1832
The Gathering of the Unions
| Tune: | Original |
| Lyrics: | Harriet Martineau |
| Composer: | Eliza Flower |
Lo! we answer! see, we come!
Quick at Freedom’s holy call,
We come! we come! we come! we come!
To do the glorious work of all;
And hark! we raise from sea to sea,
The sacred watchword, Liberty!
God is our guide! from field, from wave,
From plough, from anvil, and from loom,
We come, our country’s rights to save,
And speak a tyrant faction’s doom:
And hark! &c.
God is our guide! no swords we draw,
We kindle not war’s battle fires;
By union, justice, reason, law,
We claim the birthright of our sires,
We raise the watchword Liberty—
We will, we will, we WILL be free.
Until personal scandal damaged their friendship, the writer-reformer Harriet Martineau and composer Eliza Flower formed a remarkable songwriting partnership. This, their most successful song, was reportedly sung by 100,000 at a ‘monster meeting’ of working-class reformers in Birmingham, and remained in political repertoires as an anthem of unity and ‘li-ber-ty!’ until the twentieth century. Musically more complex than many marching anthems, its strength is in matching rhetoric to function: by singing the chorus, the crowd brings its words to life.
| Cause: | Reformist | Collectivist |
| Theme: | Political Process |
| Target of Protest: | Political Faction |
| Proposal/Solution: | Organisation | Franchise Reform |