To The Americans[100]

ON THE RUMOURED APPROACH OF THE HESSIAN FORCES, WALDECKERS, &C. (PUBLISHED 1775)

The blast of death! the infernal guns prepare-- "Rise with the storm and all its dangers share."

Occasioned by General Gage's Proclamation that the Provinces were in a state of Rebellion, and out of the King's protection.

Rebels you are--the British champion cries-- Truth, stand thou forth!--and tell the wretch, He lies:-- Rebels!--and see this mock imperial lord Already threats these rebels with the cord. The hour draws nigh, the glass is almost run, When truth will shine, and ruffians be undone; When this base miscreant will forbear to sneer, And curse his taunts and bitter insults here. If to controul the cunning of a knave, Freedom respect, and scorn the name of slave; If to protest against a tyrant's laws, And arm for vengeance in a righteous cause, Be deemed Rebellion--'tis a harmless thing: This bug-bear name, like death, has lost its sting. Americans! at freedom's fane adore! But trust to Britain, and her flag, no more; The generous genius of their isle has fled, And left a mere impostor in his stead. If conquered, rebels (their Scotch records show), Receive no mercy from the parent [A]foe; Nay, even the grave, that friendly haunt of peace, (Where Nature gives the woes of man to cease,) Vengeance will search--and buried corpses there Be raised, to feast the vultures of the air-- Be hanged on gibbets, such a war they wage-- Such are the devils that swell our souls with rage! If Britain conquers, help us, heaven, to fly: Lend us your wings, ye ravens of the sky;-- If Britain conquers--we exist no more; These lands will redden with their children's gore, Who, turned to slaves, their fruitless toils will moan, Toils in these fields that once they called their own! To arms! to arms! and let the murdering sword Decide who best deserves the hangman's cord: Nor think the hills of Canada too bleak When desperate Freedom is the prize you seek; For that, the call of honour bids you go O'er frozen lakes and mountains wrapt in snow: No toils should daunt the nervous and the bold, They scorn all heat or wave-congealing cold. Haste!--to your tents in iron fetters bring These slaves, that serve a tyrant and a king; So just, so virtuous is your cause, I say, Hell must prevail if Britain gains the day.

[A] After the battle of Culloden: See Smollett's History of England.--Freneau's note.

The first trace that I can find of this poem is in the Oct. 18, 1775, issue of Anderson's Constitutional Gazette, where it has the title, "Reflections on Gage's Letter to Gen. Washington of Aug. 13." It was published in the 1786 edition with the title, "On the Conqueror of America shut up in Boston. Published in New York, August 1775." The 1795 edition changed the title to "The Misnomer." I have followed the title and text of the 1809 edition.

General Gage's proclamation, issued June 12, 1775, was as follows: "Whereas the infatuated multitudes, who have long suffered themselves to be conducted by certain well-known incendiaries and traitors, in a fatal progression of crimes against the constitutional authority of the state, have at length proceeded to avowed rebellion, and the good effects which were expected to arise from the patience and lenity of the king's government have been often frustrated, and are now rendered hopeless by the influence of the same evil counsels, it only remains for those who are intrusted with the supreme rule, as well for the punishment of the guilty as the protection of the well-affected, to prove that they do not bear the sword in vain."

"The hopeful general."--Constitutional Gazette.

On June 11, Washington had written Gage, among other things, "that the officers engaged in the cause of liberty and their country, who by the fortune of war had fallen into your hands, have been thrown indiscriminately into a common gaol appropriated for felons," and threatening retaliation in like cases, "exactly by the rule you shall observe towards those of ours now in your custody." To this Gage replied, on the 13th: "Britons, ever pre-eminent in mercy, have outgone common examples, and overlooked the criminal in the captive. Upon these principles your prisoners, whose lives, by the law of the land, are destined to the cord, have hitherto been treated with care and kindness," &c.--Duyckinck.

"Gage shall be."--Gazette.

"Black monster."--Gazette.

The Gazette version adds here the lines,

"Nay, with himself, ere freedom sent to quell Had seen the lowest lurking place of hell."

"British clemency."--Ed. 1786.

"Their past records show."--Ed, 1786. "Gage already lets us know."--Gazette.

"The viper foe."--Gazette.

This and the preceding line not in the earlier versions. In place of them the Gazette has the lines:

"Spoil'd of their shrouds and o'er Canadia's plains Be hung aloft to terrify in chains."

The Gazette version ends the poem from this point as follows:

"Let Baker's head be snatch'd from infamy, And Carleton's Popish scull be fixt on high, And all like him o'er St. John's castle swing, To show that freedom is no trifling thing."

"Their tyrant of a king."--Ed. 1786.