A statesman seasoned by the years before,
He takes the chair when tempests fill the air;
The nation’s wounds have deepened evermore,
And every choice demands a careful care.
No crown commands the office he must bear,
Yet history waits upon his trembling hand—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
From foreign courts to Congress halls he came,
A lifetime shaped by service and decree;
Yet now the presidency bears the name
Of one who faces storms no eye can flee—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
The territories remain the nation’s scar,
Where Kansas burns with conflict over fate;
The courts declare, yet factions still are far
From finding peace within the divided state.
The Dred Scott ruling opens wider gate
For questions that no compromise can mend—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
He claims the Constitution must decide,
That states and courts must follow settled law;
Yet opposition grows on every side,
And fewer see the order that he saw—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
The election brings a nation split in two,
The South begins to question federal ties;
Secession calls become a force that grew,
While compromise grows weaker in its eyes.
The Union stands beneath uncertain skies,
And every hour demands a firmer stand—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
The president insists the Union should remain,
Yet says the power to stop departure lacks;
The contradiction leaves a deeper stain,
As action falters where the crisis tracks—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
The forts and arsenals become the test,
Where federal power meets a rising tide;
The nation waits to see what choice is best,
While separate governments form beside.
The final days reveal a widening divide,
A fracture moving beyond command—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
The office, built through decades of growth,
Now faces what no founder could foresee;
A president must answer to an oath
When half the nation questions unity—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
So stands the fifteenth, last before the war,
A keeper of a peace already gone;
The Union he inherited stood before
A breaking point that waited for the dawn.
His caution could not keep the storm withdrawn,
Nor hold the nation with a weaker hand—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
And history records the bitter cost
When preservation lacks the force to stand;
The executor who hesitates is lost
When crisis asks for more than careful plans—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.
Envoi:
O guardian of a Union near the end,
You held the office as the fractures spread;
You sought the peace that time could not defend,
And faced a nation’s breaking thread instead—
He guards the Union with a cautious hand.