erasure poem:
Corner Stone Against Slavery
Janet Kuypers
3/12/17
These are selected words from the Corner Stone Speech,
an oration by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens
in Savannah, Georgia March 21, 1861.
This would split.
conjecture with
the great truth
may be doubted.
prevailing
formation of the old
were the violation
of the laws of nature;
socially,
morally,
politically.
It was an evil.
Those ideas
were fundamentally wrong
rested upon the
assumption of equality.
This was an error
a sandy foundation,
it fell
when the
storm came.
Our laid corner stone,
the great truth
is not equal to the
natural and normal.
this great physical,
philosophical,
and moral truth,
It has been so amongst us.
The errors of the past still cling
with a zeal above knowledge,
from the mind of insanity.
conclusions are right
if premises were.
the equal,
warring against principle
founded in nature,
should, ultimately, succeed,
and would ultimately fail.
That impossible war
against a principle
was warring
against principle.
equal
made
unequal.
secure peace,
show your ability,
maintain your rights.
Never allow slavery
to the soil.
clamor against
getting or
letting go.
fight this strange paradox
There seems to be
but one rational solution,
notwithstanding humanity,
give up the benefits.
labor to the necessary
they come from nature
this seceding question,
the desire
peace
simply
a recognition
of our independence
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