I knowed ez wal ez though I 'd seen 't with eyes Thet when the war wuz over copper 'd rise, An' thet we 'd hev a rile-up in our kettle 'T would need Leviathan's whole skin to settle; I thought 't would take about a generation 'Fore we could wal begin to be a nation, But I allow I never did imegine 'T would be our Pres'dunt thet 'ould drive a wedge in To keep the split from closin' ef it could, An' healin' over with new wholesome wood; For th' ain't no chance o' healin' while they think Thet law an' gov'ment 's only printer's ink; I mus' confess I thank him for discoverin' The curus way in which the States are sovereign; They ain't nut _quite_ enough so to rebel, But, when they fin' it 's costly to raise h----, Why, then, for jes' the same superl'tive reason, They 're most too much so to be tetched for treason; They _can't_ go out, but ef they somehow _du_, Their sovereignty don't noways go out tu; The State goes out, the sovereignty don't stir, But stays to keep the door ajar for her. He thinks secession never took 'em out, An' mebby he 's correc', but I misdoubt; Ef they war n't out, then why, 'n the name o' sin, Make all this row 'bout lettin' of 'em in? In law, p'r'aps nut; but there 's a diffurence, ruther, Betwixt your brother-'n-law an' real brother, An' I, for one, shall wish they 'd all ben _som'eres_, Long 'z U. S. Texes are sech reg'lar comers. But, O my patience! must we wriggle back Into th' ole crooked, pettyfoggin' track, When our artil'ry-wheels a road hev cut Stret to our purpose ef we keep the rut? War 's jes' dead waste excep' to wipe the slate Clean for the cyph'rin' of some nobler fate.