In a chariot of light from the regions of day
The Goddess of Liberty came;
Ten thousand celestials directed the way,
And hither conducted the dame.
A fair budding branch from the gardens above,
Where millions with millions agree,
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,
And the plant she named Liberty-Tree.
The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground;
Like a native it flourished and bore;
The fame of its fruit drew the nations around,
To seek out this peaceable shore.
Unmindful of names or distinctions they came,
For freemen like brothers agree;
With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued,
And their temple was Liberty-Tree.
Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old,
Their bread in contentment they ate,
Unvex’d with the troubles of silver and gold,
The cares of the grand and the great.
With timber and tar they Old England supplied,
And supported her power on the sea;
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat,
For the honor of Liberty-Tree.
But hear, O ye swains,—’tis a tale most profane,—
How all the tyrannical powers,
Kings, Commons, and Lords, are uniting amain
To cut down this guardian of ours;
From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms,
Through the land let the sound of it flee,
Let the far and the near all unite with a cheer
In defence of our Liberty-Tree.
_YANKEE DOODLE:—THE AIR AND WORDS._
There are so many versions of the origin of this popular and now
national air, as well as the words, that we offer the following to our
readers without note or comment.
In Burgh’s Anecdotes of Music, vol. iii. p. 405, after speaking of Dr.
Arne and John Frederick Lampe, the author proceeds:—“Besides Lampe and
Arne, there were at this time [1731] other candidates for musical fame
of the same description. Among these were Mr. John Christian Smith, who
set two English operas for Lincoln’s Inn Fields,—Teraminta and
Ulysses,—and Dr. Tresh, author of the oratorio of Judith.”
About the year 1797, after having become a tolerable proficient on the
German flute, I took it into my head to learn the bassoon, and for this
purpose procured an instrument and book of instructions from the late
Mr. Joseph Carr, who had then recently opened a music-store in Baltimore
City, being the first regular establishment of the kind in this country.
In this book there was an “Air from Ulysses,” which was the identical
air now called Yankee Doodle, with the exception of a few notes which
time and fancy may have added.