The Poor Voter On Election Day

The proudest now is but my peer,     The highest not more high;     To-day, of all the weary year,     A king of men am I.     To-day, alike are great and small,     The nameless and the known;     My palace is the people's hall,     The ballot-box my throne!     Who serves to-day upon the list     Beside the served shall stand;     Alike the brown and wrinkled fist,     The gloved and dainty hand!     The rich is level with the poor,     The weak is strong to-day;     And sleekest broadcloth counts no more     Than homespun frock of gray.     To-day let pomp and vain pretence     My stubborn right abide;     I set a plain man's common sense     Against the pedant's pride.     To-day shall simple manhood try     The strength of gold and land;     The wide world has not wealth to buy     The power in my right hand!     While there's a grief to seek redress,     Or balance to adjust,     Where weighs our living manhood less     Than Mammon's vilest dust,     While there's a right to need my vote,     A wrong to sweep away,     Up! clouted knee and ragged coat!     A man's a man to-day