{
 "id": "ambrose-bierce/the-politician",
 "title": "The Politician",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Ambrose Bierce",
 "poet_slug": "ambrose-bierce",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Shapes of Clay",
 "book_slug": "shapes-of-clay",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 53,
 "container": "The Scrap Heap",
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1903,
  "venue": "Shapes of Clay (1903)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier"
  ]
 },
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  "file": "the-scrap-heap.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
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   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12658",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12977",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/15599",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof05bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof08bierrich",
   "https://archive.org/details/shapesofclay00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/blackbeetlesinam00bier",
   "https://archive.org/details/literarycalifor05mighgoog",
   "https://archive.org/details/cali07webb"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20",
  "corrections": [
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    "checked_against": "https://archive.org/details/collectedworksof04bierrich",
    "date": "2026-08-20"
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 },
 "stats": {
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 "site_ready": true,
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "“Let patriots manipulate",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The tiller of the Ship of State;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Be mine the humble, useful toil",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To work the tiller of the soil.”",
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   }
  ]
 ]
}