JEREMIAH THE PROPHET TO SLAVE-OWNING AMERICA.

JEREMIAH XXXIV., 17, &c.

Thus spake Jehovah, “Let my people go,
Enslaved these sons of Ham no longer, know
I am their God, the Lord.”
God’s voice is heard in Providence, none can
Attentive mark the movings among man
And fail to hear His word.

Thou land whose proud shores curb the Atlantic wave,
Whose greed of gold still binds the sighing slave,
Awake! Thy doom is nigh.
God is not mocked – see, gleaming from afar,
His minister of vengeance, fiery War.
Flaunts his red flag on high.

Ye have hearkened unto Me, saith God;
To have not case away oppression’s rod;
Still doth the captive groan.
Therefore a liberty do I decree:
Onward, to ravage I have made thee free,
This people is thine own.

Famine and Pestilence, ye demons black,
Saga uncontrolled upon his bloody track –
O’erturn, o’erturn, o’erturn!
This flesh shall feed the foul birds of the air,
And beasts unclean the horrid feast shall share,
And fires of wrath shall burn.

Thus saith the Lord – hearken, thou trembling earth,
Wonder ye morning stars who at her birth
Hymn’d the Creator’s praise.
Ye tribes and kindreds of a guilty world
Repent! Ere the avenging bolt is hurl’d –
While retribution stays.

Alas! Alas! Wherefore, my brother man,
Should God, our Maker, thus in anger plan
The ruin of His sons?
Return repentant: though His arm be bared
Misery yet lingers – yet ye may be spared;
Return, ye erring ones.

October, 1861. B.