William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
The Humours of MenB
Is heard the war trump with the cannon’s loud roar;
The tyrant of Britain, again become frantic,
Insidious approaches your peaceable shore:
Let him boast his proud navy and brag of its number,
His Nelsons, his Vincents, his Duncans—what then?
Let them come—they will find us, but not in our slumber—
We’ll teach them our humours—the humours of men.
And take, just in friendship, his ships and his store,
Kill some women and children, to make the world wonder:
Perhaps they’ll come here the same thing to encore;
They may send us a posie of sweet-scented roses,
To lull our keen smelling, again and again;
Their sweets will not take with our true Yankee noses,
They may think us old women, they’ll find we are men.
Who’d shrink from the contest, in Liberty’s cause?
We dread not their threats, and despise their alliance,
Great Madison’s wisdom dispenses our laws.
Then rouse to the combat, each man seize his rifle,
The sword be our weapon instead of the pen;
Let them dread how with freemen hereafter they trifle,
We’ll give them a touch of the humours of men.