“Come on, my hearts of temper’d steel, Away! away! to arms!! No foreign slaves shall give us law, No British tyrants reign; ’Tis INDEPENDENCE makes us free, And FREEDOM we’ll maintain. And to conquest we will go! will go! will go! With the red, white and blue, To conquest we will go.
“A soldier is a gentleman, His honor is his life, And he that won’t stand by his FLAG, Will ne’er stand by his WIFE. And to conquest we will go! will go! will go! With the red, white and blue, To conquest we will go.
“Then hark! to arms! to arms!! to arms!!! ’Tis the time that tries men’s souls! The rising world shall sing of you, A THOUSAND YEARS to come, And to your children’s children TELL The WONDERS you have done. When to conquest you did go! did go! did go! With the red, white and blue, To conquest you did go.”
Many inspired songs (after the close of the war for American Independence) were carried home by Gen. Lafayette, (the companion of Washington,) Rochambeau, and many of the French engineers and soldiers, on their return to France, having proved their chivalry and united their hearts, blood, songs and arms with Americans, for the liberties of America; and, but for the “WAR SONG” of BETSY ROSS, the “Marseillaise Hymn” would not have been written by Rouget de Lille, a French officer of engineers, in 1791. Marshal Luckner commanded the French Revolutionary army at that time on their march from Marseilles to Paris; that whole army became phrensied by the words of the “WAR SONGS” of American Independence, that they had helped to gain, and Rouget de Lille caught the inspiratory words, “_And hark, away to arms! to conquest we will go!_” and quickly composed the song that he entitled the “_Chant de Guerre de l’ Armée du Rhin_,” the “War Song of the Army of the Rhine,” which the Parisians, some years afterwards, named the “_Hymne des Marseillaise_.” Thus the “_War Song of Independence_” became combined, in word and spirit, in the “_Marseillaise Hymn_,” and has ever since enlivened the march of the armies of France to conquest and played an important part in the revolutions, not only of France, but of other Continental States.
In 1870, William J. Canby, Esq., (the grandson of Mrs. John Ross,) of Philadelphia, read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a very interesting paper on the subject of the “Centennial Anniversary of the American Flag,” in which he stated that his maternal grandmother, “Betsy Ross,” was the first maker of the “Stars and Stripes.” She lived in Arch street at the time, and continued in the business of making Flags for many years.