First, I’d like to thank you for your patience.
Now, let’s take our lesson from the ancients.
How, if you put it to the Roman sages,
Wow, they’d say the question is outrageous.
Sparta, Carthage, Athens, Rome:
All republics,
Always at war,
All overthrown.
And now Shays’ Rebellion
That hits close to home.
Peace can’t be ensured
By commerce alone.
But, let’s say that we follow this line of thought,
Throw away Union and all that our blood has bought.
I’m not a bettor but I’d bet we’re not better off
Fighting among us like young Turks and Romanovs.1
If you don’t think that’s our fate you’re
Just ignoring human nature.
And yes, I will elaborate, sure.
Let’s say Virginia’s magistrate or
President, czar, or king
Has a fling
With the queen
Of New Orleans.
Imagine the blood that will bring,
And we the people get caught in between.
It’s obscene,
But we’ve seen this scene,
On repeat it seems,
Play out with queens
Like it plays out in Queens.
It happened three times
Just with Pericles.
So please
Don’t tell me
That unionless states will always have peace.
That commerce will save us from history’s
Surest fate. That we’ll proceed with ease.
That a dog won’t have fleas
‘Cause it doesn’t want fleas.
Republics start fights just as often as kings.
Power starts wars just as often as greed.
It’s all in the books, how can you not see
If we don’t have union we’ll never have peace?!