
 
 1894. 
 
64 
 
 A FARMER'S THObGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 PUBLIC SENTIMENT ON SLAVERY. 
 
 There were three opinions of slavery in the United 
 States. The fathers thought slavery an evil. The ordi- 
 nance of 1787 prohibited slavery in all the territories we 
 had then. This was the position of Northern Whigs. 
 This sentiment was not born of love of freedom 
 for the slave. It aided in making and enforcing the 
 fugitive slave law. It opposed slavery in the territories on 
 business principles. It cared no more for the colored 
 man's rights than a Jew does for a pig, until the advent 
 of the Republican party, to which the Abolition senti- 
 ment went, Southern Whigs going to the Democratic 
 party. About the year 1830 another opinion was devel- 
 oped in the slave States, under the leadership of Calhoun. 
 He taught the South that slavery was a "divine institu- 
 tion," and demanded its protection in the territories, as a 
 condition of loyalty to the National Government. North- 
 ern Whig leaders shrank from the religious issue thus 
 made, but stood firmly by the father's action, to restrict it 
 to the States. William Lloyd Garrison, alone at first, 
 accepted Calhoun's challenge. He proclaimed slavery a 
 sin per se, and raised the banner of " Immediate and un- 
 conditional abolition of slavery." In 1833 ^^ organized 
 The American Anti-Slavery Society on this Ijasis. The 
 Abolitionists opposed slavery everywhere, in church or 
 state. They were always msignificant in numbers but 
 mighty in moral power. "One could chase a thousand 
 and two put ten thousand to flight." The basis of the 
 .Abolitionist's faith was the humanity of the negro. It was 
 this sentiment that made him odious. Thus for many 
 years before the slaveholder's rebellion, there were three 
 clear, well-defined sentiments in the United States on 
 slavery. 
 
 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
 
 Editor Outlook : Your exposition of religious liberty 
 is the best that I have seen. You have summed it all up in 
 one sentence: "Religious liberty is the right of every 
 soul to find its own way to God." Democracy in religion 
 works well. In politics it has never worked well. It 
 seems to me you would have the people as free in their 
 political action as ii) their religion. I quote: "It 
 (democracy) certainly does not mean that the majority 
 have a right to frame a law and compel the minority to 
 to submit to it." If you mean in religion, No ; in politics, 
 Yes. How can a secular government exist without laws ? 
 and how can a government live without power to enforce 
 its laws ? Ours is a republican government; "sovereign 
 power is lodged in representatives elected by the people." 
 A democracy is a government " in which the people 
 exercise the power of legislation. Such was the govern- 
 ment of Athens." (Webster's Dictionary.) To make 
 this practical in our country it would have to be subdi- 
 vided many times. The petty governments of Greece were 
 a failure : continual wars ; women working in the fields, 
 as in Europe to-day ; the temple of Janus Avas seldom, or 
 never, closed. Do we want that kind of liberty? The 
 finality of the pure democratic theory is anarchy and bar- 
 barism. The federal idea of government is best : local 
 government for local affairs, and national government for 
 national affairs. It seems as if there cannot be peace among 
 Christian nations where there is more than one strong 
 nation on a continent. If Napoleon's dream had been 
 realized, it might have been a blessing to the people of 
 Europe. 1893. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 65 
 
 MACAULAY'S AND CARLYLE'S OPINIONS 
 OF GEORGE FOX. 
 
 Macaulay's and Carlyle's opinions of George Fox 
 furnish a good illustration of the difference between the 
 natural and the spiritual man. Macaulay, the natural 
 man, in plethoric health, is optimistic and superficial. 
 (Can a man in robust health, and wealthy, too, see below 
 the surface of things?) Of Fox he said: "He was of 
 pure morals and grave deportment, with a perverse tem- 
 per, with the education of a laboring man, and with 
 an intellect in the most unhappy of all states, that is to 
 say, too much disordered for liberty and not sufficiently 
 disordered for Bedlam." Very much like the Jew's 
 opinion of Christ. 
 
 Carlyle's criticisms have been called " the inspiration 
 of the dyspeptic." Be it so. He saw as the spiritual 
 man sees, and recognized in George Fox a religious re- 
 former, of whom he wrote: " This man, by trade a shoe- 
 maker, was one of those to whom, under ruder or purer 
 form, the Divine Idea of the Universe is pleased to mani- 
 fest itself, . . . who, therefore, are rightly accounted 
 Prophets, God-possessed. . . . Let some living Angelo 
 or Rosa, with seeing eye and understanding heart, picture 
 George Fox on that morning when he spreads out his 
 cutting-board for the last time, and cuts cowhides by 
 unwonted patterns, and stitches them together into one 
 continuous case, the farewell service of his awl ! Stitch 
 away, thou noble Fox; every prick of that little instru- 
 ment is pricking into the heart of slavery and World- 
 worship, and the Mammon god. Thy elbows jerk, as in 
 strong swimmer's strokes, and every stroke is bearing 
 thee across the Prison-ditch, within which Vanity holds 
 her Workhouse and Rag-fair, into lands of true Liberty ; 
 were the work done, there is in broad Europe one Free 
 Man, and thou art he ! " 1895. 
 
 NOT " MORE MONEY" BUT FEWER RASCALS. 
 
 "Ye have the poor always with you." And why? 
 Dr. Franklin says: "God helps them that help 
 themselves." Multitudes will not conform to the condi- 
 tions that assure prosperity — namely, industry, economy, 
 and good management. And why don't they? Because 
 they have not sense enough to see things as they are. Of 
 course there is poverty from natural causes, which no 
 amount of brains can prevent, such as famine and disease. 
 The demagogue tells the poor man that the party in power 
 is the cause of his poverty — that "more money" would 
 banish "hard times." " More money " — pleasing delu- 
 sion! A decree of the Government cannot make null and 
 void the decree of Heaven, " In the sweat of thy face 
 shall thou eat bread." How would inflation help the 
 poor man ? He has no debts to pay, and nothing to sell, 
 while the boom lasted. It is more, or better, brains 
 that he needs. This is hot saying that the money ques- 
 tion is not important. The rich who have amassed 
 fortunes by legal stealing are a greater menace to our 
 institutions than the incompetent poor. The legislation 
 that we need is not for "more money," but iox fewer 
 rascals. We want laws to prevent stealing by law. 
 
 WANTED. 
 
 A Peace Society which will be " in earnest ; " which 
 "will not equivocate," and "will be heard." A Minis- 
 try and a Press which will expose the wickedness of war. 
 An American statesman with the moral courage of John 
 Bright. 1882. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THOUGHTS ON RELIGION. 
 
 1. It is far more important to hear and heed the 
 voice of God in our own souls than to read and follow 
 what the Bible says God spake to other souls. 
 
 2. Surely, God does not expect us to understand 
 him metaphysically. He is more watchful of our acts 
 and motives than of our opinions. 
 
 3. Sin is a violation of the moral law. 
 
 4. The moral is allied to the spiritual and the eter- 
 nal. Not much of our theology will be with us in the 
 spiritual existence, and none of our ceremonies. 
 
 5. The "woes" of the prophets and of Jesus were 
 for men or nations who violated the moral law, not for 
 the uncircumcised — not for heretics. 
 
 6. It was the moral law, not the ceremonial law, 
 that was thundered forth from Sinai, and engraven on 
 tablets of stone. This proves its supremacy and perma- 
 nency. Now the law is "written not with ink, but with 
 xht spirit oi the living God; not in tablets of stone, but 
 in tablets that are hearts of flesh." 
 
 7. A great moral character is an offense to men. 
 The old prophets were stoned. Christ was crucified. 
 .\ristides, surnamed " The Just," was ostracised by the 
 Athenians. Garrison was imprisoned. And now Count 
 Tolstoi is "adjudged insane." Jesus was "mad." 
 John, X : 20. 
 
 8. The Friends occupy high moral ground. There 
 is a marked distinction between them and the world. 
 
 9. The man who has no higher object in view than 
 making money can not do work for eternity. 
 
 10. The people honor with high office the men who 
 swindle the public in building railways or by other 
 schemes, and make an ostentatious display of their legally- 
 stolen wealth. 
 
 11. The natural man rules. The strife to be great- 
 est continues. Men jostle each other in the pursuit of 
 pelf or the honors of office. 
 
 12. Man must live by his own labor, not that of his 
 neighbors. Any other condition of society has the seed 
 of destruction in it. The Golden Rule is the Master's 
 policy, and whosoever builds on any other foundation is 
 building on sand. 
 
 13. The reformer is not an office seeker. An intel- 
 ligent person, with right moral perceptions, can not see a 
 moral hero in a popular idol, whether his name be David, 
 Washington, Lincoln or Grant. There is always high 
 moral ground in advance of the multitude. It is on this 
 high, untrodden plane the reformer works and sows good 
 seed, from which he is never to reap a harvest in honors 
 and office from the people. 
 
