APPENDIX
PIECES IN EARLY YOUTH
1834-'42
DOUGH-FACE SONG
--Like dough; soft; yielding to pressure; pale----_Webster's
Dictionary_.
We are all docile dough-faces,
They knead us with the fist,
They, the dashing southern lords,
We labor as they list;
For them we speak--or hold our tongues,
For them we turn and twist.
We join them in their howl against
Free soil and "abolition,"
That firebrand--that assassin knife--
Which risk our land's condition,
And leave no peace of life to any
Dough-faced politician.
To put down "agitation," now,
We think the most judicious;
To damn all "northern fanatics,"
Those "traitors" black and vicious;
The "reg'lar party usages"
For us, and no "new issues."
Things have come to a pretty pass,
When a trifle small as this,
Moving and bartering nigger slaves,
Can open an abyss,
With jaws a-gape for "the two great parties;"
A pretty thought, I wis!
Principle--freedom!--fiddlesticks!
We know not where they're found.
Rights of the masses--progress!--bah!
Words that tickle and sound;
But claiming to rule o'er "practical men"
Is very different ground.
Beyond all such we know a term
Charming to ears and eyes,
With it we'll stab young Freedom,
And do it in disguise;
Speak soft, ye wily dough-faces--
That term is "compromise.
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