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Poetry: The Avenger And The Slave

Poetry: The Avenger And The Slave image
Parent Issue
Day
2
Month
June
Year
1841
Copyright
Public Domain
Poem
OCR Text

"For the oppression of the poor, for the oighingf of the needy, now will I arise snilh the Lord; Iwülset him in safely from hiin that puffeth nt him." - Psalm xii. 5. What though tlio oppresaoi-'s arm is strong, And secms his tyrant-grasp secure? He to whom vengeance dolhbelong, Will vindícate His poor! KTot vainly shall the needy sigh Amid his anguish ar.ii despair- A God of jnstice reigns on high- The answerer of our prayer! Lonjr haththe bondman, at hia loiJ, Bent, shrieking 'neath the bloody thonff; Long huth the helpless been the epoil Of avarice and wrong- The needy halh gone down to doath, Unp'itied, and his wrongs forgot, Till ia his heart the tyrant eaith, 4The Lord regards it not !" Vain hopei for hath not Isr akl's God Been froui of old consuming fire, Wh o in his wrath the people trod, And trampled them in ire? And will not he, beneath whoee frown The pride of Egypt turned to dust, Sinite with hia bolta tho oppressor down? A retribution justh Tremble! ye déspota of our land ! For the oppression of the poor, lojudgment God Bhall lift his hand And bur6t their prison door! For He hath heard the capcive's sighs He sees the tears ye cause to flow, And, girt with vengeance, will ariso- Wo, to the tyrant .' - wo !Extract from the addrcss of Alvan Stcw art on the speculations of '34, '5, and '6. March 16 141. Another thing it was easy to see among the distempered ones: th.it money itself, for rvatance, a given sutn 10 or 100 dollar had lost thepositivevalue onco attached tc it, andas fortunes come to be made.by every body, and every day, the very currency of the country, among the infected one&, a3a sort of judgment upon them, in their own imaginations!, seemed to have lost muchof itsancient and intrinsic value and was in one sense approaehing in their estimation lo the depreciation of the oíd continental currency. O.ic thing must bc obvious, as a general deduction in relation tothis species of American monomanía, ihatthosewho seemed to make fortunes, and really did, were like successful men in lotteriesjihe high prizes they had drawn induced thern to consider lhemsolvc3 the children of a proud and exaited destiny, they consequently drewso hard upon desiiny and fate, by making contracis which. even fate and destiny could not aid them to perform,until destiny having - TOused himself awhile with the poor man, let him drop back into the original ínsignif icance from whence he emerged, to be heard of no more (breve r. In the speaker's limited acquaintance, he can not now name a single successful man, who robbed his neighlmrs and the unsuspeciing of h3 ten3 and hundreds of thou3and. but has been by tle course of events struck from the list of living, rospectable nnd prosperous men, to be on!y known hereafcer by thoso unnatneabio appeüations fixed upon the man who has injured thou sands, ruined hundreds, and destroyed him sel f. The Southern states, or the individuáis of vhm.they are composed, were predisponed to the complaint, which raged in 1834, 5, and 6, so powerfnlly at theNorth that is, a sudden desire tobe rich by othor men's labor, without tpiïiag themselves Ithas ended in the alinost universal insol vency of the Suth. Not only as individuáis, but it 3 believed in sever.il cases, of States themselves. They disemkuvied the U. S. Bank of 30,000,000 nevcr to be repaid, by which thousnnds of her stockholuers at the Nórth and in Englnnd are undone. These slave States owe the Nurth, England atidiil !Umd about tfaree hundred million;thebare interest of which is equal to the annual income of the General Government of the United States; and at least one hundred and fifiy of the three millions will never be paid, by which several thousatid of the most worthy families in the Northern free States and in Europe will be precipitated from affluencc and independenee to an abyss of utter niin. The cilizensofthe State of Mississippi owe ninety milüuns for slavcs, and the state Jent ita bonds to the Banks for twenty three miüions. The banks eold the bonds in the Nurth and Europe, and look money and loaned it