William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
Kidnapped SeamenS
Hear a brother’s piercing cries;
From amidst your foes’ deep thunders,
Hear his bitter griefs arise!
From his kindred borne away,
Forced to render his devotion,
To relentless tyrants’ sway.
Iron fetters bind his arms!
Better that they first had slain him,
And relieved from future harms.
Rills of blood beneath the lash;
See his eyes indignant beaming,
Sparkling vengeance as they flash.
Sinks beneath a brutal hand,
His soul still scorns the fiend-like lashes,
And turns to view his native land.
“When, O when, the happy hour,
That the sailor saves from falling
In these demons’ lawless power?”
Echoing o’er our hills and dales,
And turn unmoved from his condition,
While his miseries he bewails?
And avenge your brother’s cause!
Let your thundering cannon rattle
For our country and our laws!