The sin was an abomination
And many people called it such,
But compromise achieved the nation
And Jefferson wrote words that touch.
A slaveholder, with benefits,
Yet he himself, in words excised
At the abomination hits,
The institution—compromised.
Perhaps it was the devil’s pact
To leave the matter unresolved,
Counting on the unborn to act—
The price of freedom was involved.
Yet so that body “kicked the can,”
The discord, further down the road,
Believing, if not to a man,
Its end drew near, the times forebode.
True patriots, as John Brown then,
Arose, as though a voice from God
Placed it square back in front of men,
Whom every schoolboy must applaud.
The means harsh in their execution
Opposed a state of terrorism
Where slavery, sans elocution,
Achieved the state of cataclysm.
If John Brown’s body moulders now,
So yours and mine will do in time,
But it is ours to disavow
And smite the execrable crime.