 14. There is a story of an Irishman who murdered 
 a farmer in his field, rifled his pockets and ate his dinner, 
 except the meat ; it being Friday, he threw it away. He 
 was very religious. No doubt, he was tempted to eat 
 the meat, but his religion would not let him. Don't 
 laugh ; our popular religion is no better than the Irish- 
 man's. War is murder on a large scale, and for religion 
 we are zealous for some tenet or form which is as destitute 
 of holiness as the Irishman's abstinence from meat on 
 Friday. 
 
 15. The present "Peace Society" has no moral 
 power. It is a kid-gloved, parlor thing, in which the de- 
 sire to be respectable has eliminated every attribute of 
 manhood. 
 
 16. Bible historians are truthful; the good and the 
 bad are told of David. Not so with profane historians. 
 ' ' The Life of Washington " is a romance — an ideal crea- 
 
A FARMER'S THObGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 67 
 
 tion of the writer's imagination to please the superstitious 
 veneration of the ignorant multitude who worship shoulder 
 straps. 
 
 17. Speculative theology is. a labyrinth of contra- 
 dictions in which the contestants are lost. 
 Jj 18. If God ha/e the attribute of mirth, and man be 
 a proper subject for its exercise, how He must enjoy Him- 
 self at the futile efforts of theologians to comprehend Him ! 
 
 19. The doctors, with all their dialectic skill, can 
 not find human authority, ritualism or dogma in the Ser- 
 mon on the Mount, the parable of the Good Samaritan, or 
 the conditions on which Christ proposes to separate all 
 nations when he comes; yet all have unqualified condi- 
 tions of salvation. 
 
 JO. If a union of Christians were effected, the com- 
 bative partisan need not worry — (it is true his occupation 
 would be gone), for the change from contending for his 
 sect to teaching the beauty of a holy life ought to be a 
 pleasant one. 
 
 21. The church is very watchful concerning doc- 
 trines, and many who have departed from the "faith" 
 have been tried for " heresy." How much better the race 
 would be if the church had the same care in guarding 
 Christianity from immoralities, such as slavery and war. 
 The line separating the church from the world is invisible 
 when the sin is popular. 
 
 22. Truth is not an ignis fatuus, glimmering in the 
 distance, which we may behold and admire, but never 
 reach or enjoy. Jesus said: "I am the Way, and the 
 Truth, and the Life." 
 
 23. The Spirit of Christ in us is the power which 
 saves from sin. It will make us charitable to the intoler- 
 ant. It will make us sacrifice everything, but principle, 
 for peace. The Cross has no crowns to give. 
 
 24. If God is a Holy Being, He can not have a 
 purpose contrary to His character. Therefore, all things 
 must have a holy termination. This is logical and seem- 
 ingly correct, but like many strong statements proves too 
 
 much ; for if God's holiness will not permit evil to exist 
 always, why should He permit evil to be now ? Never- 
 theless, it is a grand thought that " somehow, somewhere" 
 in the future, sin and sorrow will have an end. 
 
 25. The antipode of "eternal life " is eternal death. 
 Endless torment is not a fitting finality in the government 
 of a God whose name is Love. Annihilation may be the 
 end of the ' ' finally impenitent." We hold no dogma here 
 — no " iron creed." 
 
 " Who fathoms the Eternal Thought ? 
 Who talks of scheme and plan ? 
 The Lord is God 1 He needeth not 
 The poor device of man. 
 
 I walk with bare hushed feet the ground 
 
 Ye tread with boldness shod ; 
 I dare not fix with mete and bound 
 
 The love and power of God." 
 
 — Whitticr. 
 
 RELIGIOUS SENTIMENTS. 
 
 " O, my brethren ! I have told 
 
 Most bitter truth, but without bitterness." — CoUridge. 
 
 " After the way which they call heresy, so worshij) 
 I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are 
 written in the law and the prophets." — Paul. 
 
 Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." — 
 
 Ibid. 
 
 " Prove all things, hold fast that which is good." — 
 Ibid. 
 
 " Put your trust in the living God; have great and 
 abiding faith in principle, no matter how dark it may be 
 around you." — Garrison. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 ANTI-WAR SOCIETIES. 
 
 Wendell Phillips said: "There are only two moral 
 points in the universe, ri::,ht zxv^ wrong." If " the Son of 
 God was manifested that he might destroy the works of 
 the devil," how can men, who have the spirit of Christ, be 
 forever silent in the atmosphere of war? Every Christian 
 church should be an anti-war society. But popular relig- 
 ion is too " respectable," too much afraid of doing any- 
 thing, however good, which "society" would deem 
 " fanatical." Hence no great reform was ever inaugurated 
 by a popular religion. All history shows this. As " there 
 was no power outside of the church that could sustain 
 slavery an hour if it were not sustained in it," so war can 
 not be carried on without the support of the church. Our 
 popular Christianity sanctions war and preparations for 
 war. Do we expect it to cease doing that which it sus- 
 tains and honors ? Evidently war will not cease without 
 a great and direct eflfort. The problem of slavery was 
 solved on Garrison's plan : "Immediate and uncondi- 
 tional emancipation on the soil." On the much smaller 
 problem of resumption Greeley said: "The way to re- 
 sume is to resume." The way to stop war is just as simple. 
 But what should be " everybody's business is nobody's 
 business, "and nothing is done to stop the evil which every- 
 body says is wicked and all practice, save the Friends. 
 Is there no way by which persons who have a living faith 
 can make it manifest in a righteous cause ? Shall we 
 always continue to fold our hands in a helpless imbecility 
 and blasphemously cry "mysterious Providence?" 
 Hadn't we better quit singing "Stand Up for Jesus?" 
 What should be done? Organize anti-war societies, 
 (not a political party) calling upon all to aid in the good 
 
 work — pledged not to engage in war — not to support any 
 minister not a member of the society. Compromise never 
 effected a great reform. Mark the words. Now as of old 
 the ax must be laid at the root of the tree. Jesus made 
 no compromise with the Jews, and when they crucified 
 Him " the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the 
 top to the bot'tom." Luther, driven by his zeal for truth, 
 and the logic of his convictions, proclaimed the pope 
 " the great whore of Babylon;" (let no Jew or Catholic 
 take offense at these illustrations : we want them to join 
 the society) and Garrison, rather than abandon the slaves, 
 had to condemn that Christianity which resorted to the 
 Bible to justify their bondage. Let no Protestant take 
 offense: we want him to join the society. 
 
 By continual and persistent agitation all over the 
 world, the societies, in time, would get half the people to 
 join them. Then their work would be nearly done, for the 
 demagogues in church and state would unite with them. 
 Then the men in all nations, elected to office, in obedi- 
 ence to the object of the society, would create a world's 
 congress, or high court of nations, in which difficulties in 
 or between nations would be settled after a hearing, just 
 as our courts settle disputes between individuals. Arma- 
 ments would cease, and the barbarous practice of war 
 would be no more. 
 
 In the absence of any action by existing organiza- 
 tions (commensurate with the desired end), the common 
 people should act. If any reader of this has a plan, let 
 him present it to the public. All who are willing to 
 work for the victory of the Prince of Peace should unite 
 on some plan of action. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS JN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE ABOLITION MOVEMENT. 
 
 Whenever a wrong exists which all good men admit to 
 be an evil, it is moral cowardice to silently submit. The 
 truly God-sent will "cry aloud and spare not" until the 
 evil ceases. In January, 1831, a young man by the name 
 of William Lloyd Garrison, in Boston, issued the first 
 number of a paper called The Liberator, which never 
 ceased until slavery ceased. On its first page were these 
 ringing words: '^ I will be as harsh as truth, and as 
 tittcompn'mising as justice, and I will be heard." The Lib- 
 erator was sent all over the land It was " a light shining 
 in the darkness." 
 
 "In a small chamber, friendless and unseen, 
 
 Toiled o'er his types one poor, unlearned young man ; 
 The place was dark, unfurnilured and mean, 
 Vet there the freedom of a race began." 
 
 On January 6, 1832, the apostolic number of twelve 
 met in Boston and formed "The New England Anti- 
 Slavery Society." The leaven was spreading. On De- 
 cember 4, 1833, a national convention met in Philadel- 
 phia to form the American Anti-Slavery Society. It 
 was composed of sixty-two delegates from eleven differ- 
 ent States. To Garrison was given the honor of writing 
 its " Declaration of Sentiments." " He sat down to his 
 task at 10 o'clock in the evening, and finished it at 8 
 o'clock the next morning." It is a model of pure and 
 vigorous writing, unsurpassed by any state paper. No 
 body of men were ever banded together for a nobler pur- 
 pose. The signers of the Declaration of Independence 
 were not their peers in moral courage and spiritual power. 
 " One could chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand 
 to flight." 
 