to the speculating planters, and the spcculators have become iasolvent; consequently the bunks are brolio, and the state of Mississippi not rich er than Oneida, Madison and Os w ego oounttes, must pay its twenty three millions wheu she can. Louisiana loaned twenty-five milliona of her bonds to her banks, and all about to be insolvent, toaid speculators to get rich without labor. Alabama loaned the credit ofthat state to foui' toen milliona for a lik object. Virginia's -State debt ie fourteea millions. Arkaasas witb oüly ona memoer of eongress, kanodfrrö iniilioua of ber state buuds to aid feer hanks ta loan to Bpeouialors forty ihou and doliara of Jt on the basis of a red back baah io thia County. JKentucky has a leM r íven mJWoai no n State,.souri If ever a nation was visitcd xv'uh j'jdgcjinents for attempting (o be rich uilhout industry, this natiun has luid tlicpuiáen edohalice commeiuled lo its lip?. Most i.T ihe trouble a bout currency and broken Banks nre to be ascribed to the same (VuitCul and frlghtfal sou ree of al mistortunes, the greal desire of enjoying riches bcfore lliey aro earned, and laxing the future for the benefit of the present, relymg upon the injienuity of the bhain, rather than the vigor of the hand, by wliich we are brouglit buck to the great pfopositioii of the wiso min,"tlu. he whu haaien ith to be rich caimot be innocent." - VVealtli suddenlyacquired will rarely abide. fsoihin" bui quiet consistent iudus try, oan render any people prosperous and happy. Libor is honorable to all, frorn thu king on thejhrone to the medicarnin thé Street j and lel him or her who ia ashamë'd to ivork tbr themselvcs, or for the benefit ol their race be morejishamed to consume the iudustry and labor of otliQrs, tor which ihey do nol renderan equiv olent. A. Stewart. Among the western members of Congres, there are many men whose history would be as iuteresting as romance. - Manvofthem are men who have endured poverty and hardship .in the most appa'íiñg iorms, but an indomitable energy bas carried them ihrough il all. One of these members, Mr Casey, of Illinois, has been more frequentlv than any other rncmber in ihe present Congresscalled to the chair wbëri Ihe House has gone into cominiitee of the A correspondent of the Lowel! Courier gives the following sketch of this gentleman: Mr. Casey was born in Georgia, and ráised in Tennessee. At the s.gï of 17, married. One yenr afterwards, with a small family, consisting of a wife andone child, while Illinois was a territory, he set forth', with all thegoods he had and oiiattels stosved in a pack about as big;is a hush el basket, his wife by hisside, her cliild in hernrms, his pack on bis back, and on his lips these words: "Cotne my wifo I Have forty seven dollars in cash and a stout heart; don't you be down in the moath, for I am goingto be somc body." - Twewy ihree ye-irs ago he landed in the (brest of Illinois, wherebe now resides. He settled in JefFeison county, about way üetween theOhio and Mississippi rivers. There were then but five families within Hve miles of him. St. Louis ouo liundred miles distant, was the nenrost village ivhere there was a store. With his own hands he built his log cabin, and in the sweat of hisbrow proviried the wherewith to feed and cloth bis i'amily. Twcntythree years have rolled aváy,dúrmg which pertpii the chango in the State of Illinois Iüis been as great as it has been in the con dition of thia eariy adventurer. He was firstcallcd to represent hisneighbors in the Legislature eighteen years ago. He then went into the Sonajte. He was mmediate ly called to preside over that body, which he oontinued to do for four years. He was next Licut. Govcinorofthat State for four ye;u?, and aftcr that ho was called to the .station he now occupies, eight years ago. During the whole periud of eight years, mclu'iingone exirasession of Congrcss, he has never been absent 'rom the House but a day aod a haií', and that was for the parpóse 6f goiñg lo New York, a journey which I (boirding with him at the lir.n-) persuiided him io make for his health. - Mr Casey's influencio in the House is cqual to that of nny other member. Corwin, of Ohio, Proffit of Indiana, Crury of Michigan, and many other western memire Jike Mr Casey, self made men.