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GUEST, henryp Tolpuddle Martyrs, any songs? (35) RE: Tolpuddle Martyrs, any songs? 25 Feb 20


The story of the Tolpuddle Martyrs TUC booklet ISBN 978 1 8500 793 1
We will be free
On leaving the court after his conviction, George Loveless threw to the crowd a paper on which he had written the following verses. He is not the author but they were sung at meetings arranged during the campaign for the release of the Martyrs.

"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;
We raise the watchword 'Liberty'
We will, we will, we will be free!

God is our guide! No swords we draw,
We kindle not war's battle fires,
By reason, union, justice, law,
We claim the birthright of our sires;
We raise the watchword 'Liberty'
We will, we will, we will be free!"

God is our Guide The Tolpuddle Martyrs and their Methodist Roots
This booklet is published by the Dorchester Circuit of the Southampton District of the Methodist Church

The Song of Freedom
Tune Madrid 8.8.8.8.8.8.

http://folkstream.com/643.html
Come! chanting the song of the "GATHERING OF THE UNIONS;" and shew the spirit by which your fathers and brethren have achieved REFORM.

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 secret watchword Liberty.

God is our guide! from field, from wave,
From plough, from anvil, and from loom.
We come, our country's right to save
And speak a tyrant faction's doom:
And hark! we raise from sea to sea.
The sacred watchword Liberty

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.

Notes; From the Tasmanian Newspaper the Colonist and Van Diemen's Land Commercial and Agricultural Advertiser 27 May 1834 p. 2. The song "The Gathering of the Unions" is a reworking of the famous Tolpuddle Martyrs' song written by their leader George Loveless as on 18 March 1834 they were being sentenced to Transportation to Australia for uttering illegal oaths.

https://www.poetrynook.com/poem/god-our-guide-field-wave
God is our guide! from field, from wave by George Loveless

God is our guide from field and wave,
From plough, from anvil, and from loom;
We come to liberate the slave,
And speak the factious despot's doom:
And, hark! we raise from sea to sea,
The watchword—“ GOD AND LIBERTY !”

We draw no devastating sword,
No war's destructive fires we light,
By reason and the living word
Of God, we put our foes to flight:
And, hark! &c.

We come with blessings in our train,
To spread them with a bounteous hand;
To wipe away the guilty stain
Of slavery, from this much-lov'd land:
And, hark! &c.


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