Oh, mother of a matchless race!
Columbia, hear our cry;
The children nursed in your embrace,
For you will live and die.
We glory in our fathers’ deeds,
We love the soil they trod;
Our heritage we will defend
And keep, so help us God!
CHORUS.
Rise, rise! Oh Patriots, rise!
Let waiting millions see!
What courage thrills, what faith inspires
The Nation of the Free!
Hail, brothers in a common cause!
True to your birthright stand!
The Constitution and the Laws
Must know no Vandal hand.
Let foreign foes invidious gaze,
To see our light expire;
They’ll shrink in awe before the blaze
Of Freedom’s deathless fire.
Hark! how the hymns of glory swell
Above our fathers’ graves!
Th’ unfaltering men of Seventy-Six
Begot no race of slaves.
The blood that bought our sacred right
Still in their lineage runs;
No tribute gold, no traitor’s might
Shall wrest it from their sons.
Shade of heroic Washington!
Still guard our Native Land!
Rebuke, rebuke each wavering one,
Direct each ardent hand!
Oh, mother of a matchless race!
Hear our united cry!
’Tis noble in your cause to live,
And nobler still to die!