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| YE sons of Columbia, who bravely have fought | |
| For those rights, which unstained from your sires had descended, | |
| May you long taste the blessings your valor has bought, | |
| And your sons reap the soil which their fathers defended. | |
| ’Mid the reign of mild peace, | 5 |
| May your nation increase, | |
| With the glory of Rome, and the wisdom of Greece; | |
| And ne’er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, | |
| While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves. | |
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| In a clime, whose rich vales feed the marts of the world, | 10 |
| Whose shores are unshaken by Europe’s commotion, | |
| The trident of commerce should never be hurl’d, | |
| To incense the legitimate powers of the ocean. | |
| But should pirates invade, | |
| Though in thunder array’d, | 15 |
| Let your cannon declare the free charter of trade. | |
| For ne’er shall the sons, &c. | |
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| The fame of our arms, of our laws the mild sway, | |
| Had justly ennobled our nation in story, | |
| Till the dark clouds of faction obscured our young day, | 20 |
| And enveloped the sun of American glory. | |
| But let traitors be told, | |
| Who their country have sold, | |
| And barter’d their God for his image in gold, | |
| That ne’er will the sons, &c. | 25 |
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| While France her huge limbs bathes recumbent in blood, | |
| And society’s base threats with wide dissolution; | |
| May peace, like the dove who returned from the flood, | |
| Find an ark of abode in our mild constitution. | |
| But though peace is our aim, | 30 |
| Yet the boon we disdain, | |
| If bought by our sovereignty, justice, or fame. | |
| For ne’er shall the sons, &c. | |
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| ’T is the fire of the flint, each American warms | |
| Let Rome’s haughty victors beware of collision, | 35 |
| Let them bring all the vassals of Europe in arms, | |
| We ’re a world by ourselves, and disdain a division. | |
| While with patriot pride, | |
| To our laws we ’re allied, | |
| No foe can subdue us, no faction divide. | 40 |
| For ne’er shall the sons, &c. | |
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| Our mountains are crown’d with imperial oak; | |
| Whose roots, like our liberties, ages have nourish’d; | |
| But long e’er our nation submits to the yoke, | |
| Not a tree shall be left on the field where it flourished. | 45 |
| Should invasion impend, | |
| Every grove would descend. | |
| From the hill-tops, they shaded, our shores to defend. | |
| For ne’er shall the sons, &c. | |
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| Let our patriots destroy Anarch’s pestilent worm; | 50 |
| Lest our liberty’s growth should be check’d by corrosion; | |
| Then let clouds thicken round us; we heed not the storm; | |
| Our realms fear no shock, but the earth’s own explosion. | |
| Foes assail us in vain, | |
| Though their fleets bridge the main, | 55 |
| For our altars and laws with our lives we ’ll maintain. | |
| For ne’er shall the sons, &c. | |
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| Should the tempest of war overshadow our land, | |
| Its bolts could ne’er rend freedom’s temple asunder; | |
| For, unmoved, at its portal, would Washington stand, | 60 |
| And repulse, with his breast, the assaults of the thunder! | |
| His sword from the sleep | |
| Of its scabbard would leap, | |
| And conduct, with its point, every flash to the deep! | |
| For ne’er shall the sons, &c. | 65 |
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| Let fame to the world sound America’s voice; | |
| No intrigues can her sons from their governments sever; | |
| Her pride is her Adams; her laws are his choice, | |
| And shall flourish, till liberty slumbers for ever. | |
| Then unite heart and hand, | 70 |
| Like Leonidas’ band, | |
| And swear to the God of the ocean and land, | |
| That ne’er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, | |
| While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves. | |
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