Vermont Telegraph

To overcome the truth, and give the lie
To God's all-conquering word, and mandates stern and high!
Him I select from out the craven crowd,
To be the theme of this rebuking verse:
Him whose word-valiant tongue has uttered loud
The thunders of the law, and spoke the curse
Denounced on rebel sinners; yet with worse
Than suicidal folly shielded sin,
And sanctioned robbery, to asperse
The friends of right, and drown in clamorous din
The voice of argument, which candid hearts might win!
Such is the clerical apologist
For slavery! And do I wrong to raise
The note of condemnation, and enlist
The lyric's aid, to rouse afresh the blaze
Of dying virtue, and awake amaze
And deep disgust towards ministerial crime?
Shall sacerdotal robes screen guilt, and praise
Attend ecclesiastics through all time.
Whatever be their deeds? No, not in rhyme!
The Muse shall utter her disclaimer bold:
Sin is the hold to be assailed by truth!
Shall she recoil, and tremblingly withhold
Her bolts to spare a traitor's head, in sooth?
Is such her cowardice, her reckless ruth,
That titled baseness she will touch not, though
It strive to stain the good name of a youth,
For pleading for the dumb and helpless? No,
Gowned vice shall feel her thrust, and take her heaviest blow.
He who professes great regard for right,
Yet plays the hypocrite, and acts unjust,
Invokes a double weight of scorn to light
Upon his naked head. He reaps distrust
And shame, and all men view him with disgust.
And it is right, else stern integrity
Would be despised, and trodden in the dust.
And such will be the fate of those who try
To trample righteousness among the ministry!
Such is the consequence of evil-doing!
Such the fit reward for bowing down to Baal!
The sacred cause of liberty who can touch
To hinder, and not turn opinion's scale
Against him? Albeit like a storm of hail
The opposition rages, and though loud
The exasperated rabble rave, and rail
At freedom's advocates, who stand unbowed;
The man of character, who goeth with the crowd,
Brings infamy around him, as the sun
Draws clouds about his path when he declines.
One damning act like this, deliberate done,
And faint, and foul his reputation shines;
Like placing diamonds back again in mines,
It shrouds the glorious light of virtuous deeds,
And stamps disgrace in everlasting lines!
A warning unto him who e'er recedes
From rectitude, and goes which way the public leads.
O what a soul-appalling spectacle
To see the honored legate of the skies,
Stoop from the height of righteous principle,
And countenance the worst of robberies!
He who has urged to holiest emprise
The blood-washed saints, enjoining them to flee
From every evil, though the world despise
Such rigidness: yet teaching them to be
Unmindful of the poor, crushed down by slavery!
Wo unto him who winks at lawless acts,
And strives to force the gag on freemen's lips!
Who tramples on discussion, lays the axe
At freedom of opinion, boldly nips
The buds of independent thought, and clips
The wings of virtuous daring! Double wo,
When screening tyranny with chains and whips,
By such unhallowed course; and fourfold wo
When he who blows the gospel trumpet doeth so!
Wo to the preacher, who with wicked tongue
Assails the root of virtue—liberty!
In characters of guilt and horror hung,
Let his unworthy name be placed on high,
To be the gaze of every passer by,
However it provoke his pious bile to overflow, mixt with mendacity!
Expose corruption, heedless of men's smile.
Unawed by laic frown, or sacerdotal wile.
GIMEL.