William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
The Settlement and Progress of the American ColoniesW
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.