Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

Conquer or Die

REMEMBER now the awful hour,

When through the land rung loud alarms;

And, join’d to breast the tyrant’s power,

Our valiant fathers flew to arms;

When He who rules the earth and main,

And makes the good and brave his care,

On Bunker’s height, and Monmouth’s plain,

Saved struggling patriots from despair.

Ye spirits, martyrs in the cause,

Who firm amid the battle stood,

Ye fell for freedom and the laws,

And seal’d our charter with your blood.

And if on high, to wondering eyes,

No sculptured pile its head uprears,

For you, with ceaseless flow, shall rise

A people’s mingled thanks and tears.

And thou, too, father of our land,

What meed of praise is due to thee!

Who broke the proud oppressor’s band,

And set a groaning nation free.

What though, to blast thy honour’d name

With treacherous praise, the base presume;

Yet wide, unspotted is thy fame,

And glories thicken round thy tomb.

No coward spirit e’er was thine,

No trembling step, no faltering word;

The foe beheld thy falchion shine,

And peace was purchased by thy sword.

And sweet her reign; while, unopposed,

Our starry ensign rode secure,

And western wilds with joy unclosed

Their fertile bosoms to the poor.

What sounds are these invade our ears?

The sailor’s groan, the infant’s cries!

But Heaven the prayer of vengeance hears,

And bids our injured country rise.

Nor will Columbia’s eagle bear,

While on her cliff she sits at rest,

That safe below the vulture tear

Her eaglets, falling from her nest.

Away, then, every doubt and fear,

Let party strife be seen no more;

And let the lawless pirates hear

Our cannon sound from shore to shore.

While here each festive, gallant band

Shall raise the patriot altar high,

And with united heart and hand,

Shall swear TO CONQUER OR TO DIE!