William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
For the Fourth of JulySamuel Brazer (1785–1823)
S
Her altars sink, her fires decay?
Shall Anarchy’s insatiate brood
Quench every spark, or dim each ray?
Ye freemen! hear your country’s call;
’Tis your own cause, and one and all
Will throng to aid!
Assail the laws which guard our rights;
In vain have Faction’s fiends arose!
In vain the faith which Treason plights;
That faith in desperation bred,
Shall doom to shame each guilty head
Which dares to aid!
Which fix’d a world’s admiring eye,
That union just of rights and laws
In which ’twere glory’s height to die!
That cause for which a Warren died,
That cause, a Washington’s first pride,
Who fears to aid?
Say, shall our patriot’s glory rest?
No! gratitude’s heart-prompted aid
Shall sanction Duty’s high behest?
Still emulous to reach their fame,
Our proudest wish, our constant aim,
Their cause to aid!
Ye martyrs of Oppression’s power!
Ye, who in Freedom’s conflicts bled!
Like you to act, our wishes tower.
If e’er again invasion’s hordes
Shall summon forth our unsheathed swords:
Look down and aid!
Assail our charter or our laws,
And raise the suicidal hand,
In foul Rebellion’s impious cause;
Each hardy yeoman’s toil-strung nerve,
And heart, untaught by fear to swerve,
Will lend their aid!
Protected Freedom, fearless, smile;
Heedless of mad Sedition’s roar,
Each art we’ll spurn, each plot we’ll foil!
Our rulers just our rights protect;
Our yeomen brave those rights respect;
And Heaven will aid!