The 20 Daughters of Liberty

The 20 Daughters of Liberty
By Anonymous~ 1768 ~

Since the men, from a party or fear of a frown,
Are kept by a sugar-plum quietly down,
Supinely asleep--and depriv'd of their sight,
Are stripp'd of their freedom, and robb'd of their right;
If the sons, so degenerate! the blessings despise,
Let the Daughters of Liberty nobly arise;
And though we've no voice but a negative here,
The use of the taxables, let us forbear:--
(Then merchants import till your stores are all full,
May the buyers be few, and your traffic be dull!)

~~~~~

Stand firmly resolv'd, and bid Grenville to see,
That rather than freedom we part with our tea,
And well as we love the dear draught when a-dry,
As American Patriots our taste we deny--
Pennsylvania's gay meadows can richly afford
To pamper our fancy or furnish our board;
And paper sufficient at home still we have,
To assure the wiseacre, we will not sign slave;
When this homespun shall fail, to remonstrate our grief,
We can speak viva voce, or scratch on a leaf;
Refuse all their colors, though richest of dye,
When the juice of a berry our paint can supply,
To humor our fancy--and as for our houses,
They'll do without painting as well as our spouses;
While to keep out the cold of a keen winter morn,
We can screen the north-west with a well polished horn;
And trust me a woman, by honest invention,
Might give this state-doctor a dose of prevention.

~~~~~

Join mutual in this--and but small as it seems,
We may jostle a Grenville, and puzzle his schemes;
But a motive more worthy our patriot pen,
Thus acting--we point out their duty to men;
And should the bound-pensioners tell us to hush,
We can throw back the satire, by biding them blush.

This poem was published anonymously in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1768. It is thought that it was written by a Quaker lady who lived in Philadelphia. It was dedicated to the Daughters of Liberty during the Revolutionary War.