 The so-called anti-slavery movements, before Garri- 
 son's, were the Gradual Emancipationists, and the Coloni- 
 zationists (they died of inanity). Needless to say they 
 
 accomplished nothing. No action against slavery was pro- 
 posed. No agitation disturbed the slaveholders, and they 
 ruled the Church and State. There was no moral senti- 
 ment against the evil to give vitality to a party. After the 
 spasmodic effort to save Missouri from slavery, in 1821, 
 the public conscience slept, until awakened by Garrison 
 in 1 83 1. Under the leadership of Calhoun, the South had 
 been educated to believe that slavery was a ' ' divine insti- 
 tution." There was but one man in the nation to chal- 
 lenge the theology and the logic of Calhoun. Garrison, 
 alone at first, proclaimed slavery a sin per se, demanding 
 unconditional liberty, and braving all opposition. This 
 was the rock of truth upon which the passions of men 
 beat m vain. The abolition movement gave vitality to 
 the free-soil sentiment which culminated in the Repub- 
 lican Party, the emancipation of the slaves, and the tri- 
 umph of the National, or Federal, idea of government. 
 "A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump." 
 
 SALVATION BY CHRIST. 
 
 Jesus Christ fulfilled the law. He paid the debt 
 which the natural man could not pay. But Christ's 
 righteousness (out of us) does not save us from sin. We 
 must "be born again." We must receive Christ's spirit, 
 and fulfill the law. Christ's righteousness must be in us. 
 This is salvation by Christ. We are not saved in sin. 
 That would be a solecism. We may symbolize holiness, 
 and not be holy. We may subscribe to articles of faith, 
 and not receive the spirit of Christ. We are reconciled 
 to God just in proportion to our purity of purpose and 
 life. To " bear the cross," and " die unto sin," we must 
 receive the spirit of Christ. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 FREEDOM OF OPINION THE BASIS OF CHRISTIAN UNION. 
 
 ' IV/icre the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty.'' 
 
 The first Christians, though holding diverse opinions, 
 worshiped together. There was room for Paul, the theo- 
 logian, James, the moralist, and for John, who taught that 
 love was the essential thing. 
 
 It is curious and instructive to note that the things 
 which separate Christians are destitute of moral (jualities. 
 One school (of several sects, separated by different forms 
 of government, or mode of baptism) is founded on the 
 sovereignty of God. This is generally accepted now. 
 But God is not an Almighty Tyrant, damning men for 
 His " own glory." He is a loving Father. Another 
 school (of many sects) is built on the free grace of God, 
 and the free will of man. This, too, is accepted now. 
 Controversy has almost ceased between these schools. 
 The Rip Van Winkle, in the pulpit, who defends his 
 obsolete creed, is simply laughed at by the intelligent. 
 The folds are working together in many independent 
 religious societies. The fences are down. Why not 
 unite? 
 
 A belief in the things upon which Christians are 
 separated does not make them holy. The Bible is rightly 
 named, ''The Holy Bible." It is not "The Doctrinal 
 Bible." It is not " The Ceremonial Bible." Neither a 
 form of government, nor a speculative opinion, nor a mode 
 of baptism, has any power to save the soul from sin, and, 
 therefore, not a cause for division. Now, it is not neces- 
 sary for the sectarian to give up the thing peculiar to his 
 
 sect, in order to have union, but make it subordinate to 
 the general welfare so that we can present a united front 
 against the common enemy, " the works of the devil," 
 aiding each other in casting him out of our own hearts, 
 and out of the world. 
 
 This is an age of practical common sense, and we 
 should apply some of it to our religion. Did love prevail, 
 " the dipped and sprinkled would live in peace." There 
 is room in God's love for all who love the Lord Jesus 
 Christ, and look to Him for salvation from sin, to live in 
 one church, loving and respecting one another, and permit- 
 ting full liberty of opinion in doctrines and forms. The 
 Quaker would silently commune with his Savior, while 
 others partook of materia! food. To make a tenet, or a 
 form, a condition of fellowship, is to take away the Chris- 
 tian's liberty. No man, or conclave of men, has any 
 authority to refuse the soul which looks to Jesus Christ for 
 salvation from sin. Have we not an example of Christian 
 fellowship in Christ and His disciples? They came vol- 
 untarily. No articles of faith (they believed in Him). 
 No initiation ceremony. No persecuting church trial. 
 The silken cord of love was the only force Jesus sought to 
 draw men unto Him. 
 
 The kingdom of heaven is on its way through 
 The creeds of the past, in its search for the true. 
 Away from the cold, barren tenets of strife. 
 To the sayings of Jesus, His love and His life. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 ANTI-SLAVERY MARTYRS. 
 
 The early anti-slavery men and women "faced a 
 frowning world." A few were persecuted to death. 
 Others were made to pay heavy fines imposed by unright- 
 eous laws, enforced by unjust judges, for feeding the 
 hungry and clothing the naked. They never retreated 
 from a '' beast" which was more savage than Rome when 
 she sent her ablest men to meet an insignificant monk on 
 equal terms in debate. For slavery had the spirit of Nabal, 
 who was "such a son of Belial that a man could not speak 
 to him." Garrison could not obtain a respectable hear- 
 ing, was imprisoned in one city, mobbed by "respectable 
 citizens" in another, and treated with contempt by the 
 clergy. They plowed the ground ; they sowed the seed ; 
 and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the 
 winds blew and beat upon their work, and it fell not, for 
 it was founded in solid soil; and we are enjoying the 
 fruit of their labor. May i, 1874. 
 
 THE PROGRESS OF TRUTH. 
 
 Is IT RIGHT ? has become the standpoint from which 
 all things are investigated. Jesus approved of this when 
 He said: "Judge ye not of yourselves what is right?" 
 The conscience is God in the soul reforming the world. 
 Many unholy things, once held sacred, are now considered 
 barbarous. Such as "The Holy Inquisition," and slavery. 
 Conscience now condemns monopolies, saloons, and lot- 
 teries. And conscience is reforming speculative theology. 
 Endless punishment (though in the stationary creeds) is 
 not the test of an " orthodox " sermon. All this is great 
 
 progress. Yet, on the great crime of war the conscience 
 is sleeping. "Organized murder " is still popular. Yet, 
 truth is making progress, and we shall read a Holy Bible 
 and worship a Holy God some day. In holding up the 
 stainless banner of the Prince of Peace, the Friends are 
 far in advance of all other sects. 1893- 
 
 FUTURE PROBATION. 
 
 The question of future probation is now the theme of 
 debate in a leading sect, intensified by a trial for heresy. 
 Our condition seems to justify such an hypothesis. The 
 doctrine seems to be a reasonable answer to the question, 
 '• How are we to be reconciled to God?" We are "or- 
 thodox," but that does not make us holy. We are all 
 sinners under condemnation. We must become holy be- 
 fore we are saved. We can not go to heaven — we can not 
 be happy without being holy. In vain do we substitute 
 something else. We have founded churches, and con- 
 tended for "faith alone," and for "particular" election, 
 and for baptism by submersion in water. We have said 
 that the unbelieving, and the non-elect, and the unsub- 
 mersed would suffer endless torture. All in vain. None 
 of these things keep us from sin. We are unholy, un- 
 happy, and unsaved. 
 
 " We tremble to approach a holy God, 
 And justly smart beneath His sin-avenging rod." 
 
 Now, if we would make the sayings of Jesus our stand- 
 point we might " cease to do evil, and learn to do well," 
 but we won't do that. Therefore, let us hope there is a 
 post-mortem probation state for us where we may become 
 holy. 1887. 
 
A FARMER'S THOhGHlS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 "JLTDGE NOT, THAT YE BE NOT JUDCxED." 
 
 We are born with certain physical and mental qual- 
 ities. Our surroundings shape our opinions and our char- 
 acter. The seemingly culpable differences between us are 
 more apparent than real. Men say the polished Christian 
 minister has "the grace of God," while the man whose 
 passions and education (company) have made a criminal, 
 they call a "graceless scamp." It is natural that men 
 should judge according to appearances, but is it not a 
 barbarous idea to suppose that God does not love both ? 
 As to guilt, the preacher may be a greater sinner in the 
 sight of God than the criminal. He may be preaching 
 smooth things to men who obtain wealth by ways that may 
 be legal, but are unjust. The celebrated John Newton, 
 seeing a swearing man go by, said : " There I go but for 
 the grace of God." Does this differ from the Pharisee's 
 prayer, " Lord, I thank Thee that I am better than other 
 people?" 1891. 
 
 EVIDENCE OF PROGRESS. 
 
 Fifty years ago a bright boy would count that day 
 lost in which he had no fight. If he could not have some 
 cause for a fight, he would lay a chip on his shoulder and 
 say, "I dare anybody to knock that chip off my shoul- 
 der." If it were not done, he would say, " I dare anyone 
 to touch this chip on my shoulder ; any man (they were 
 all ' men ') that will take a dare is a coward." The chip 
 was knocked off, and the fight commenced. This was 
 considered manly then. Now, any boy acting so would 
 be laughed at for playing the part of a bully. Boys rarely 
 fight now. A fighting boy is not considered respectable. 
 
