and in spite of every effort to have them returned, the State of Missouri still retains them; and the United States' militia law, with this fact before the government, still compels us to do military duty, and for a lack of said arms the law forces us to pay our fines. As Shakspeare would say; "thereby hangs a tale."
Several hundred thousand dollars worth of land in Missouri, was purchased at the United States' Land Offices in that district of country; and the money without doubt, has been appropriated to strengthen the army and navy, or increase the power and glory of the nation in some other way: and notwithstanding Missouri has robbed and mobbetd me and twelve or fifteen thousand innocent inhabitants, murdered hundreds, and expelled the residue, at the point of the bayonet, without law, contrary to the express language of the Constitution of the United States, and every State in the Union; and contrary to the custom and usage of civilized nations; and especially, one holding up the motto: "The asylum of the oppressed;" yet the comfort we receive, to raise our wounded bodies and invigorate our troubled spirits, on account of such immense sacrifices of life, property, patience, and right; and as an equivalent for the enormous taxes we are compelled to pay to support these functionaries in a dignified manner, after we have petitioned, and plead with tears, and been showed like a caravan of foreign animals, for the peculiar gratification, of connoisseurs in humanity, that flare along in public life, like lamps upon lamp posts, because they are better calculated for the schemes of the night than for the scenes of the day, is, as President Van Buren said, your cause is just, but government has no power to redress you!
No wonder, after the Pharisee's prayer, the Publican smote his breast and said, Lord be merciful to me a sinner! What must the manacled nations think of freemen's rights in the land of liberty!
Were I a Chaldean I would exclaim: Keed'nauh ta-meroon le-hoam elauhayauh dey-shemayauh veh aur'kau lau gnaubadoo, yabadoo ma-ar'-gnau oomeen tehoat shemayauh allah. (Thus shall ye say unto them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.)
An Egyptian, Su-e-eh-ni; (What other persons are those!) A Grecian, Diabolos bassileuei; (The Devil reigns.) A Frenchman, Messieurs sans Dieu; (Gentlemen without God.) A Turk, Ain shems; (The fountain of light.) A German, sie sind unferstandig; (What consummate ignorance!) A Syrian, Zaubok; (Sacrifice!) A Spaniard, Il sabio muda
