Their blood flowed as freely (in proportion to their numbers) to cement the fabric of independence as that of any of their fellow-citizens: They concurred with perhaps greater unanimity than any other body of men, in recommending and promoting that government, from whose influence America anticipates all the blessings of justice, peace, plenty, good order and civil and religious liberty.
John Carroll, first American bishop, on American Catholics in the Revolution
Something for the weekend. Chester, America’s unofficial national anthem during the American Revolution.
Written by William Billings in 1770, he added new lyrics to the song in 1778 and transformed it into a battle hymn for the Patriots in their war for independence. The song reveals the strong religious element that was ever-present on the American side of the conflict, with most Patriots viewing the war as a crusade.
Let tyrants shake their iron rods,
And Slav’ry clank her galling chains.
We fear them not, we trust in God.
New England’s God forever reigns.
Howe and Burgoyne and Clinton, too,
With Prescott and Cornwallis joined,
Together plot our overthrow,
In one infernal league combined.
When God inspired us for the fight,
Their ranks were broke,
their lines were forced,
Their ships were shattered in our sight,
Or swiftly driven from our coast.
The foe comes on with haughty stride,
Our troops advance with martial noise;
Their vet’rans flee before our youth,
And gen’rals yield to beardless boys.
What grateful off’ring shall we bring,
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud hallelujahs let us sing,
And praise his name on ev’ry chord!
It is Jesus Christ Who will rule the nations with an iron rod.
And yet I can’t forget that the religious element and crusading spirit that produced this song were directed against France and, ultimately, Catholicism.
It was directed against Britain and had nothing to do with Catholicism.
Battle of Yorktown 1781 where the Royal French fleet won the day for the Americans was The decisive battle of the American Revolution. France was still a Catholic kingdom at that point. The French Revolution started about 1788-1789. The king and family were murdered 1799 ; the Reign of Terror is in full force. The Revolution was anti-Catholic with clergy hunted down and killed and many lay too..
The French Revolution started about 1788-1789. The king and family were murdered 1799 ; the Reign of Terror is in full force. The Revolution was anti-Catholic with clergy hunted down and killed and many lay too..
The King was executed in 1793, along with his consort and one of his sisters. The dauphin was placed in custody and apparently treated quite badly; he died of tuberculosis two years later. I think the rest of the King’s close relatives made it into exile. A large number of noblemen were executed between 1789 and 1794, with some of the King’s collateral relatives among them.
Au contraire, Mr. McClarey. When Billings wrote the original version in 1770, near the midpoint between the Treaty of Paris and the Quebec Act, the chronic paranoid anti-Catholic bigotry characteristic of New England (in that respect a true daughter of Old England) was running particularly high. The song celebrates the British victories over the French, especially the successes of “les bastonnais” at both sieges of Louisbourg. Leaving aside the verse added later that names Burgoyne et al., is it conceivable that the song celebrates British defeats five years before hostilities with Britain began? No, to the New England mind, the tyrant’s iron rod and slavery’s galling chains would be none other than Louis’s scepter and the rosary.
You are quite mistaken. By 1770 Boston was under British military occupation and the Boston Massacre occurred on March 5 of that year. An ardent patriot, Billings was referring to the British as tyrants. The song in its 1770 incarnation makes no reference to British victories, to France or to Catholicism.
Precisely which British “ships were shattered or driven from our coasts” in 1770? At what battle had a British general yielded to “beardless boys” or to anyone else for that matter in 1770? And while it’s true the French are not identified as the enemy, neither were the British in the original version; the difference is that at the time of composition, French ships had been destroyed and French generals bested by New Englanders, and British ones hadn’t, no matter how fondly Billings may have wished it so. It only makes sense to interpret it all as an explicit “We beat the bloody French” , with the implied message “and we’ll beat the bloody British too!”
Precisely which British “ships were shattered or driven from our coasts” in 1770? At what battle had a British general yielded to “beardless boys” or to anyone else for that matter in 1770?
Those are lines from the 1778 version. They were not in the original 1770 version:
Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And Slav’ry clank her galling chains,
We fear them not, we trust in God,
New England’s God forever reigns.
Howe and Burgoyne and Clinton too,
With Prescot and Cornwallis join’d,
Together plot our Overthrow,
In one Infernal league combin’d.
When God inspir’d us for the fight,
Their ranks were broke, their lines were forc’d,
Their ships were Shatter’d in our sight,
Or swiftly driven from our Coast.
The Foe comes on with haughty Stride;
Our troops advance with martial noise,
Their Vet’rans flee before our Youth,
And Gen’rals yield to beardless Boys.
What grateful Off’ring shall we bring?
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud Halleluiahs let us Sing,
And praise his name on ev’ry Chord.
Here is the 1770 version:
Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And Slav’ry clank her galling chains,
We fear them not, we trust in God,
New England’s God forever reigns.
What grateful Off’ring shall we bring?
What shall we render to the Lord?
Lord Halleluiahs let us Sing,
And praise his name on ev’ry Chord.
Well, thank you for clarifying things. I was misled by someone I had every reason to trust in such matters to believe that the third and fourth stanzas dated from 1770; the second clearly doesn’t. And I happily concede that they more likely refer to the lifting of the siege of Boston or later events than to the conflict with the French. But this leaves us with an original hymn of thanksgiving for deliverance from tyranny and slavery, and in 1770 it would make little sense to say the evil averted was Britain. Even if Billings had intended that meaning, it would have been far from obvious to the reader.
In any case, none of this has any bearing on my initial observation: that the New England in which Billings wrote was strongly anti-French and even more strongly anti-Catholic.