Background: The Albany Freeholder, an anti-rent newspaper, was published between 1845-1854. No page numbers were used.

The identity of the Forest Minstrel is unknown; he/she gave his/her address as Middletown in several poems.  It is possible he/she was inspired by James Hogg (1770 - 1835), a Scottish poet and novelist who wrote a collection of songs entitled "The Forest Minstrel".

(For the Freeholder.)

T H E  C O N T E S T.

Air – Bruce’s Address.

Now the Contest is begun,

Freemen, Freemen, every one,

Claim the rights your fathers won,

From a foreign foe.

Let the haughty Landlord see

Independent you will be;

Deeds that come across the sea

Should not bind us here.

Raise the stainless standard high,

Throw the Feudal Charter by;

Meet them, and their power defy,

On our native soil.

Grants bestow’d by English Lords

E’er our fathers’ drew their swords,

Should not here a right afford,

To oppress the free,

Independence, proudly towers

On Columbia’s happy shores;

But, the last cap-stone is yours—

Boldly put it on.

Light the spark too long represt,

Long it smoulder’d in your breast;

Let it flame till well redrest,

All your wrongs shall be.

When you hear the trumpet sound,

Foremost in your ranks be found;

Crush oppression to the ground—

Set the helpless free.

Countless thousands sound your praise,

Happy bards in future days;

High shall sound their proudest lays,

To proclaim your fame.

THE FOREST MINSTREL.

Middletown, Del. Co., July 11, 1845.
 

Transcribed for this website by Terri Nan Ahrens.