, neither have we cheese, shoes, sugar,
jack-knives, cigars, patent medicines, glue, tenpenny nails, French
gloves, pens or ink, dye-stuffs, nor raisins.

'Clothes are exceeding scarce, for, lo! we are becoming an extremely
ragged and seedy generation; our toes stick out through our last year's
boots, neither is there any one among us who knoweth enough to make the
first principle of a brogan.

'For all these things were made or imported by the Yankees afore-time,
even since the days of our fathers, and we are too proud to defile our
hands with such base labor.

'Shall we, too, be as dogs cobbling shoes, or as the heathen who sell
rat-traps, peddle milk-pails, and keep Thanksgiving?

'Lo! the kings of the earth see us with scorn; those who sit in high
places wag their heads, and say we are naught, yea, polluted in our
inheritance.

'And the _Times_ will declare that we sit in ashes; even the _Moniteur_
will say that we devour dust, and the _Zeitungs_ of all Germany, even
the press of the Philistines, will proclaim that we are utterly fallen.

'Now let there be a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together,
to settle this business.

'Let there be ambassadors--men of subtle tongue, cunning in
counsel--chosen to go forth; yea, let them be equipped in fine raiment,
having bran-new coats to confer honor and glory upon us, with
secretaries and assistant secretaries, sub-secretaries and
deputy-assistant sub-secretaries,--even these having their servants and
servants' servants,--lo, the least among them shall have his underling,
and so on _ad infinitum_.

'And we, albeit poor, will lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver
in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, who shall bedeck them exceeding
fine, so that the princes and potentates shall fall down before them,
yea, shall worship.

'Then, when our great embassy cometh, and the princes inquire of the
blockade, lo, our messengers shall laugh and say, "Go to!--it is naught,
it hath passed away, and is bosh."'

'"Are we not here, ready to declare the end from the beginning, and
from ancient times, even of CALHOUN, the things that are not
yet done, saying, 'our counsel shall stand?' Verily, it takes us, and we
are the original Jacobs, having no connection with the bogus concern
over the way."

'And they shall cotton to us, and we unto them; and we will trade our
tobacco for their wines, and _Pro Baccho Tobacco_ shall be written in
all the high places.'

CH