The Liberty Song

"The Liberty Song" is a pre-American Revolutionary War song with lyrics by Founding Father John Dickinson and not by Mrs. Mercy Otis Warren of Plymouth, Massachusetts. The song is set to the tunes of "Heart of Oak", the anthem of the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, and "Here's a Health", an Irish song of emigration. The song itself was first published in the Boston Gazette in July 1768.

The song is notable as one of the earliest patriotic songs in the thirteen colonies. Dickinson's sixth verse offers the earliest known publication of the phrase that parallels the motto "united we stand, divided we fall", a patriotic slogan that has prominently appeared several times throughout American history.

The song is also likely to be a variant of the Irish traditional song from which it often takes its tune, "Here's a Health". The lyrics of "The Liberty Song" also hold the same structure.

The lyrics of the song were updated in 1770 to reflect the growing tensions between England and the Colonies. This new version was published in Bickerstaff's almanac, and the title was changed to "The Massachusetts Song of Liberty".

Original Version

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 dishonor America's name.

Chorus:
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;
Thro' oceans to deserts for Freedom they came,
And dying, bequeath'd us their freedom and fame.

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Wikipedia