University of Virginia Library

Anxious Columbia to subdue
To his detested reign,
Chagrin'd with disappointments past,
Yet resolute his point to gain,
He in his counsels wildly rang'd,
Oft form'd his plans anew,
And, discontented with the last,
Almost as oft his chief commanders chang'd.
Not so Columbia;—by the public voice,
Her first, her last, her only choice,
(Ev'n with the dread alternative in view
That destin'd her to be,
Bound in vile chains, or gloriously free)
Too well thy great abilities she knew,
For the important charge of her defence,
At any time the weighty trust to rue;
But with unshaken confidence,
Thro' ev'ry varying scene,
Adverse or prosp'rous, gloomy or serene,
Approv'd thy conduct and rely'd on THEE.
While Clinton, Carleton, Howe,
With Robinson and Gage,
The servile tools of tyranny, employ'd
T'enforce the claims of disappointed rage,
Each in his turn, with elevated brow,
Has trod the military stage,
An infamous pre-eminence enjoy'd,
And earn'd of shame his individual share;
Still at the head of the Columbian line,
Contending in a righteous cause,
The undivided glory has been thine,
With the whole world's applause,
Antagonists successive to oppose,
The single Chieftain, and conduct the war,
Thro' its whole progress to its brilliant close.