Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

The Patriot

THE FIRM patriot mind is the source of high merit,

Ennobling above both ambition and riches:

It fortifies man with invincible spirit—

Is stronger than citadel, bulwark, or ditches.

The steady, sound mind is tranquillity’s mother,

The well-balanced spirit no panic surprises;

No hazard that chances or time can discover,

Will shake it, though novel disaster arises.

It smiles at the timid man’s terror ideal,

Who shrinks from each point of a possible danger:

Paints fancy-bred peril, and magnifies real,

To firmness and fortitude always a stranger.

If savage allies of the enemy polish’d,

Out-flanking new levies, at first should defeat us—

The patriot’s energy, never demolish’d,

But sparkles more brightly when cruel men beat us.

Remember Columbia’s reverses notorious,

When step-mother Britain hired Indians to scare us;

Brave Stark and Green-Mountain boys, gallant and glorious,

At a blow stunn’d the bloodhounds unmuzzled to tear us.

Republican freemen, that Liberty cherish,

Like Greeks when the tyrant of Persia would maul ’em,

Will conquer the foe of their country or perish;

No tyrant can daunt and no savage appal ’em.

By tactics or tumults old races, long seated,

May vanquish old races less skilful or tamer;

But ne’er was a mighty young nation defeated,

Born martial and free, with a cause to inflame her!