 Fifty years ago the religious sects were like the boys. 
 To " contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
 saints " meant, for each sect, that their dogma was that 
 " faith," and like the boy with the chip, they dared any- 
 body to touch it ; and religious controversy, public and 
 private, was universal. Now there is but little of the 
 combative spirit. Party creeds are almost obsolete, and 
 it is not considered good taste for a minister to contend 
 for his sect. Denominational fences are breaking down. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF THE SPIRIT. 
 
 The natural man is in the "kingdom of the world." 
 The spiritual man is in the "kingdom of heaven." 
 Kingdom is government. These opposing principles of 
 action are clearly stated in the sayings of Jesus and the 
 letters of Paul. The Jews were governed by external 
 laws — commandments — which failed to keep them from 
 sin. They had fulfilled their purpose, when Jesus said : 
 " The hour cometh, and now is when the true worshiper 
 shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth ; for the 
 Father seeketh such to worship Him." The external law 
 was fulfilled by Christ and passed away. His followers 
 are governed by the "laws in their hearts and in their 
 minds." — Hebrews, x. Now, they who are "led of the 
 Spirit are not under the (external) law." — Gal. v. To 
 those who are "in Jesus Christ neither circumcision (nor 
 any other form) availeth anything ; but faith which 
 worketh by love." It is necessary to fiave laws in secular 
 governments; but society or souls cannot be saved from 
 sin by external laws. Jesus Christ illustrates the purifying 
 effect of His Spirit, in the soul that receives it, to the 
 cleansing quality that water has to material things. 
 
 1895. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. 
 
 The disciples did not believe in the supernatural, or 
 spiritual life, until after the resurrection of Christ. Their 
 new-born faith in the supernatural power of Christ gave 
 them moral courage, which they did not have before the 
 resurrection. Now by the law of the spiritual life they 
 could keep the moral instructions of Christ. 
 
 Morality is the beginning of the spiritual life. The 
 Sermon on the Mount was Christ's first discourse to His 
 disciples and to the multitude. The persons whom Jesus 
 said are blest have certain virtues. (Jesus pronounced no 
 blessing on those who believe a certain doctrine or per- 
 form a certain ceremony.) Virtue is a spiritual condition 
 of the soul. The beatitudes of Christ are heaven's treas- 
 ures. They are all summed up in the Golden Rule. 
 " The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." 
 The disciple who learns in the school of Christ will have 
 the Golden Rule written in his breast by the spirit of God, 
 prohibiting him from engaging in oppression, "organized 
 murder," or legal stealing. 
 
 THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST. 
 
 Evolution seems to be the law of progress. But is 
 there not a wrong standpoint in our popular religion for- 
 bidding further progress? A thing cannot produce 
 qualities it does not possess. In everything but religion 
 men prefer the substance to the shadow. John said : 
 " I, indeed, baptize you with water unto repentance ; but 
 He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I 
 am not worthy to bear ; He shall baptize you with the 
 Holy Ghost, and with fire." Furthermore, John said : 
 
 " He (Christ) must increase, but I (John) must decrease." 
 Jesus Christ came to give moral and spiritual life. But 
 eighteen centuries have passed, and it seems as if Christ 
 came prematurely. The world is not ready for a pure 
 spiritual worship. The typical baptism of John is still in 
 vogue. So long as it is, it will be impossible to make 
 moral and spiritual growth. As in the past, war and 
 preparations for war will be the order of the day. And 
 men will use their money and their talents to oppress 
 whomsoever they can. But God is not in a hurry. It may 
 be thousands of years before the world is ready for the 
 baptism of Christ. i895- 
 
 THE SPIRIT AND THE SYMBOL. 
 
 There is an "irrepressible conflict" between the 
 spirit and the symbol, similar to that between freedom 
 and slavery. The ceremonial Christian, like the cere- 
 monial Jew, is in bondage to external things. So far in 
 the conflict the formalist is apparently victorious. He 
 stands for the literal meaning of the scriptures, and the 
 traditions of the church, and finds it easy to justify popular 
 iniquity. It was the formalist in religion that stoned the 
 prophets, crucified the Lord, burned " heretics," and in 
 our country persecuted the Abolitionist even unto death. 
 In the beginning there was, as a means of education, 
 a necessity for a symbol of purity. But in the "fullness 
 of time " Jesus Christ came to give purity of life through 
 His spirit. Christ is " the way, the truth, and the life." 
 To return to symbols is to deny the advent of Christ. It 
 is going back to the juvenile period of the race, when we 
 should grow up to Christian manhood. We cannot 
 "grow in grace (virtue) and in the knowledge of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ " by symbols of His character. We 
 must receive His spirit. 
 
74 
 
 A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 ANTIQUATED THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 Lord Jeffrey, in his estimate of Dr. Franklin, says : 
 " Regular education, we think, is unfavorable to vigor or 
 originality of understanding. It strengthens and assists 
 the feeble, but deprives the strong of his triumph and 
 casts down the hopes of the aspiring. It accomplishes 
 this, not only by training up the mind in an habitual ven- 
 eration for authorities, but by leading us to bestow a dis- 
 proportionate degree of attention upon studies that are 
 only valuable as keys or instruments for the understand- 
 ing, they come at last to be regarded as ultimate objects 
 of pursuit, and the means of education are absurdly mis- 
 taken for its end." This is the situation in our theological 
 schools. How many bright intellects have been shorn of 
 their power for progressive thought by years of training 
 in the partial education of sectarian schools, whose cur- 
 riculum came to be regarded as the object and finality of 
 religion ! The graduate is an automatic machine, repeat- 
 ing the dogmas of his school. All schools of theology, 
 from their standpoint, are logical and final. Their con- 
 fessions of faith have "come down to us from former 
 generations." Perhaps they are, in the order of evolu- 
 tion, a stepping stone to something better. If so, it is 
 certain they are of no more use. ■ They take the life out 
 of religion by making it a speculative opinion, or a for- 
 mality. They are more logical than spiritual; more 
 formal than ethical: therefore, without power to "over- 
 come the world." " Do men gather grapes of thorns, or 
 figs of thistles? " 
 
 If the sects expect to survive, they must solve the 
 ethical problems of life. The ([uestion the people are 
 asking to-day in everything is, " Is it right I" We must 
 live by the ethics of Christ, and solve all problems by His 
 
 spirit if we would be saved. We want theological schools 
 which will inculcate moral and spiritual truth, leaving the 
 student free, in speculative theology, to search for the 
 truth implanted by God in his own soul. 1895. 
 
 "PUT UP THY SWORD." 
 
 Strange there is no earnest effort to put an end to 
 " organized murder." Can anything be more contrary to 
 the spirit of Christ? We are sadly lacking in moral cour- 
 age. We admire physical courage, but a dog has that. 
 We have many sects professing " allegiance to Christ and 
 His gospel," but all (save the Friends) have no difficulty 
 in reconciling war with allegiance to Christ and His gos- 
 pel. Our religion is fundamentally wrong. If we would 
 be saved from sin, we must worship a " holy God." Our 
 doctrinal and sacramental gods have no power to save us 
 from sin. War is so destructive of morals, and of the 
 products of the earth, and of labor, that it is an all-suffi- 
 cient cause of the poverty and hard condition of the work- 
 ing man the world over. War is. a good thing for the rich. 
 It makes a demand for their money. The party doctors 
 are busy with their " mint, anise and cummin." But for 
 all these things they must give an account. There is no 
 way to avoid the penalty of violated law while we live in 
 transgression. For ' ' the way of the transgressor is hard." 
 If we would not be punished we must "cease to do evil, 
 and learn to do well." No legislation can make the way 
 of the transgressor easy. As the gospel of the doctors 
 does not save us from transgression, or the penalty here, 
 I fear it cannot save us hereafter. We must obey Christ, 
 and put up the sword of Damascus, and live by His 
 Spirit, if we would be happy here or hereafter. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS JN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 AN ORIENTAL OPINION OF US. 
 
 A Hindu, member of the Brahmo-Somaj, who was at 
 the World's Fair, and attended the parliament of relig- 
 ions, returning home, gave (we may suppose) the follow- 
 ing opinion of us. He is a teacher and a disciple of 
 Mozoomdar: "The first thing that attracted my atten- 
 tion on landing at New York was the furious pace at 
 which the people were going. My first thought was, there 
 is a fire. This idea was quickly dispelled, for they were 
 going in opposite directions. I observed the same haste 
 in Chicago. Upon inquiry, I was told they were 'business 
 men.' I inquired further, ' What are they doing that re- 
 quires such haste? ' The answer was, 'Making money.' 
 I said to myself, is making money the highest idea of life 
 in America? We know how this passion destroys the 
 moral and spiritual life. But my mission was to examine 
 the religions of the world. I shall, in this lecture, give 
 you my impressions of the religion of the people of the 
 United States of America, whose object seems to be the 
 accumulation of wealth. Their sacred book is, you know, 
 called the ' Holy Bible.' They have a great many opin- 
 ions of the Bible. Not having the spirit of love every 
 interpretation has a separate organization. Their divis- 
 ions are on things which have nomoral quality. This shows 
 a singular lack of wisdom. I spent much time in reading 
 the Bible. It seems to me to be rightly named the Holy 
 Bible. The woes of the Hebrew prophets are for those 
 who violate the moral law, and they all say that God is a 
 moral, or holy being. Jesus Christ, like our Mozoomdar, 
 went up into the mountains and communed with God. 
 His Sermon on the Mount is as beautiful as anything in 
 our religion. It seems that all great and pure souls have 
 the same religion. Christ went about doing good. He 
 
 went into the temple of God and overthrew the tables of 
 the money changers, and said unto them ; ' It is written, 
 my house shall be called the house of prayer, but ye have 
 made it a den of thieves.' The sayings and conduct of 
 Christ, as recorded in the Bible, are holy, yet the great 
 denominations in the United States are founded, and sep- 
 arated, on doctrines and ceremonies, things destitute of 
 virtue, and this is why the love of money has become the 
 ruling passion, destroying the moral and spiritual life of 
 that people." '895. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF CHRIST. 
 
