I watched my flocks and herds increase,
And ploughed my land and held my peace:
Men called me the Tory Abner Reece.
Yet now the country needed all
Her manly sons to break her thrall;
Could I be deaf to her piteous call?
I thought me of the cruel foe,
The red-skinned Mingo, skulking low,
The midnight raid, the secret blow—
Hessians and Brunswickers, the lees