III.
Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old,
- Their bread in contentment they eat,
Unvex'd with the troubles of silver and gold,
- The cares of the grand and the great.
With timber and tar they Old England supply'd,
- And supported her power on the sea ;
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat,
- For the honour of Liberty tree.
IV.
But hear, O ye swains, ( 'tis a tale most profane,)
- How all the tyrannical powers,
King, Commons, and Lords, are uniting amain,
- To cut down this guardian of ours ;
From the east to the west, blow the trumpet to arms,
- Thro' 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.
Thomas Paine, editor, The Pennsylvania Magazine, July, 1775 (Philadelphia, 1775), 328-329.
160. A Troublous Year in a Country Village (1776)
Williams was the first minister at Longmeadow, Massachusetts. His diary gives a picture of the life of a small village in the tumultuous Revolutionary times. — Bibliography of civil life during the Revolution : Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, VI, ch. i, and bibliographical notes.
JANUARY 1, 1776 — Grant us help in this day of trouble; a very remarkable year past ; the most that I ever saw — unnatural war, great sickness, and remarkable drought. 100 years ago we were in a struggle with the Indians, who rose up in rebellion and designed the ruin of the country, but God preserved us. In the year past the leaders of our nation have sent troops to subdue and bring us under in this
