[222] To-day he is, perhaps, best known by his parody on "Dixie" and by his singularly beautiful and pathetic "Every Year" [_Poems_, Roome's edition, 31-34]. [223] See _Journal of Proceedings_, no. 273 of Johns Hopkins University Civil War Pamphlets. [224] Bishop, _Loyalty on the Frontier_, 148-151. [225] The poem is printed entire in Bishop's _Loyalty on the Frontier_, 149-150. The first two stanzas are here given: DISUNION Ay, shout! 'Tis the day of your pride, Ye despots and tyrants of earth; Tell your serfs the American name to deride, And to rattle their fetters in mirth. Ay, shout! for the league of the free Is about to be shivered to dust, And the rent limbs to fall from the vigorous tree, Shout! shout! for more firmly established, will be Your thrones and dominions beyond the blue sea. Laugh on! for such folly supreme, The world has yet never beheld; And ages to come will the history deem, A tale by antiquity swelled; For nothing that time has upbuilt And set in the annals of crime, So stupid and senseless, so wretched in guilt, Darkens sober tradition or rhyme. _It will be like the fable of Eblis' fall, A by-word of mockery and horror to all._ [226] _Official Records_, first ser., vol. iii, 580-581. [227] In a letter to Commissioner D. N. Cooley, under date of February 17, 1866, Pike said that Toombs requested him in May of 1861 to visit the Indian country as commissioner. I have not been able to find out whether Toombs made his request in writing or verbally. The correspondence of Toombs recently edited by U. B. Phillips does not furnish any additional information on this point. [228] On one very important occasion, Albert Pike was not strictly fair to the Indians. That occasion was after the war when the United States Indian Office was endeavoring to make a settlement with the Cherokees on the basis of their adherence to the Confederate cause. Pike was appealed to and threw the weight of his influence against John Ross, but most unjustly as it would seem. The letter embodying his views is a narrative of the events of 1861 as they happened in the Indian country under his scrutiny, and may as well be inserted here in full. It is to be found in the Indian Office in a bundle labeled, "Loyalty of John Ross, Principal Chief of the Cherokees: Letter of Albert Pike (original), Feb. 17, 1866--and _Copies_ of several of Ross' letter--relative to his _loyalty_ in 1861 & 1862, etc." 5. _Albert Pike to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs_ MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, 17th February 1866. SIR: I have received, to-day, a copy of the "Memorial" of the "Southern Cherokees," to the President, Senate and House of Representatives, in reply to the Memorial of other Cherokees claiming to be "loyal."