Clang the bells in every steeple,
  Call all true men to disown
The tradoocers of our people,
  The enslavers o’ their own; 140
Let our dear old Bay State proudly
  Put the trumpet to her mouth,
Let her ring this messidge loudly
  In the ears of all the South:—­

’I’ll return ye good fer evil
  Much ez we frail mortils can,
But I wun’t go help the Devil
  Makin’ man the cuss o’ man;
Call me coward, call me traiter,
  Jest ez suits your mean idees,—­
Here I stand a tyrant hater, 151
  An’ the friend o’ God an’ Peace!’

Ef I’d my way I hed ruther
  We should go to work an part,
They take one way, we take t’other,
  Guess it wouldn’t break my heart;
Man hed ough’ to put asunder
  Them thet God has noways jined;
An’ I shouldn’t gretly wonder
  Ef there’s thousands o’ my mind. 160

[The first recruiting sergeant on record I conceive to have been that individual who is mentioned in the Book of Job as going to and fro in the earth, and walking up and down in it. Bishop Latimer will have him to have been a bishop, but to me that other calling would appear more congenial.  The sect of Cainites is not yet extinct, who esteemed the first-born of Adam to be the most worthy, not only because of that privilege of primogeniture, but inasmuch as he was able to overcome and slay his younger brother.  That was a wise saying of the famous Marquis Pescara to the Papal Legate, that it was impossible for men to serve Mars and Christ at the same time.  Yet in time past the profession of arms was judged to be [Greek:  kat exochaen] that of a gentleman, nor does this opinion want for strenuous upholders even in our day.  Must we suppose, then, that the profession of Christianity was only intended for losels, or, at best, to afford an opening for plebeian ambition?  Or shall we hold with that nicely metaphysical Pomeranian, Captain Vratz, who was Count Koenigsmark’s chief instrument in the murder of Mr. Thynne, that the Scheme of Salvation has been arranged with an especial eye to the necessities of the upper classes, and that ’God would consider a gentleman and deal with him suitably to the condition and profession he had placed him in’?  It may be said of us all, Exemplo plus quam ratione vivimus.—­H.W.]

No.  II

A LETTER

FROM MR. HOSEA BIGLOW TO THE HON.  J.T.  BUCKINGHAM, EDITOR OF THE BOSTON
COURIER, COVERING A LETTER FROM MR. B. SAWIN, PRIVATE IN THE
MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT