Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

Responsive Chorus: ‘We stood in the battle when Tyranny came’

Alonzo Lewis (1794–1861)

The following stanzas were recited, July 4, 1827, by twenty-four girls, tastefully dressed, belonging to the Second District School. The first section of thirteen bore a white silk banner, with the words “Original States;” the other section of eleven bore a banner with the inscription “New States.”

WE stood in the battle when Tyranny came

To mantle our dwellings in slaughter and flame,

And who shall reproach us with ill?

We have sprung from the soil and the blood of the free,

That was pour’d when you planted fair Liberty’s tree,

And our eagle first soar’d o’er yon hill.

We went forth to the shore when the tide was at flood,

And our footsteps were mark’d by our children’s best blood

On that dark and that perilous day.

We have mark’d with delight the bold course you pursued,

And would gladly be found with true virtue endued,

To follow your perilous way.

To speak our own praise may not haply be well,

But Bunker, and Yorktown, and Monmouth can tell

That our hands were not slack in the fight.

Our years may not equal the strength of our love,

But Erie, and Plattsburgh, and Orleans can prove

That we will not abandon the right.

Then hail to the land which gave Liberty birth!

And hail to our country, the proudest on earth!

May no tyranny trample its shore!

May its course be the march of the brave and the free,

And our eagle soar high over mountain and sea,

Till the earth and the waves roll no more!