2. “The Anarchiad”
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Parrington, Vernon Louis
An equal sway, their mind indignant spurns;
To wanton sway, the bliss of freedom turns;
Led by wild demagogues, the factious crowd,
Mean, fierce, imperious, insolent and loud,
Nor fame, nor wealth, nor power, nor system draws—
They see no object, and perceive no cause;
But feel, by turns, in one disastrous hour,
Th’ extremes of license, and th’ extremes of power....
Will this vain scheme bid restless factions cease,
Check foreign wars, or fix internal peace?
Call public credit from her grave to rise,
Or gain in grandeur what they lose in size?...
But know, ye favor’d race, one potent head
Must rule your States, and strike your foes with dread.
The finance regulate, the trade control,
Live through the empire, and accord the whole.
Ere death invades, the night’s deep curtain falls,
Through ruin’d realms the voice of UNION calls; ...
On you she calls! attend the warning cry;
Ye live united, or divided die![4]
But chief the race allured by fleeting fame,
Who seek on earth the politicians name;
Auspicious race! whom folly joys to bless,
And wealth and honor crown with glad success;
Formed, like balloons, by emptiness to rise
On pop’lar gales, to waft them through the skies ...
See, from the shades, on tiny pinions swell
And rise, the young DEMOCRACY of hell!
Before their face the powers of Congress fade,
And public credit sinks, an empty shade;
Wild severance rages, wars intestine spread,
Their boasted UNION hides her dying head;
The forms of government in ruin hurl’d,
Reluctant empire quits the western world.[5]
Amid such democratic welter and mortal confusion the sole hope of safety lies in Federalism, and the sapient leader who shall bring order out of the wild misrule is thus greeted:
Ardent and bold, the smiling land to save,
In council sapient as in action brave,
I fear’d young Hamilton’s unshaken soul,
And saw his arm our wayward host control; ...
Fire in his eye, and thunder on his tongue.[6]