Gazette Of The United States

FOR THE GAZETTE.

ELKANAH TO JONATHAN.

[See Nat. Gaz. June 1st.]

WITH every righteous government at odds,
and gods
That wheresoever laws and justice end me,
A restless disposition shall attend me.
The soil that gave me birth I found too hot,
And many a legal threshing there I got.
My mind a storm, I never could be quiet—
My only utterance was mobs and riot—
Until a pack, with wigs and gowns and bands
And arms so long, none could escape their hands.
To check the boiling of my patriot fury,
Condemned me by that bane of rogues, a jury;
But thank kind fortune, I escaped a jail.
And gave them for security—leg-bail.
Free from their cursed gripe, to this blest shore,
A friendly bark my precious carcass bore.
But here, alas, I find it to my cost,
That all my virtuous deeds are labor lost:
The people free, and happy, and well fed.
Can't be persuaded that they have no bread.
Or, that for plundering there exists a cause.
So long as truth and justice prop the laws.
And tho' th' industrious live in peace and ease
Some folks I find can't do just as they please—
Courts, Judges, Juries, Lawyers, and such things,
Contrived for rogues, are here, although no kings.
This will not do—the Devil whom I serve,
Knows, if the times are tranquil I must starve;
My plan is therefore laid—when more at leisure,
I'll tell you what success attends each measure.