But success was almost preordained, for their cause was “righteous” and “heaven approves.” “By uniting we stand,” but “by dividing we fall,” Dickinson wrote. Sure, there are dangers, but the colonists must remain united. After a lot of inspired talk about freedom, the final verse summons Americans to join the cause that is destined to succeed. Most versions of the song that have survived have four verses and a chorus.
In fact, while “The Liberty Song” is today celebrated as America’s first patriotic song, Dickinson wrote it as a loyal British citizen. A revolution would come and independence would be won, but neither Dickinson nor most Americans were thinking along those lines in 1768. Yet while mythmakers have labeled Dickinson one of the founding fathers, the “penman of the Revolution” whose essays and song helped clarify American ideals and accelerated their unstoppable march toward independence, the truth is more complicated. “The Liberty Song” is a memorable addition to his other work, a musical complement to the Letters aimed at uniting Americans in their opposition to British tyranny. He would help draft the Articles of Confederation and the United States Constitution. Dickinson would ride the reputation won with his pen to a seat in the Continental Congress and high political office in both Pennsylvania and Delaware. The essays brought the 35-year-old lawyer immediate fame. Since American colonists did not get to vote for members of Parliament, a Parliament-imposed tax was a form of robbery-a forced payment, not a voluntary gift-and thus was unconstitutional. Most importantly, he argued that, while British Parliament had the authority to regulate Americans’ trade, it did not possess the power to impose taxes aimed at raising revenue.ĭickinson’s argument was based on an ancient British belief that taxes were a voluntary gift from the people to the King that could only be imposed by a legislative body in which they were represented. In Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania, he labeled these British efforts unconstitutional. Just months earlier, he had written a widely circulated critique of the British legislation troubling the American colonies. Consequently, they owed it to their children to pass on the same legacy even though resistance carried risk, “our children shall gather the fruits of our pain.”ĭickinson was a fitting author of the historic song.
“The Liberty Song” called on the British colonists of North America to “join hand in hand” to resist these and earlier “tyrannous acts.” After all, the song reminded them, “In freedom we're born ” in fact, many of their forefathers had traveled “thro' oceans to deserts” to ensure that they remained free (well, oceans at least).
By this point, many Americans had grown tired of the steady stream of British measures designed to extract some tax revenue from them.
“The Liberty Song” was written about a year after British Parliament imposed the Townshend Acts, a series of small taxes on consumer goods like glass, paper, paint, and tea. Right in the midst of all of this, in 1768, Pennsylvanian John Dickinson wrote America’s first patriotic song. In April 1775, colonists in Lexington and Concord exchanged their first gunfire with the British. In 1774, delegates from the thirteen colonies gathered for the first time to construct a united response to the British. American colonists violently protested British measures for the first time in 1765. American merchants first boycotted British goods in 1764. Between 17, Americans witnessed a lot of firsts.