William McCarty, comp. The American National Song Book. 1842.
Sir Guy Carletons Address to the Americans1782Philip Freneau (17521832)
F
(No island on earth is in prowess above her,)
With powers and commissions your hearts to recover.
(Independence they call it,) that hourly doth haunt him,
And relief, my dear rebels, you only can grant him.
Lord Howe, and the rest that have travell’d the coast,
All failed in their projects of laying this ghost:
It will yet kill our monarch, I know very well,
And gallop him off on his lion to hell.
They had sent out a seer from the island of Skie,
Who rebels, and devils, and ghosts could defy:
When I look at the present, and think of the past,
I wish with our heroes I had not been class’d.
And cover’d with laurels, we still are the losers,
Till each is recall’d with his tory accusers:
By negotiation we’ll do what we can;
And I am an honest, well-meaning old man;
We must stay where we are, at the mercy of chance,
Till Fortune shall help us to lead you a dance.
Our king is the best man that ever was known,
And the greatest that ever was stuck on a throne.
Here take him, my honeys, and each pay a groat;
Was ever a monarch more easily bought?
By night and by day we carry him round;
He must go for a groat, if we can’t get a pound.
Abandon the Congress, no matter how soon,
And then, altogether, we’ll play a new tune.
And force you their healths and the dauphin’s to toast;
Repent, my dear fellows, and each get a post:
We generous Britons will help you to two
With a beam laid across; that will certainly do.
We used them so well, that we left few alive,
But sent them to heaven in swarms from their hive.
’Tis nothing but right we should honour you yet;
If you are not rewarded, we die in your debt.
Be as loyal to George as you once were before,
Or I’ll slaughter you all, and probably more.
Perhaps may be done by the son of my mother,
With the sword in one hand and a branch in the other.
At their first coming out, all spoke proclamation;
’Tis the custom with us, and the way of our nation.
If we cannot all fight, we can all run away;
And further at present I choose not to say.