 The spirit of Christ is love. " This is my command- 
 ment, that ye love one another." The body lives by ma- 
 terial food ; the soul lives by spiritual food. Love is the 
 life of the religion of Jesus Christ. Faith without love is 
 dead. Christian love is not a sickly sentiment; it is a 
 vital principle; it is supernatural; it is the "higher law," 
 written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God ; 
 not in tables of stone, but in tables that are hearts of 
 flesh." The spirit of Christ in us is the Divine process 
 of salvation. If there be anything in our business trans- 
 actions inimical to the spirit of Christ we can not have 
 the grace of God. It makes the soul that receives it love 
 virtue, and seek to save itself and the world from sin. 
 As the sun and rain give life to the seed, the grass and 
 the trees, and they grow from a power not their own, " so 
 is every one that is born of the Spirit." The Christian's 
 faith, repentance, love, prayer, and purposes to live a holy 
 life are spiritual sacrifices, not material and typical, as 
 under the Mosaic law. 1894. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. 
 
 There are but two conditions of the soul, holy and 
 unholy. Sin is a violation of the moral law. The night- 
 marauding thief, and the noon-day oily-tongued legal 
 swindler are in the government of Satan. The law, 
 whether moral or ceremonial, was external, and prelimin- 
 ary to the kingdom of heaven, which in the fullness of 
 time God in Christ set up in the heart. Now, whoever 
 has the spirit of Christ is not under any external law. 
 The righteous and the wicked are good and bad conditions 
 of the soul; invisible, but known by their fruits. The 
 business of the Church is to persuade men to be guided 
 by the law of God or the spirit of Christ written in their 
 hearts. When the soul receives the spirit of Christ it is 
 permeated or baptized with his spirit, and turns from sin 
 to holiness. iSqS- 
 
 THE IMMUTABILITY OF LAW. 
 
 There is order in the government of God. Every 
 thing is under law. We must be in harmony with the 
 law of things, or suffer the penalty of transgression. In 
 material things we see clearly, and are quick to learn by 
 experience. A farmer knows that he cannot sow tares 
 and reap wheat, and he sows wheat. In spiritual things 
 we are nearly blind, and .slow to learn. We do not see 
 that things cannot produce qualities they do not possess. 
 We are prone to emphasize things which have no good in 
 themselves, shadows. We have been taught things which 
 have no power to keep us from transgression, and suffered 
 the penalty of violated law, but we still cling to them. 
 This law of God, in material or spiritual things, is inex- 
 orable. In the nature of things it cannot be otherwise. 
 
 Observe this law in religion. The Catholic church holds : 
 (Council of Trent) " If any one shall say that grace is not 
 conferred by the sacraments themselves of the New Tes- 
 tament, but that faith alone in the divine promise is ade- 
 quate to obtaining divine grace, let him be anathema." 
 That church has seven sacraments, but they do not make 
 its disciples holy. The dogmas of Calvin do not make 
 his disciples holy, and so of many other sects. " I was 
 commissioned," said George Fox, " to turn people to that 
 inward light, even that divine spirit, which would lead 
 men to all truth." From the first his disciples made a 
 stand for religious liberty, personal liberty and peace. 
 Beautiful fruit of the spirit of God. 1894. 
 
 THE ETHICS OF CHRIST. 
 
 If the Golden Rule were the standpoint from which 
 men proceeded to act they would nevet get very far 
 wrong. Morality should be the subject of many lessons 
 in our school books. The ethics of Christ should be the 
 most prominent study in our theological schools, and the 
 leading theme of the pulpit. What is religion worth 
 ■without morality ? Is it too much to say that a moral 
 purpose is the most essential thing in human life? If it 
 were the aim of men, war would cease. And men would 
 not use their opportunity to enrich themselves at their 
 neighbors' expense. There would be no litigation, no 
 courts, except for the probate of wills. 
 
 The partisan teacher gives the Sermon on the Mount 
 "the cold respect of a passing glance," and dwells long 
 on his dogma, or rite. We would say to people who are 
 under the law, who are seeking something to "do," that 
 .the Golden Rule is ten thousand times more important 
 than all the ceremonies of the church. It will give them 
 something to do every day. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RYHME AND PROSE. 
 
 OLIVER JOHNSON'S LETTER. 
 
 Hamorton, Chester County, Pa., May 20, 1881. 
 Mr. John J. Dickson : 
 
 My Dear Sir: 
 
 Yours of the nth was forwarded to 
 me here, where I am spending a few weeks with my fam- 
 ily. I am cheered by your generous appreciation of 
 "Garrison and His Times," a work in which I endeav- 
 ored to deal justly and fairly by all the parties to the anti- 
 slavery conflict. You are right in your judgment that 
 Garrison's power was rooted in his loyalty to high moral 
 principles and truths. He who would draw men upward 
 must himself be "lifted up." Of all the men I have ever 
 known, his example was the nhost inspiring. To live un- 
 der his influence was to find a mood and intellectual 
 stimulus superior to that of any college or church. 
 
 Mr. Garrison hated war even as he hated slavery, but 
 he thought it more manly to fight slavery with carnal 
 weapons than to yield tamely to its demands. He saw, in 
 other words, that bad as war is, it is less degrading than 
 the pusillanimity which yields to despotism without pro- 
 
 test or outcry. It was terrible to fight the South for four 
 years on bloody fields ; but it would have been far worse 
 if the North, believing in the rightfulness of war, had 
 consented to the destruction of her own liberty that the 
 slave power might have its way. 
 
 Thanking you for your letter and its enclosures, and 
 wishing you success in your efforts to dissuade men from 
 killing each other, I am. Yours cordially, 
 
 Oliver Johnson. 
 
 Mr. Johnson's letter explains itself. He was a. co- 
 worker with Garrison from the first, and one of the 
 original twelve who responded to Garrison's call in 
 Boston, and formed the first Anti-Slavery society upon 
 the principle of immediate abolition. I insert his letter 
 as a tribute of respect to the spiritual power of the great 
 reformer, by one who knew him intimately. 
 
 What a ridiculous attitude this Christian nation 
 ]3resents to day ! The President's jingo message, and the 
 demagogues " falling over" one another to get the floor 
 to make belligerent speeches and appropriations for war. 
 
FAMILY HISTORY. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 FAMILY HISTORY. 
 
 My father, Richard L. Dickson, a farmer, was born 
 in Scotland, and was the son of the Rev. Jacob Dickson, 
 of Dumfries, whose wife, Janet Richardson, was a lineal 
 descendant of Sir John Richardson, the Arctic explorer 
 and naturalist, brother of Chief Justice Richardson, of 
 whom it is written that he charged himself with not being 
 an " upright" judge. One day, while reclinmg against a 
 tree, he was shot at, the ball hitting the tree above his 
 head, upon which he remarked: " If I had been an upright 
 judge I would have been hit." 
 
 My father came to America, and married my mother, 
 Rachel Lowry, near Lexington, Ind., in the year 1825. 
 My mother was born in Rockingham County, Va., in 
 1801. She was related, on her father's side, to the oldest 
 families of Virginia, near Natural Bridge, the Campbells 
 and Lowrys. Her mother, Nancy Ocheltree, was born in 
 Ireland. Her sister, Rachel Ocheltree, married William 
 Young, and was the mother of the Rev. William, John, 
 Elizabeth, Wesley and Ephraim Young. 
 
