ANNEXATION 1846
(Anonymous; published in London, England in 1846; Philip J. Thomas collection)

1.
Yankee Doodle wants a state,
Oregon or Texas,
Sends some squatters in it straight,
And quietly annexes.

Cho.
Yankee Doodle, Doodle Do,
Yankee Doodle Dandy,
He can do the Britishers
And Mexicans so handy.

2.
Canada's a pleasant place,
So is California;
Yankee Doodle wants them all,
But first he cribs a corner.

3.
Yankee Doodle went to sleep
Among his bills of parcels.
President Polk he stirred him up,
And cocked his tail so martial.

4.
General Cass he made a speech,
Archer called it splutter,
He swore he'd tear the British Jack
And wipe it in the gutter.

5.
Jabez Honan took an oath,
By the living Jingo!
Cuba soon shall be our own
And so shall Saint Domingo.

6.
Yankee has some public works,
Well he may parade them,
English money paid for all,
And Irish labour made them.

7.
Then hey for Yankee Doodle's luck,
And for Annexation;
Hey for Yankee Doodle's pluck
And for Repudiation.

Last Chorus:
Yankee Doodle, Doodle Do,
Yankee Doodle Dandy,
And hey for Sherry Cobbler too,
Mint julep and peach brandy.


Notes (cribbed from Philip J. Thomas, Songs of the Pacific Northwest, 1979, pp. 18-19)

    Americans settlers in Mexican territory organised into local governments and invited the USA to annex them (Texas was annexed in 1845; but California not until 1848, after a US invasion of Mexico, so this song was prophetic.)
    In British territory, for a generation the Hudson's Bay Company had seen "squatters" crowding them in the valleys of the lower Columbia River. Now US President James K. Polk, backed by fellow expansionists like General Lewis Cass, took lower British Columbia/Oregon from the British, who were unenthusiastic about this region since the decline to the fur trade and the failure to find a Northwest Passage.
    Senator William S. Archer opposed Polk's war policies. (Jack=flag) Holding that God had given the whole continent to their nation ("manifest destiny") the expansionists argued for war with Mexico, Canada, and Cuba (the latter for the purpose of spreading slavery).
    British investments in the Erie Canal had paid off, but by 1846 many American states had repudiated (openly refused to pay back) the bonds they had issued. A lot of British investors had been burned.
    A cartoon slave-holder might brandish a mint julep in one hand and a whip in the other. Certainly, not all could afford a taste for such Southern luxuries.

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Oh, yeah, for the harvester, if you still like to attach poster's initials they're MCP. It is surprising this wasn't in the DT.