Poets of Confederation

Tho’ felon hands have forged a chain,
In slavery to bind us;
We yet shall snap the bonds in twain,
And cast the links behind us.

With lying lips and guileful tongue
They laboured to enslave us;
Until those rights from us were wrung,
Which our forefathers gave us.

Our noble country they would grasp,
With tyranny enthralling;
While we in bondage sore must grasp
Beneath a rule so galling.

To traitors we must bow the knee
In humble supplication –
Shall we who lately were so free
Brook this humiliation?

Forbid it heaven, and all true men
Endowed with powers of reason!
No, we must have our own again
In spite of fraud and treason.

Our cry will reach the mother shore
Against the violation
0f all we held so dear of your,
By this Confederation.

For Britain was by lies deceived
When she did pass the measure
That our escutcheon fair defiled
And robbed us of our treasure

Born freemen, freemen we will die,
Part of a glorious nation
Then let each loyal subject cry
‘Confound· Confederation!’

For felon hands may forge a chain
In slavery to bind us;
But we will snap their bonds in twain,
And cast the links behind us.

Fred. (?) Morning Chronicle, December 24, 1867

Muise, D.A. “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation” Dalhousie Review, Volume 50, Number 1, 1970 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59368/dalrev_vol50_iss1_pp71_82.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

But one short year, and oh the change
Which darkly shades our country’s brow!
Once free as mountain eagles range
How low the droop in sadness now!

When dawned the morn of ’67,
Fair and most prosperous was her state,
No happier country under heaven,
Look at her now in ’68!

The bright-eyed goddess weeps to see
Her children humbled in the dust
Marveling that such things could be
Such evils wrought by hands accurs’d.

That such a country, such a race
Could fall so far and sink so low?
And yet live under the disgrace
Without one liberating blow.

Deep burns the wound in every breast
Which freedom warms amongst us all;
And ne’er can we know peace or rest
‘Til we retrieve our grievous fall.

But whilst we live and hand to hand
And foot to foot can wage the strife,
We’ll battle for our native land
And yield the struggle but with life.

No tyrants o’er this land may reign,
Or drag its standard in the dust.
We’ll conquer and our rights maintain
Because our cause is good and just.

Anon. (Fred. ?) Morning Chronicle, January 3, 1868.

Muise, D.A. “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation” Dalhousie Review, Volume 50, Number 1, 1970 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59368/dalrev_vol50_iss1_pp71_82.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Among the strange things that we see
Are quondam traitors like McGee,
Prating to us of liberty.
With him were England’s crosses, bars
Made red with impious wars –
The gods she worships – Mamon -Mars!

A champion of the rights of man
He raged and hurled his awful ban
At Britain’s head and off he ran!

We see him next in Yankee land;
And there he offered heart and hand
To any who, at his command,

Would simply cross the wide, wide ocean
And whip proud England; what a notion!
While he would stay and watch the motion.

None caring to obey his order
Disgusted D’Arcy crossed the border
And of himself became recorder.

He told Niagra’s waterfall,
Rivaling its roar with frantic bawl.
That he would do the deuce and all!

But finding treason would not pay,
He tried the loyal dodge. Today
No man so loyal-so they say.

And yet this man – this patriot wight –
Stands forth mid those, a shining light,
Who’ve robbed us of our due birthright.

Though dark and subtle in his mind
His boast of loyalty can’t blind
Folks eyes to what lurks far behind.

If he could raise a feud betwixt
England and we, he’d think us fixed;
For annexation might come next.

Unless indeed he could be king;
And all his chieftains – not a few –
Would not come up, great Mac, to you.

Ah, D’Arcy, D’Arcy! many doubt you,
And think we were as well without you –
That’s why all loyal subjects flout you.

We seek not to be a new nation,
Nor do we yearn for annexation, –
Yet anything but Federation.

Anon. (Fred. ?) Morning Chronicle, January 10, 1868

Muise, D.A. “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation” Dalhousie Review, Volume 50, Number 1, 1970 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59368/dalrev_vol50_iss1_pp71_82.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

The day she died
a redbreast hopped
through the open door
in stilled December,
inquiring near
with little confident bounce,
starting
my first tear.

Alastair Macdonald

Muise, D.A. “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation” Dalhousie Review, Volume 50, Number 1, 1970 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59368/dalrev_vol50_iss1_pp71_82.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Repeal or no Repeal? that is the question;
Whether ’tis best for us to live in quiet,
As we are now, a tail end of the great confederation,
Or to take arms against this unjust union,
And by our voting end it? To go -secede –
That’s all! And with one voice, united at the poll,
End all this doubt of what is our intention.

Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished,
To be- but free once more; perchance a union maritime,
Aye, there’s the rub; for, were we free what good might come,
When we have shuffled off this Tupper yoke,
Must make us hopeful. There’s the tariff
That makes calamity of our trade,
For who would bear the tax on flour, the high price paid.
Paid for sugar, tea, and soap; the grinding down
Of the poor man to build monopolies
And fatten the few rich who own the factories.
When we could cure all this with reciprocity?

Who would taxation bear, only exist, not live,
And grovel on in sloth, still sinking deeper in it,
Day by day? But the dread of being naturalized,
And loosing our birthright makes us halt,
And would emigrate to the far west,
From whose borders few travellers e’er return.
And so we hesitate, and sickly sentiment
Makes cowards of us all: So let not now
Our true, firm resolution be led astray
By the pale cast of thought the coming fight may offer.
Great agitation. Soft you, now?
He comes, – Lord High Commissioner
Tupper – Arch traitor, – In thy presence
May our woes be all remembered, and our hearts
Steeled with the thoughts of cursed ’67.

The Daily Acadian Recorder, February 3, 1867

Muise, D.A. “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation” Dalhousie Review, Volume 50, Number 1, 1970 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59368/dalrev_vol50_iss1_pp71_82.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Pity the sorrows of some Union men,
Whose unwise steps have borne them to your door;
Whose days politically are but a span,
0 give relief! And tax our bread no more.

Those scattered ranks, extremety bespeaks,
Those Customs locks do justify the Antis fears;
And many a furrow in our grief worn cheeks
Has been the channel to a flood of tears.

You have erected on the rising ground
With ‘miles of cornice’, drew me from the road;
These sinecures a residence have found,
And grandeur a magnificent abode.

Hard is the fate of fishermen and poor,
Here as our members voted taxes off our bread,
Saw Canadians growing corn around their door
From produce of my farms they shall be fed.

O! take us to your hospitable dome,
Keen blows the opposition wind and cold;
Short is our passage to the friendly tomb,
Our cause is poor and we arc badly sold.

Pity the sorrows of poor Union men,
Whose blinded steps have borne them to your door;
Whose days politically are but a span,
O! grant respite and tax our corn no more.

Anon. Morning Chronicle, January 2, 1868

Muise, D.A. “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation” Dalhousie Review, Volume 50, Number 1, 1970 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59368/dalrev_vol50_iss1_pp71_82.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

“Highly emotional” is an interesting term used here, thieving and thievery can certainly arouse “emotion” in all those whose goods, or whose rights, have been absconded. I assume this language is used in order to paint the anti-confederate as illogical, as opposed to the non-stop mendacity and “licksplitterism” which has continued to be the trademark of “the Canadians”, bereft of “emotion” except for that which is their contrivance, which suits their interests.

“CONFEDERATION WAS IMPOSED upon Nova Scotia in 1867 over the opposition of significant groups of people within the province. There were many reasons for their opposition to union, and a great deal has been written concerning the nature of the struggle and the ultimate success of the Confederates. That Nova Scotia’s response to Confederation was highly emotional has not gone unnoticed.”

Hush my babes, be still and trusting
Sooth your fears and soundly sleep.
My biggest bubble’s almost bursting,
But soothing Syrup’s blessed cheap.

Sleep soft dupes and trust in Tupper;
Retrenchment’s but a naughty dream,
The sad effect of too much supper,
He never thought of such a scheme.

Hush, that’s not the cars you’re hearing:
‘Tis but the mind – you silly pup,
Longley’s only ‘electioneering’;
He’s tore the cursed Railroad up.

Soft my babes, let music charm you;
‘Quebec Scheme’s’ a blessed thing;
Not a Fenian will dare to harm you,
When under Canada’s wing.

Happy days, devoutly withed for!
Our independence loosly sold!
Every knave in the place is fished for,
And your poor dupes, left out (in the) cold.

The Liverpool Transcript, March 15, 1867

Muise, D.A. “Some Nova Scotian Poets of Confederation” Dalhousie Review, Volume 50, Number 1, 1970 https://dalspace.library.dal.ca/bitstream/handle/10222/59368/dalrev_vol50_iss1_pp71_82.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y