Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

The Settlement and Progress of the American Colonies

WHEN, venturous, o’er the Atlantic main,

Penn led a willing exile train,

A persecuted band;

Here, ’scaped from Britain’s servile coast,

They barter’d with a savage host,

And gave them wealth for land.

Anon, beneath the western skies,

A golden age was seen to rise,

Industry gave them bread:

Contentment cheer’d the labouring hind,

Whose thoughts, free as the passing wind,

Found no constraint or dread.

Days, months, and years roll’d slowly o’er,

And Britain’s yoke oppress’d them sore;

They pray’d release in vain:

Of prayers and supplications tired,

At length, with indignation fired,

They snapp’d the galling chain.

And now a world was seen to rise;

Its laws were equal, just, and wise,

And gain’d approving Heaven;

Commerce and plenty crown’d the land,

Which was to every patriot band

As an asylum given.

Hence, liberal arts, with smiling peace,

Arose, and bade our joys increase,

And manners were refined;

Thus, once a barren wilderness

Was made a second world, to bless

The half of human kind.

Columbia, mayst thou e’er retain

Thy equal laws; and never stain

Thy spotless virtue pure;

Then shall thy fame fly far and wide,

And through the world should havoc stride,

Thy happiness is sure.