"'Ef you take a soaord an droar it,
An go stick a feller thru,
Guv'ment won't answer for it,
God'll send the bill to you!'
This was slightly audacious and irreverent in expression, but it was
remarkably popular in New England at that time. The writer is now one
of the editors of a popular Boston periodical, and would be one of the
last, I have no doubt, to induce a Northern soldier to withdraw his
sword from the body of any unhappy Southerner whom he had, contrary to
the poet's former political ethics, 'stuck thru.' But it is not the
revolution wrought in the minds of men of great intelligence that is
most to be deplored - for the powerful will of such men may compel their
thoughts back again to a philosophy of peace; no, it is the mercenary
and military interests created under Mr. Lincoln which are represented,
the former by an estimated governmental outlay of above $100,000,000
this year, and the other by the 800,000 men, whose blood is thus to be
bought and paid for; by the armies out of uniform who prey upon the
army in uniform; by the army of contractors who are to feed and clothe
and arm the fighting million; by that other army, the army of tax-
collectors, who cover the land, seeing that no industry escapes
unburthened, no possession unentered, no affection even, untaxed. Tax!
tax!
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