Possible Results of the Friends' Mission to St. Petersburg

Whatever be the meaning of that creed
Of the poke-bonnet and the ample brim,
Still in the shoes of truth the Quakers tread,
When they denounce our wars: forget the prim
Staid aspect of these worthy gentlemen,
While purely, honestly, for peace they plead;
Nor think it shame to propagate the seed
Sown by the sober hands of William Penn;
Perchance — when to that Northern court they went,
They left some saddening thoughts of death and war;
And can we think their words were idly spent,
If that sweet message of the younger Czar
To deaf Americans, were meant to endorse,
By the son's act, the father's late remorse?