The sudden chair receives another hand,
A vice once waiting now must bear the weight;
The nation turns to one who must command
Where questions gather at the halls of state.
No victory earned, no carefully drawn fate,
Yet duty calls where none can understand—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
The fallen chief leaves burdens yet undone,
The future rests upon his calm demand;
A divided nation looks to one—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
The territories won now stir the land,
As new-made borders bring old wounds anew;
The question comes no ruler can withstand:
Will freedom spread, or shall the old ways rule?
The Senate struggles, factions sharply view
A settlement that none can fully claim—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
The compromises offered seek to bind
The sections growing distant in their stand;
A temporary peace they hope to find—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
The laws are signed, the balance briefly stays,
The storms of conflict quiet for a time;
Yet every measure bears the mark of days
When deeper fractures hide beneath the rhyme.
The nation’s wounds are covered, not declined,
And history weighs the choice he had planned—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
The Fugitive Slave Act becomes the cost
Of keeping peace between opposing sides;
A bargain made where neither cause is lost,
Yet neither finds the justice it provides—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
No crown commands him, no triumphant name
Defines the office that he comes to bear;
His power rests upon a fragile frame,
Where every choice invites both praise and care.
The presidency must now navigate
Between the forces gathering everywhere—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
The party lines begin to shift and break,
The old alliances weaken as they stand;
The future waits for choices yet to make—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
The election passes, and he leaves the chair,
A single term consumed by rising strain;
The peace he sought could not remain secure,
The coming storm would gather once again.
Yet in his time the office learned the pain
Of ruling when the nation’s bonds are planned—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
For some will praise the effort to preserve,
While others judge the compromise he made;
The executor must choose what he can serve,
And answer for the choices he has weighed—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
So stands the thirteenth in a troubled age,
A keeper of a Union near its break;
He found no easy path, no perfect page,
No simple choice that history could make.
The office bore the burden of the stake,
And carried what remained upon the land—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
Though peace was brief and conflict still remained,
His presidency marks the final strand
Before the nation’s greatest trial was named—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.
Envoi:
O steward of a nation’s fragile span,
You sought to hold what time would not withstand;
Through compromise and caution as you can,
You bore the weight of an uncertain land—
He holds the Union with a measured hand.