Alexandria Daily Gazette, Commercial & Political

THE EMBARGO.

A Song composed by Henry Meakin, Esq. of Dover, and sung at the celebration of the Fourth of July.

Tune--"Come let us prepare."

Dear Sirs, it is wrong

To demand a few Song

I have let all the breath I can spare,

With the Muse I've conferr'd,

And she won't say a word,

But keeps laughing about the Embargo

I wish that I could,

Sing in Allegro mood:

But the times are as stupid as large

Could I, have my choice,

I would strain up my voice

'Till it crack all the strings of Embargo.

Our great politicians,

Those dealers in visions,

On paper, to all lengths they dare go;

But when call'd to decide,

Like a turtle they hide,

In their own pretty shell the EMBARGO.

In the time that we try,

To put out Britain's eye;

I fear we shall let our own fair go:

Yet still we're so wise,

We can see with French eyes,

And then we shall like the EMBARGO.

A French privateer,

Can have nothing to fear;

She may load and may here, or may there

Their friendship is such,

And we love them so much,

We let them slip through the EMBARGO

Our ships all in motion,

Once whiten'd the ocean,

They sail'd and return'd with a cargo

Now doom'd to decay,

They have fallen a prey,

To Jefferson's worms and EMBARGO.

Lest Britain should take

A few man by mistake,

Who under false colors may dare go;

We're manning their fleet,

With our tars who retreat

From poverty, sloth and embargo;

What a fuss we have made,

About rights and free trade,

And swore we'd not let our own share go;

Now we can't for our souls

Bring a Hake from the shoals,

'Tis a breach of the twentieth EMBARGO.

Our Farmers so gay,

How they gallop'd away,

'T was money that made the old mare go;

But now she won't stir,

For the whip or the spur,

Till they take off her clog, the EMBARGO.

If you ask for a debt,

The man turns in a pet,

"I pay, sir? I'll not let a hair go"

If your officer comes,

I shall put up my thumbs,

And clap on his breath an EMBARGO."

Thus Tommy destroys,

Yet we'll not let the beautiful fair go;

They all will contrive

To keep commerce alive,

There is nothing they hate like embargo.

Since rulers design,

To deprive us of wine,

'T is best that we now have a rare go

Then each to his post,

And see who will do most,

To knock out the blocks of Embargo.