“Ballots Are a Weapon Mighty” Sheet Music (pdf).
“Ballots Are a Weapon Mighty” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: Bouck White.
Tune: “God Save Emperor Francis.”
Ballots are a weapon mighty
Placed within the freeman’s grasp;
Steel ne’er glistened half so brightly;
’Twill the tyrant’s clutch unclasp;
Puny seems it, toy and plaything,
’Gainst a foe in huge array;
But that toy becomes the dayspring
Of a new unending day.
Mountain-high is Wrong and massive.
“Naught can move so vast a load,”
Says the weakling, who stands passive,
Feeling not sharp manhood’s goad.
But the ballot’s high explosive,
Wielded by the workers bold,
’Gainst that mountain is corrosive:
Grinds it fine to mud and mould.
Votes are white of color, glim’ring;
Ballot booth is Heaven’s gate.
Mammon’s menials cower shiv’ring,
When the workers legislate.
White-robed messengers celestial
Pass that portal to and fro
Righters of all wrongs terrestrial.
Paradise comes here below.
Turn not from the ballot lightly,
Though it seem a pow’rless thing.
Vote it early; vote it rightly;
It transfigures; stands a king.
Labor’s sorrows shall be mended,
When the workers cease to dote;
Labor’s sorrows shall be ended,
When the workers learn to vote.