To the Honorable the Thirty-Ninth Congress.
"Protect the Freedman" (1866)
Song & Chorus
Sung by Skiff & Gaylord's Minstrels.
Words by Luke Collin
Music by Joseph Philbrick Webster, 1819-1875

1.
We sing no more the battle songs,
  By which the ranks were crowded,
But ours the task to right the wrong
  By which our past is clouded,
The conflict of the battle field,
  For freedom, hap-ly endly;
Proclaimed our flag the Nation's shield
  Thrown o'er a nation blended.

CHORUS
Protect the Freedman, he was true
  To us when help was needed;
The cry of one who wore the blue
  Must never pass unheeded.

2.
When southern plains were dark with blood,
  The trembling air with treason,
And venal presses swelled the flood
  Of copperhead unreason.
While manyu good men felf alarm,
  And bad men croaked disaster--
We craved the bondmand's stron right arm,
  And freed him from his master.

(CHORUS)

3.
How quickly spread the gladsome tale,
  In ev'ry hat 'twas spoken,
The Freedman came from hill and dale,
  His galling fetters broken;
We clothed him in the loyal blue,
  Put in his hand the saber,
And bade him strike the freedom true,
_Free soil, free men, free labor._

(CHORUS)

4.
We promised him the "rights of man,"
  His wrongs should be adjusted;
We placed him in the battle's van,
  He marched, and fought, and _trusted_;
His faith and worth let Wagner tell,
  Port Hudson's field of slaughter,
Where Shaw was killed, and where Paine fell,
  _Free blood ran free as water!_

(CHORUS)

5.
The nation had the Freedman's aid
  In putting down succession;
His help was gained by pledges made
  To shield him from oppression.
_Then let us true to manhood be,_
  Though high officials rate us;
We must _in fact make Freedmen free,_
  _Else, nary be, God will hate us._

(CHORUS)