Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

We’ll Be Free on the Sea—1812

YE sons of free Columbia, whose fathers dared the waves,

The battle, and the wilderness, to shun the fate of slaves;

Those rights they bled for now maintain, where’er a wave can flow,

And be free on the sea, in despite of every foe,

Though tyrants frown, and cannons roar, and the raging tempests blow.

High o’er her “misty mountain tops,” Columbia’s eagle soars,

And sees two mighty oceans roll their tribute to her shores;

The Atlantic and Pacific wave for us alike will flow,
We’ll be free on the sea, &c.

Columbus, first of mariners, to us bequeaths his name,

The ocean’s first great conqueror assigns to us his claim;

From east to west, and round the globe, where’er the salt seas flow,
We’ll be free on the sea, &c.

High lift your arms, ye sturdy oaks—ye lofty pines, ascend,

Till from your hills our navy calls your towering tops to bend;

Then spread the canvass to the gale, and where a wave can flow,
We’ll be free on the sea, &c.

Columbia’s eagle-flag shall fly all fearless o’er the flood:

To every friendly name a dove, to foes a bird of blood.

Her stars shall blaze a sign of peace where’er a wave may flow;
And we’ll be free on the sea, &c.