a lamb, wich frisketh, and waggeth his tale, and leapeth, ez he
nippeth the tender grass. I am a colt, wich kicketh up its heels
exuberantly.

I am a bridegroom, wich cometh from his bride in the mornin feelin
releeved in the knowledge that she wore not palpitators, nor false
calves, nor nothin false, afore she wuz hizn.

I am a steamboat captin with a full load, a doggry keeper on a Saturday
nite, a sportin man with four aces in his hand.

All these am I, and more.

For we sought to establish ourselves upon a rock, but found that the
underpinnin wuz gone out uv it.

Even slavery wuz our strong place, and our hope; but the corners hed bin
knocked out uv it.

The sons uv Belial hed gone forth agin it. Massachusetts hed assailed
it, and the North West hed drawd its bow agin it.

Wendell Phillips hed pecked out wun stun, Garret Smith another; and the
soljers hed completed what they hed begun.

And Congris, even the Rump, hed decreed its death, and hed held forth
its hand to Ethiopia.

It passed a bill givin the Niggers their rites, and takin away from us
our rites:

Sayin, that no more shel we sell em in the market place,

Or take their wives from em,

Or be father to their children,

Or make uv em conkebines aginst their will,

Or force em to toil without hire,

Or shoot em, ez we wuz wont to do under the old dispensashun,

Or make laws for em wich didn't bind us as well.

And our hearts wuz sad in our buzzums; for we said, Lo! the nigger is
our ekal; and we mourned ez them hevin no hope.

But the President, even Androo, the choice uv Booth, said, Nay.

And the bill wuz vetoed, and is no law; and our hearts is made glad.

And from the Ohio to the Gulf shel go up the song uv gladness and the
sounds uv mirth.

The nigger will we slay, for he elevated his horn agin us.

We will make one law for him and another for us, and he will sigh for
the good old times when he wuz a slave in earnest.

His wife shel be our conkebine, ef she is fair to look upon; and ef he
murmurs, we'll bust his head.

His daughters shel our sons possess; and their inkrease will we sell,
and live upon the price they bring.

In our fields they shel labor; but the price uv their toil shel make us
fat.

Sing, O my soul!

The nigger hed become sassy and impudent, and denied that he wuz a
servant unto his brethren.

He sheltered hisself behind the Freedman's Burow, and the Civil Rites
Bill, and the soldiery, and he wagge