The North Star (Rochester)/1848/01/14/Badinage

For the North Star.
BADINAGE.

What says the North?
 "Stand by the right!"
Echoes the West,
 "With all our might!"
Starts up the South,
 "Then will we fight!

Not for the slave,
 But for the chains,
Hot blood shall lave,
 Our chivalric plains,
But slavery we'll have,
 There's for your pains."

"Hold!" cries the Right,
 "Where is your wit?
E'er you cry cry, Fight,
 See where 'twill hit,—
Sometimes, in his fright,
 The biter gets bit!"

"Your power we defy,
 North, West, and the world!
In our red stramps we'll lie,
 With our banner unfurled,
While on mountain-top high,
 Shall our smoke wreath be curled."

December, 1847.