Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

A Song: ‘Come, join hand in hand, brave Americans all’

COME, join hand in hand, brave Americans all,

And rouse your bold hearts at fair Liberty’s call;

No tyrannous acts shall suppress your just claim,

Or stain with dishonour America’s name.

In freedom we’re born, and in freedom we’ll live!

Our purses are ready—

Steady, friends, steady;—

Not as slaves, but as freemen our money we’ll give.

Our worthy forefathers (let’s give them a cheer)

To climates unknown did courageously steer;

Through oceans to deserts for freedom they came,

And, dying, bequeath’d us their freedom and fame.
In freedom we’re born, &c.

Their generous bosoms all dangers despised,

So highly, so wisely their birthrights they prized;

We’ll keep what they gave, we will piously keep,

Nor frustrate their toils on the land and the deep.
In freedom we’re born, &c.

The tree their own hands had to Liberty rear’d,

They lived to behold growing strong and revered;

With transport then cried, “Now our wishes we gain,

For our children shall gather the fruits of our pain.”
In freedom we’re born, &c.

How sweet are the labours that freemen endure,

That they shall enjoy all the profit, secure—

No more such sweet labours Americans know,

If Britons shall reap what Americans sow.
In freedom we’re born, &c.

Swarms of placemen and pensioners soon will appear,

Like locusts deforming the charms of the year;

Suns vainly will rise, showers vainly descend,

If we are to drudge for what others shall spend.
In freedom we’re born, &c.

Then join hand in hand, brave Americans all,

By uniting, we stand, by dividing, we fall;

In so righteous a cause let us hope to succeed

For Heaven approves of each generous deed.
In freedom we’re born, &c.

All ages shall speak with amaze and applause

Of the courage we’ll show in support of our laws;

To die we can bear, but to serve we disdain,

For shame is to freemen more dreadful than pain.
In freedom we’re born, &c.

This bumper I crown for our sovereign’s health,

And this for Britannia’s glory and wealth;

That wealth and that glory immortal may be,

If she is but just, and if we are but free.
In freedom we’re born, &c.