 My father died on his farm (one and one-half miles 
 from Lexington, Ind.) on the 8th of January, 1835, and 
 was buried at Lexington, leaving his wife and two boys, 
 John Jacob and William Martin. Mother moved to 
 Hanover, nine miles from Lexington, the same year. In 
 1850, mother and I moved to Davis County, la. In 1857 
 mother died, and was buried in West Grove Cemetery. 
 She was a member of the Presbyterian Church, the church 
 of her father, having joined when a young woman. If I 
 have, in any degree, "overcome the world," I owe much 
 to her training. In 1859 I became a member of the 
 Presbyterian Church at West Grove. The Southern 
 churches had withdrawn, and I supposed the Church 
 would be anti-slavery. But the proceedings of the General 
 
 Assembly proved that I was mistaken. In conversation 
 I condemned the Assembly for its pro-slavery action. In 
 January, 1862, I was tried and expelled from the West 
 Grove Church, on the charges of "non-attendance" and 
 "speaking disrespectfully of the General Assembly." 
 The charges were ostensible and the proceedings illegal. 
 I appealed to the Presbytery and was reinstated, but 
 ceased to be a member. If the church had expelled me 
 on the real charge, that is, being an Abolitionist, I would 
 not have appealed. I could make a long story of this, 
 but what is the use? To be tried for opposing popular 
 crime is a much higher record than "marching through 
 Georgia." Upon the election of Lincoln, I was appointed 
 postmaster at West Grove, without my knowledge. I held 
 the office a few months and resigned. 
 
 My brother, Judge Wm. M. Dickson, of Cincinnati, 
 was killed in the Inclined Plane Railway disaster in that 
 city, October 15, 1889. I give elsewhere extracts from 
 the Cincinnati papers of his life. Though separated in 
 early life, we corresponded as frequently as lovers, chiefly 
 on political questions, always in harmony, until the advent 
 of the "Civil Service Reform" movement, when my 
 brother, believing "patronage" a great evil, went with 
 Curtis for Cleveland, to be deceived. This movement 
 was a side issue; seemingly it consolidated certain inter- 
 ests, aristocratic tenure of office, and mugwump "tariff 
 reform" measures, all a failure from the standpoint of the 
 general welfare. 
 
 As to my history, and my brother's, too, it was 
 "root, hog 01" die" from the start. My father had bor- 
 rowed $500 from his sisters in Scotland to help buy a farm. 
 When he died the debt was $900. The farm was sold by 
 decree of court. Jackson had vetoed the United States 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 Bank, and Congress did not furnish a currency to take 
 the place of its notes. There was little or no money in 
 circulation. Only gold and silver were accepted by the 
 Government in payment for land. There was a panic as 
 destructive as a cyclone, in comparison with which later 
 panics are but gentle zephyrs. My father's farm of one 
 hundred and sixty acres of bottom land, worth $3,000, was 
 sold for $1,300. With the little left after the debt was 
 paid, my mother bought a small house in Hanover. I 
 went to school, got through the spelling book, and as far 
 as the single rule of three in Pike's arithmetic. I couldn't 
 or wouldn't learn grammar. I went to a pedagogue, who 
 thought it his duty to whip all the pupils about once a 
 week. He "included all under sin," not to have "mercy 
 on all," but to punish all. Then for two years I worked 
 for farmers at $6 per month, summer months. (Now, 
 wages are $16, and yet there is much talk about "hard 
 times.") Then, wiih two other "cubs" — George Gallo- 
 way and Jo Thomas — I contracted to work one year, to 
 learn the cooper trade, at $6 per month and board myself. 
 The other " cubs " got $4 and board. I graduated and set 
 up shop. By working hard for several years, I made enough 
 to buy two one-hundred-and-sixty-acre land warrants. 
 
 I married Mary Eliza Parker, daughter of Dr. John 
 Todd Parker, of Lexington, Ky., on the 14th day of June, 
 1855, in Cincinnati, O. On the 5th day of October, 
 1864, I "drew a prize in Uncle Sam's lottery." My 
 brother sent me a check for $1,000 (enough to have hired 
 two substitutes), which I returned. I rented my farm, 
 put $1,100 in John Ellis' bank, made a sale, left my wife 
 and six children, the oldest under nine years of age, and 
 started for Sherman's army, with a firm purpose to "put 
 down the rebellion." I reached Atlanta on the last train 
 before communication was cut off, and was sent with 
 twenty other conscripts to Company A, Fourth Regiment 
 of Iowa Infantry. This was on the loth day of Novem- 
 ber, 1864. The great march (I marched, but Sherman 
 rode "down to the sea") commenced on the 15th day of 
 
 November, on four roads, going crooked, to deceive the 
 enemy as to our destination. Perhaps no one but Sher- 
 man knew where we were going. We arrived in Savannah 
 on the 2 1 St of December, having marched three hundred 
 and sixty-five miles. Of us twenty-one recruits, seven 
 went to the hospital, two dying. Of the twenty old 
 soldiers (but young men) in our company all were ready 
 for duty. They had become "seasoned to the service." 
 Many die in the process, which saint and sinner say is 
 "glorious." What hurts the soldier in the ranks is the 
 load he has to carry. His musket weighs twelve pounds. 
 His accoutrements, all told, weigh (without overcoat) 
 from thirty seven to forty pounds, and this with empty 
 haversack, canteen and no ammunition. Our regiment 
 went from Savannah to Beaufort (forty miles) by ship. 
 Our orderly (Bannan) humorously called a forage detail 
 " to go out and bring in a whale." On the march through 
 South Carolina, my feet swelled and were painful. I 
 tied my boots to my gun, and often fell back, a straggler, 
 coming into camp late. One day our surgeon. Dr. Green- 
 leaf, of Bloomfield, Iowa, saw me lying in a fence corner. 
 He got off his horse, and I rode it several miles into camp. 
 It was a great relief. My condition reminded me of our 
 colonel's (Nichols) salutation to us conscripts: "Too 
 many old men ; you can't stand the service." Forty 
 years was old. The colonel was only twenty-four. I 
 might give many more incidents of army life and danger, 
 by land and sea, but what is the use? They are the com- 
 mon experience. ,.My brother had procured for me, from 
 Secretary Stanton, a standing order for a furlough, which 
 I received a Beaufort. As I could not get well without 
 rest, when communication was effected at Fayetteville, 
 North Carolina, I made use of the order and went to Wil- 
 mington by steamboat ; then, with many more, sick and 
 wounded, on a vessel to Fortress Monroe ; then home. 
 When I came back to the regiment it was at Alexandria, 
 Virginia. The boys supposed I was among the lost on the 
 "General Lyon," which was burned at sea, with many 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 soldiers on board. In returning to the army, I was at the 
 Soldier's Home in New York the first Sunday after the 
 assassination of President Lincoln, and followed the crowd 
 over to Brooklyn, and heard Henry Ward Beecher, with 
 uplifted hand, "swear" the vast congregation "to eternal 
 enmity to slavery." " 
 
 A few lines on what I saw in South Carolina may 
 not be amiss. Every town the army went through was 
 burned. The "Iowa Brigade" was the first into Colum- 
 bia, and was soon distributed all over the city as house 
 guard. I got a good warm supper, eating with the family. 
 When night came the town appeared to be on fire in every 
 direction. It was said that our brigade was responsible 
 for "the burning of Columbia," and was punished by 
 extra duty — marching all night with a wagon train. It 
 was raining and thundering. To relieve the situation a 
 soldier sang " John Brown's body lies a-moldering in the 
 grave, but his soul goes marching on," and was joined by 
 several, but soon nothing was heard but the rain, or a 
 teamster cursing the mules. I did not burn houses, noth- 
 ing but pine rails, and I always took the "top rail." The 
 truth is. the army was turned loose. There was too much 
 brandy in town, and that caused the burning of Columbia. 
 I was at the " Grand Review," in Washington, and was 
 "discharged from the service of the United States the 
 24th day of July, 1865, at Louisville, Kentucky, by reason 
 of expiration of term of service." And mustered out at 
 Davenport, Iowa, August 3d, arriving home August 6th. 
 My brother and I married sisters. My wife's ancestry is 
 given in the biographies of my brother, following this 
 history. 
 
 THE LATE JUDGE DICKSON. 
 K Glance at the Career of a Good Man. 
 
 The late Judge Wm. M. Dickson, one of the victims 
 of the inclined plane disaster of October 15th last, was, 
 in its truest sense, an example of American manhood. 
 
 Of Scotch-Irish Presbyterian stock, his grandfather 
 presided over one parish for over fifty years. United, on 
 his mother's side, with the oldest families of Virginia, 
 near Natural Bridge, the Campbells and Lowrys, he 
 possessed, in the highest degree, that honest, fearless 
 determination of character which has been the bone and 
 sinew of so many of our great men. 
 
 He was a lineal descendant of Sir John Richardson, the 
 Arctic explorer. His father, a second son, having visited 
 the English colonies in an official position, drifted to 
 America, met and married Rachel Lowry near Madison, 
 Ind., and settled in Scott County. Two boys were the 
 issue of this union. 
 
 In 1835 the lather died, leaving a widow, John J., 
 aged 8, and William M., aged 7, who moved to Hanover, 
 Ind., where there was a good school. 
 
 The elder brother volunteered to learn a trade, while 
 William, the younger and weaker, went to school. 
 
