Chalkley Cameron (from The New Spoon River Poetry)

If the Declaration of Independence
is the soul of the Constitution,
Why can you never get a court
to test ordinance and laws
by the inalienable right of the pursuit of happiness?
Here was I, a young lawyer with my first case,
Attacking an ordinance of Spoon River
which forbade the ballet.
and arguing that it was void because it interfered
with the pursuit of happiness.
Well, the judges smiled at me,
And the crowd hoated me,
And I did not have to friend but my client,
And some of the ballet girls,
and I faded out for shame!