Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.

Freedom

OF the victory won over tyranny’s power,

Since, brethren, we’ve met for a glad celebration,

Let this we now spend be festivity’s hour,

While we hail with acclaim the birth-day of our nation.

Come, friends, let us fill,

And drink—Liberty still:

Its guards and its basis the whole people’s will;

And so long as the earth in her orbit shall roll,

May America’s sons own no other control!

The freedom of conscience our ancestors sought,

When oppression they spurn’d and with terrors contended:

For their rights, when invaded, our fathers have fought,

And to us the rich boon, seal’d with blood, has descended.

Let each freeman then swear

That no fetters he’ll wear,

While his heart freely beats, and he breathes the free air,

Nor ever, while earth in her orbit shall roll,

Will America’s sons bow to foreign control.

See the fair fields of Europe still blasted with war,

And the ties, which connect man to man, torn asunder!

In safety we view the red flame from afar,

And hear at a distance the burst of the thunder.

But should foes gather round,

We’re on Liberty’s ground,

Too wise to be trapp’d, and too strong to be bound;

Nor ever, while earth in her orbit shall roll,

Will America’s sons brook a foreign control.

The foe of our youth marks with dread our increase;

Across the Atlantic with envy she glances;

Her wither’d arm shakes, as she threatens our peace,

Or with serpent-like cunning insidious advances.

But her arms we defy;

To her arts we reply,

That in Freedom we live, or for Freedom we die,

And never, while earth in her orbit shall roll,

Will America’s sons bend to Britain’s control.

Though traitors, assuming the patriot’s name,

Would guile us, our honour and rights to surrender;

Will freemen thus forfeit their country’s fair fame,

While a voice can be heard, or arm move to defend her?

Once more let us tell,

That we never will sell

Those blessings we know how to value so well;

And as long as the earth in her orbit shall roll,

We’ll disdain all submission to lawless control.