 William attended college first at Hanover, which, 
 being moved to Madison (six miles), compelled him to 
 leave home. For the first two years he walked to Madison 
 each Monday morning, carrying on his back food enough 
 for the week. He swept out the college for his tuition. 
 By work during vacation he managed to get enough 
 money to attend college at Miami University, Oxford, 
 Ohio. Here he swept out the recitation rooms for his 
 tuition, and cooked his own scanty meals. He was grad- 
 uated from old Miami in 1846. While teaching school in 
 Kentucky he studied law ; was admitted to the practice at 
 Lexington. In 1848 he went to Harvard Law School. 
 While there, Chief-Justice Parker, his preceptor, picked 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 him out as an unusually bright, honest young man, and 
 made him one of his household. He graduated at Har- 
 vard in 1850. 
 
 Afterward, without money, without a friend, alone, 
 with only a letter of introduction from Justice Parker to 
 the late Judge Nathaniel Wright, we find young Dickson 
 in our city. 
 
 By tutoring in the judge's family, teaching elsewhere, 
 and by reporting as a space reporter on the old Cincinnati 
 Times, he managed to make a living. 
 
 About this time Jenny Lind, under Barnum, was 
 singing at the old National Theater. Mr. Dickson had 
 bought five tickets on speculation, had sold two for 
 enough to pay for the five, and while walking down 
 Fourth street he met Dr. John Parker and his daughter 
 Annie, whom he had known in Shelbyville, Ky. They 
 were here to see and hear the famous, nightingale, and 
 could secure no tickets. It was his happiness to invite the 
 doctor and his daughter to join him and share his tickets. 
 
 This daughter Annie was the great-granddaughter of 
 General Benjamin Logan, of pioneer memory.; and grand- 
 daughter of Colonel John Allen, who fell in command of 
 the Kentuckians at River Raisen in 1812; was the own 
 cousin of Mary Todd, wife of Abraham Lincoln ; a cousin 
 of Governor Porter, of Pennsylvania, Justice Marshall, of 
 Pennsylvania, Governor Crittenden, of Missouri, Governor 
 Eli Murry, of Utah, and Logan Murry, of New York. 
 
 Young Dickson had loved this Annie Parker in 
 Kentucky. His poverty had sealed his mouth. Needless 
 to say his love was renewed, and they were married at 
 Lexington, Ky., in 1852, and came immediately to Cin- 
 cinnati. Although almost an entire stranger here, he ran 
 on the Independent ticket for prosecuting attorney of the 
 Police Court. To the surprise of all, no more than him- 
 self, he was elected. He was the first prosecuting 
 attorney of this court. Spooner was judge. 
 
 During his term of office occurred the famous Bedini 
 riots, amid the cry of " Down with the Dutch!" Snel- 
 
 baker was mayor. Dickson, with Fred Hassaurek and 
 Judge Stallo as advisers, brought about harmony, and by 
 his uniform, just conduct toward the Germans endeared 
 himself to them. 
 
 We find him leaving the Police Court and rapidly 
 rising to the foremost rank among our lawyers. His 
 arguments under the Fugitive Slave Law and in the cele- 
 brated Blind Tom case are well known. At the age of 
 thirty-one he was appointed by Governor Chase judge of 
 the Common Pleas Court. On account of his extreme 
 youth and younger looks he was bitterly opposed by some 
 of the old lawyers. But by hard work, uniform courtesy 
 to all, and just decisions, he left the bench for. the practice 
 of the law, loved and admired and respected by all. 
 
 During the war his kindly heart and sympathetic 
 nature made him espouse the cause of the colored man. 
 He took -the stump for universal amnesty, liberty and the 
 Union. He partook in his love for the Union of the 
 spirit of Webster; in his love for abolition the uncom- 
 promising spirit of Sumner. The whole energy of his 
 mature manhood espoused these causes, and in their 
 behalf was a presidential elector for Lincoln when he was 
 first elected. He organized the first colored regiment 
 during the war, holding that the colored man was a fit 
 subject to fight for the Union and his own liberty. 
 During the war he was the confidential friend of Lincoln, 
 Stanton and Chase, spent much of his time at Washington, 
 and had much to do in framing the Emancipation Proc- 
 lamation. 
 
 The war over, he took a leading and active part in 
 reconstruction. His ready pen and active brain were 
 employed in the service of his party and his country. 
 
 While at Washington he was tendered by General 
 McClellan the position of assistant judge advocate general, 
 with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He spent some weeks 
 at the front, but a weak constitution, and a certain distrust 
 of the methods and men there employed, compelled him 
 to decline. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 During these times which stirred men's souls he was 
 active in politics, and, with Hassaurek, did much to bring 
 forward such men as Sherman, Garfield, Hayes, Dennison 
 and Brough. 
 
 He first, by law, secured to the negro the right to 
 ride on the Cincinnati street cars. 
 
 In 1866, in the prime of his manhood, at the early 
 age of thirty-nine, he was stricken down with sickness, 
 followed by extreme nervous prostration, from which he 
 never recovered. Foreign travel and the best medical 
 advice of this country and Europe were tried in vain. 
 
 Notwithstanding his terrible physical suffering, the 
 last twenty-five years of his life were spent in study and 
 writing and devotion to his family. He was always a hard 
 student; he particularly loved biography and history. 
 The story of the French Revolution, and its valued teach- 
 ings, were his constant theme and study, translating 
 Thiers' History from the French, which he did not 
 complete. 
 
 He was a constant writer for the magazines of the 
 country, for the daily press of this and other cities — 
 always on politics and sociology. His well-known initials, 
 " W. M. D.," will long be remembered and their absence 
 regretted. 
 
 His style was peculiarly concise, terse, perspicuous. 
 His stirring sentences were such not that they might be 
 understood, but that they must be understood. 
 
 In his attacks on monopolies, jobbery and public 
 trickery, public dishonesty, office seeking for the mere 
 office, he was never misunderstood; they were to the 
 point, and went straight to the marrow. His dart for the 
 plutocrat and the demagogue was ever ready, and sent 
 with merciless force. Public dishonesty he could not 
 brook, but for private misfortune or private wrong his 
 
 kindly heart had a mantle of Christian charity sufficient to 
 cover all — always forgiving, gentle, kind. 
 
 He was for some years before his death the president 
 of the trustees of the (^hio Medical College. His addresses 
 to the graduates of this college were conspicuous for their 
 learning and originality of thought. 
 
 His greatest public love was the Republican party, 
 and when, during the last presidential campaign, the 
 intemperate utterances of some of its leaders led the party 
 to say, '' Higher protection, and, if need be to get it, free 
 whisky and tobacco," which utterances he considered 
 fatally wrong — utterances of the demagogue. Long he 
 wrote against and fought them. 
 
 When his party, as he considered it, had left him, he 
 resigned in a well-known letter to the Lincoln Club, and 
 came out for Cleveland and reform — for the very policy 
 the Republican Senate afterward adopted. 
 
 He has been charged with leaving the Republican 
 ])arty.' This is false. No truer Republican ever lived. 
 He had fought for the party ; loved it. He had no 
 personal ambition, and as a kind parent chastises a way- 
 ward child, he, with sorrow, voted for Cleveland as the 
 exponent of tariff reform, as a man superior to his party — 
 not for him as a Democrat. 
 
 His last writings were for his party, even on the day 
 of his death. 
 
 Take him all in all, his place will be difficult to fill. 
 The public needs a censor. None could be found more 
 noble and honest in all his motives than he. 
 
 His character as a public man, a private citizen and 
 a loving father stands as a shining light to teach us, by 
 example, what a man can do in spite of physical suffering. 
 
 Ah ! why was he so cruelly taken ? The future alone 
 can tell. 
 
 — From the Cincinnati Enquirer. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 FROM THE COMMERCIAL GAZETTE. 
 An Extract. 
 
 In August, 1862, one month before President Lin- 
 coln issued his emancipation proclamation, Judge Dick- 
 son wrote to the Secretary, Mr. Chase, counseling that a 
 measure of universal amnesty be sent to the Confederate 
 President and Government, conditional upon the return 
 of the rebel States to their allegiance, vi'ith the alterna- 
 tive, if not done in a given time, of freedom to the slave 
 and the gift to them in certain States of their masters' 
 land. 
 
 Mr. Chase responded in a tone of discouragement, 
 and made no allusion to his suggestion. Nevertheless, on 
 the 22nd of the following September, the terms embodied 
 in his letter were by President Lincoln offered in his cele- 
 brated proclamation to the Southern States. Judge Dick- 
 son had close and friendly relations with Secretaries Stan- 
 .ton and Chase, and received Irom them letters of thanks 
 for the valuable support and advice be frequently gave 
 them. His able services in the legal profession, and 
 undoubted advance to the front rank of advocates, were 
 prevented by the failure of his health while in the prime 
 of life. 
 
 In the earlier days of his career. President Abraham 
 Lincoln always made Judge Dickson's house his home 
 when in Cincinnati. 
 
