"Royal Charlie": 1837 Song for Hard Times Still Sings True Today, 176 years later

History Repeating because "...the people are too damn dumb" ~~ Harry Hopkins, FDR's alter ego and architect of the CFR

Sound money patriots will be endeared with this one - song of the masses who've discovered they've become serfs under the bankers, corporations and their legislators! This is the ferocious battle waged by Andy Jackson for a gold standard. The banksters of that period were ordered - nationwide - by a NY banker to call in all their loans and raise interest rates on others, crippling the us economy! Remember, the Republicans of today are descended from these subversive Whigs! The complete account is in one of Murray Rothbard's books but I'm too lethargic to dig it out.

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While performing some research recently for a story on Hard Times tokens, I came across a song from September 1837 that I thought would be of interest to Hard Times token collectors. Don't worry about the melody, the song reads just fine as a poem.

With today's economy and credit crisis, the words to the song sound just as true today as they did in 1837.

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Jackson fights the Bank in 1832 (1833 print). Source Wikipedia

Tune - "Royal Charlie."

Hard times! - Hard times! - is now the cry,
The country's in confusion;

The Banks have stopped! - and still they try
To mystify delusion;

They give US trash,
And keep the cash
To send across the waters,

To pay for things
They bought from Kings,
To gull our sons and daughters! -

{Chorus}
Then to the Polls! - ye noble souls! -
The Banks may cry for quarters!
But hear their doom - THEY SHALL RESUME,
Or forfeit all their charters!

Shall Corporations rule the soil,
That Washington defended?

Must honest people sweat and toil,
And see their rights "suspended?"

Must we be slaves,
To pamper knaves
Shall Bankers be our masters?

Must all our pay,
From day to day,
Be nothing but shin-plasters?

Then to the Polls! - ye noble souls! -
The Banks may cry for quarters!
But hear their doom - THEY SHALL RESUME,
Or forfeit all their charters!

Brave Jackson strove to keep us free,
He Lov'd his country dearly,

His "sound metallic currency"
Was not a "promise" merely:

If "Little Van's"
An honest man,
He'll imitate the Hero,

And send the Whigs,
To dance their jigs,
At least - as low as Zero!

Then to the Polls! - ye noble souls! -
The Banks may cry for quarters!
But hear their doom - THEY SHALL RESUME,
Or forfeit all their charters!

As Congress is about to meet,
Upon a great occasion,

May no unholy scheme defeat
The common expectation: -

If Martin will
Be honest still,
The scenes which now are tragic, -

Must disappear
Before a year,
For honesty is "magic!!" -

Then to the Polls! - ye noble souls! -
The Banks may cry for quarters!
But hear their doom - THEY SHALL RESUME,
Or forfeit all their charters!

The "Empire State" may play her pranks,
And e'en the "Old Dominion,"

May white wash all her broken Banks
Regardless of opinion:

The Keystone State
Won't hesitate,
Tho' ills fall thick upon her,

To still maintain,
Without a stain,
Her high and "sacred honor."

Then to the Polls! - ye noble souls! -
The Banks may cry for quarters!
But hear their doom - THEY SHALL RESUME,
Or forfeit all their charters!

We duly understand our rights,
The rights of Law, and Nature: -

We'll vote no more for paper kites,
To fill our Legislature: -

For just Reform
We'll brave the storm,
Bold as Columbia's Seamen,

We'll do or die -
For Liberty, -
And prove that we are Freemen!!

Then to the Polls! - ye noble souls! -
The Banks may cry for quarters!
But hear their doom - THEY SHALL RESUME,
Or forfeit all their charters!

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The song can be found under Popular Melodies on page 2 of the September 5, 1837 Gettysburg, Pennsylvania newspaper The Republican Compiler. It is listed as originally "by the editor of The Mountaineer."

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