Ballad of the Presidents: Lincoln

Lincoln watched silent and spoke not a word
Some called his quietude shameful, absurd
But not yet inducted, he wielded no power
His words would mean nothing till that fateful hour

Finally came the inaugural day
What would Abe Lincoln now venture to say?
Would there be peace? Or would it be war?
What, let us hear, is this president for?

No war do I want, now most plainly said Lincoln
But none down in Dixie must ever be thinking
Rebellion I’ll let for a moment to stand
This is and forevermore must be one land

His point clearly made, his sternness did end
Said he we’re not enemies, rather we’re friends
The pathway of peace we must ever explore
Till angels of goodness return to the fore

Too late! for the South had the bit in its teeth
Its sword was decisively pulled from the sheath
The Southerners said that their star was ascendant
From then and henceforward they'd be independent

Lincoln was steadfast and sure that the laws
And prudence and usage did favor his cause
If the South sought a war then a war it would get
Though the prospect gave pause and much worried regret
 
For citizen soldiers he then made a call 
To farmers and merchants and patriots all
From North and from West they most quickly did come
With tramping of boot and the beating of drum

Spirits were high and their hopes were much higher
They marched straight ahead into enemy fire 
And there met their match and so very much more
At Bull Run their confidence quaked to the core

Lincoln, now worried, now looked for a leader 
A seeker of action, not action-impeder
At length in the West one arose in his sights
What I like about Grant, Lincoln said is: He fights!

Lincoln’s true aim was to rescue the Union
On this he had never the slightest confusion 
Yet that which had caused the most lethal divide 
Slavery's future, would not be denied

After much talking and tense contemplation
Lincoln decided on emancipation
It tested the bounds of executive power
But never would come a more favorable hour

Grant closed the ring around Robert E. Lee
Whose southern republic was not meant to be
Lincoln inspected the ruins of Richmond
And prepared for the army’s soon swift decommission

He turned to the task of a nation’s remending
And needs of the freedmen in want of attending 
That liberty’s prospects be fully unfastened
When down he was struck by an angry assassin