I meant keep those lines in that first verse, Amos, so it would read:

We'll sing a song, a children's song, With cheering rousing chorus, As round our blazing fires we throng, The starry heavens o'er us; Impatient for our coming lives, Awaiting what the mornings give, Here in the silence of the night, We'll chant a children's song.

Though I'd see it as a version for children to sing, at least at first. If they grew up with it and took it to their hearts, that would be the way it would have a right to become a national anthem.

The thing about the Soldiers Song is that it wasn't imposed on people by any government committee - it came up from below, and only got printed years after it caught on among prisoners of war in the campsSee this recent thread about it.