"Treasury Rats" (1864)
[Words and Music -- anonymous]
sung by all the
MINSTRELS
[M 1640
  .T]

New York, NY: T. J. HALL
[Source: 200002101@LoC/IHAS-CWM]

1. Treasury Rats are swarming around,
Every where over and under the ground,
In all the houses and all the shops,
From cellar floors to garret tops.
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!
They laugh to scorn all traps and snares.
They run up the walls and down the stairs,
Over the beds, and through the floors,
And gnaw great holes in pantry doors.
Greedy, dirty, lank and lean,
Their livers are white and their backs are green,
Their heads are covered with negro wool,
And bellies they have that are never full.
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!

2. Treasury Rats are hungry enough:
Nothing on earth can be too touch,
Nothing too hard, or soft, or sweet,
Or heavy, or light, for them to eat.
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!
Shoddy for blankets, coats and hats,
Is just the thing for Treasury Rats;
O’er ironclads they lick their lips,
And countless fleets of rotten ships.
Ammunition, shot, and shell,
Horses in numbers none can tell,
Cannon and rifles, powder and ball,
These ravenous vermin gobble them all.
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!

3. Treasury Rats have friends at court,
Chasing them therefore is ticklish sport:
They all are “loyal,”— every Rat,—
A “traitor” you are if you question that!—
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!
Go to Washington, clap your ear
To the Treasury Vault, and there you’ll hear,
Every moment of night and day,
Ten thousand Rats all gnawing away!
Hundreds of presses, at high steam power,
Print the “money” these Rats devour,
And if “Copperheads” try to scare them away,
“Hush!”— the Government papers say,—
  “Oh, don’t disturb the Treasury Rats!”

4. Down on the battle field I stood,
Where brethren had shed each other’s blood:
And armies of Rats were moving round,
Hither and thither over the ground:
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!
I looked, and I saw their snouts were red,
As they gorged themselves from off the dead:
They stroked their whiskers, and switched their tails,
And danced for joy in the tainted gales!
They tore the flesh from the dead men’s bones,
And chattered and squealed, ’mid the wounded’s groans,
“Sure ’tis a nation’s noblest bliss
To keep us Rats in victuals like this!”
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!

5. Treasury Rats now rule the land!
Everything moves by their command:
They cut out the work, and handle the pay,
And a charming song they sing today.
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!
“Traitors and Copperheads, penniless knaves,
You are the stuff to fill soldiers’ graves!
The country’s great and only need
Is that we shall make money, while you shall bleed!
This is the true ‘loyalty!’— on with the war!
And this is what you are fighting it for!
Go on killing each other— gloriously—
Till we are as rich as we’d like to be!”
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!

6. Coming events cast shadows before!
The reign of the Rats will soon be o’er:
Some already have left the ship,
And others will soon be giving slip.—
  Oh, Confound the Treasury Rats!
Water they hate, and water they fear,
And water will soon be everywhere:
From West and East and South and North
Rivers of wrath are rolling forth.
Tides are rising, mighty in power.
Higher and higher, hour by hour.
And, when November has come for good,
With one, vast overwhelming flood,—
  We’ll drown out the Treasury Rats!