 FUNERAL SERVICES.* 
 
 The funeral services of Judge William M. Dickson 
 were quiet, unostentatious and impressive, but character- 
 ized by deep feeling and tender sympathy. The body 
 was placed in the front parlor of the roomy and comfort- 
 able house. It was encased in a rich, massive-looking 
 casket, furnished with heavy silver handles. The effect 
 
 of the funeral repository was not made obtrusive by orna- 
 mentation. It was symbolic of the life of him who rested 
 within — grand, stately and true. Neither was there a lavish 
 display of flowers. Two or three beautiful designs of 
 rich, rare blossoms and fresh, brilliant leaves rested on 
 the casket. The parlors were well filled with friends when 
 Rev. Dudley Rhodes began the burial service of the 
 Episcopal Church, and seldom have the solemn opening 
 words, " I am the resurrection and the life," fell with 
 more import. The ritualistic service was followed by 
 reading the fifteenth chapter of the Apostle Paul's first 
 epistle to the Corinthians, ending with the admonition : 
 "Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, 
 unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, 
 forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in 
 the Lord." 
 
 Rev. J. C. Wycoff, who has been an intimate friend 
 of Judge Dickson, and a boarder with him for the past 
 year, then delivered a eulogy, which was listened to in 
 profound stillness. In the course of his remarks, he said : 
 
 "Where death comes, the best impression, perhaps, 
 for those most concerned is made, not so much by any- 
 thing we may say, as by the fact itself. The death is the 
 fact that needs attention. It is a divine mode of leaching 
 men truths they are not disposed to heed. The Great 
 Master died, and that great tragedy holds a lesson for all 
 mortal men. The old foundations of the earth were filled 
 with premonitions, and the universe will be filled with the 
 echoes of that august event. The rocks must needs be 
 rent that were tombs of the world's primal life when the 
 Lord of Life himself came down as conqueror to show 
 that the whole domain of death was to be an open door 
 for men to pass out of to a broader life beyond. Christ's 
 death was not simply a culmination of a mortal life. It 
 was the seal of His doctrine and of His own devotion 
 to the eternal welfare of His disciples. Because He died 
 for all men, therefore, all men must die for Him, so that 
 they may feel the power of His resurrection, and receive 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RYHME AND PROSE. 
 
 87 
 
 from Him a new gift of everlasting life. Death, for the 
 believer, is Christ's shadow falling on man as He passes 
 through the world, and goes on before to open the door 
 of the Father's house above. That shadow lies here, and 
 on many another home to-day; but the sable drapery of 
 the bier is not so fit a symbol for it as the faded flower, 
 which yet exhales its perfume and holds the living seed 
 which will renew itself. As we sit in the shadow let us 
 look up to the door of the Father's house and try to speak 
 and hear the best truth. What truth would the departed 
 utter could he come back from the serene heights, where 
 he has gone up, and tell us what he had seen in that 
 clearer, sweeter light? He would emphasize the truth 
 that Christ is the Savior of men. 
 
 Judge Dickson took a great interest in the discussions 
 which now so deeply engage the thought and investigation 
 of the defenders of Christian faith, and told the speaker 
 that he had accepted the position of his elder brother, 
 now resident in the West, who had decided to pass by 
 these disputed points and study for himself the words of 
 the blessed Lord as found in the Gospels. The substance 
 of these he found in the Savior's two great command- 
 ments, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
 heart and mind and soul," and the second, which is like 
 unto it, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." On 
 these two commandments hang all the law and the 
 prophets. 
 
 Judge Dickson devoted the superior mind that God 
 had given him pre-eminently to practical thinking. With 
 a fine discrimination in his comments on men and their 
 conduct, he set apart, as something to be considered 
 by itself, the moral aspects of a transaction. These he 
 regarded as the essentials always to be sought, thus reveal- 
 ing those high moral sensibilities which are the fitting 
 complement of a superior intellect. When the frailties of 
 men were discussed, he always had a mantle of charity 
 ample enough to cover all pardonable shortcomings; but 
 
 for wanton wrong he had only a scornful and righteous 
 indignation. To me he always seemed a public-spirited 
 citizen, ever seeking by pen and voice the good of his fel- 
 low-men. Every man, in a large measure, is his brother's 
 keeper, and by fidelity to duty we can all do something to 
 avert evil and sorrow from the world. Asa father. Judge 
 Dickson seemed to be pre-eminently affectionate and 
 devoted, and no one could be more tender, patient and 
 forbearing. Of his career in his profession I need not 
 here speak. Multitudes of his fellow-workers will do him 
 ample justice." 
 
 He concluded by reading the Twenty-third Psalm, and 
 commended to all sorrowing hearts these comforting 
 words of Scripture ; 
 
 "Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God, even our 
 Father, who hath loved us and given us everlasting conso- 
 lation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts 
 and establish you in every good word and work." 
 
 The beautiful hymn, " Lend Kindly Light," which 
 had always been a favorite with Judge Dickson, was 
 then touchingly read by Rev. Rhodes, following which 
 the words were sung by Mrs. Guckenberger and Miss 
 Wheeler. The singers were in an upper apartment opening 
 on the staircase, and the effect of the sweet voices, modu- 
 lated to a low, melodious strain, was exquisitely tender 
 and impressive. 
 
 The casket was then borne to the hearse by the fol- 
 lowing well-known citizens, friends of Judge Dickson : 
 Hon. Wm. M. Ramsey, Judge Morris L. Buchwalter, 
 Hon. Wm. S. Groesbeck, Judge Alfred Yaple, Hon. 
 Aaron F. Perry, E. W. Kittredge, Esq., A. J. Redway, 
 Esq., and Judge Charles Murdock. 
 
 The funeral arrangements were in charge of Mr. 
 John F. Wiltsee. The interment was at Spring Grove, at 
 which place the remainder of the Episcopal burial service 
 was read by Rev. Dudley Rhodes. 
 
 * Copied from The Commercial Gazelle. 
 
A FARMER'S THOUGHTS IN RHYME AND PROSE. 
 
 LETTER FROM MY BROTHER'S DAUGHTER JENNIE TO HER BROTHER, 
 
 Dated Dumfries, Scotland, July 7, 
 
 Dear Willie : We visited the house where Burns 
 lived, where he died, his tomb and the old house in which 
 he used to spend his evenings and wrote ' Auld Lang Syne.' 
 At 10 o'clock we took a carriage for Mouse wald, and 
 oh. Will, how I longed for you. If I could only describe 
 it to you. We went first to the manse — about seven miles 
 from here. The old manse has been destroyed long ago, 
 and this one built since 1826, but not the one our great- 
 grandfather lived in. I cannot imagine a sweeter little 
 home, nor have I ever seen or read of such a one, covered 
 with ivy, roses and honeysuckle. The well-kept walks, 
 flower beds, courts and air of culture and refinement. I 
 asked for Mr. Gillespie, the present clergyman, and he 
 soon came in, a fine looking man, 50 years old. As soon 
 as I said my name he asked if I were the daughter of 
 Judge Dickson, who had been here some twenty years ago 
 with his wife, and when I said I was he rushed off for his 
 wife and a warmer welcome I never had. He said he had 
 often thought of father and mother since then, and how 
 he enjoyed their visit, and he said, ' I see them now walk- 
 ing around the manse, and their interested faces and your 
 mother's pretty white skin.' I could not keep back the 
 tears, nor could he. Then we went over to the little 
 church, and I inclose a little old picture of it he gave me, 
 and beneath where I put the cross is where the grave of 
 our ancestor is. The old sexton was there, and was bap- 
 tized by our great-grandfather. He was the funniest old 
 fellow. Then we went inside, and I sat in the pew where 
 our great-grandmother used to listen to her 'spouse,' and 
 I went up into the pulpit. It is all as it was when they 
 were there. Next a walk to the little hamlet or thatched 
 cottage, and a call on old mother Nichols, who remembers 
 our grandfather well before he went to America, and she 
 
 could not make a big enough fuss over me, and if any- 
 one's blessing and prayers will take me to heaven her's 
 will. I left her crying as if her heart would break about 
 ' auld days,' and how she was hurrying for the other side. 
 Then we went back to the old manse and had tea, cold 
 meats and cakes. Our visit here is something always to 
 be remembered. I am in dreamland to-night. In all my 
 travels and all I have seen, to-day has been the crowning 
 day of all." 
 
 "This is what is cut in the stone above the grave of 
 of our great-grandfather ; 
 
 ' Here lies the mortal part of the 
 
 Reverend Jacob Dickson, 
 
 who, after discharging the duties of the holy ministry at 
 
 Blenerhasset, in England for 2 years, and 
 
 in this parish for 52 years, 
 
 DIED 
 
 on the 4th day of November, 1824, 
 
 in the 88th year of his age, 
 
 and of his wife, 
 
 Janet Richardson, 
 
 WHO DIED 
 
 on the 25th day of July, 1821, 
 in the 83rd year of her age. 
 They lived a pattern to the world of conjugal fidelity 
 and affection for the unusual period of 55 years. They 
 were both remarkable for the kindliness of their hearts, 
 the urbanity of their manners, and the simplicity and 
 godly sincerity of their faith. He exercised the functions 
 of his sacred office with dignified humility, unconscious 
 zeal and unostentatious but fervent piety, ' an example of 
 the believer in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, 
 in faith and in purity. — I Tim.: 4th Chap.'"