© Isle Of New York Tours, LLC
Okay, listen up, kids,
And I'll tell you a story
Of the start of our city's
Illustrious glory.
It's about how New York City
Helped make the choice
To create the US. We were
Finding our voice!
In Seventeen Hundred and sixty-five
Our people were struggling to survive.
Great Britain was poor.
So, to build up its money
It made up new taxes.
Now, that wasn’t funny!
The stamp cost some money.
One new tax said papers
Needed a clamp
That would press into them
A circular stamp.
The stamp cost some money.
This money would go
To the British Exchequer
To help his cash flow.
And the colonists thought,
“You know, this is our chance!
If we get seats in Parliament
We will finance.
All we ask is to be
More a part of the nation.
But we want to help govern
With representation.”
So they said to Great Britain,
“We'll pay the fees
In exchange for a role
In creating decrees
And decisions of Britain
Of peace and of war
From here on the ocean's
Far western shore.”
In Seventeen-seventy,
New Yorkers heard
Of a gift that was coming
From King George the Third.
An equestrian statue,
King George on a horse,
Two tons of gray lead.
But gilded, of course.
Well-to-do gentlemen
spent all their free time
Out bowling on lawns
From 10 until tea-time.
Each day down on Broadway
They would be seen
In New York’s oldest park.
It is called Bowling Green.
It was hard then to push
A two-ton statue far.
Nobody, as yet,
Had invented the car!
So it was decided
The statue would stay
In Bowling Green Park
At the foot of Broadway.
King George also sent funds
For men to have builded,
A fence around Bowling Green.
And there they gilded
One hundred big, life-size,
Lead British crowns,
On one hundred fence posts,
The whole way around.
But Parliament said that
The colonies couldn’t join.
So the colonies stopped
Sending Britain their coin.
“For a hundred ten years,
We two have been dating
But now it is time
We should be separating.”
They stopped buying goods
That old England would offer
To keep them from filling
The treasury’s coffer.
The colonists thought
It was high time to be
Independent of Britain.
They would be free!
The Empire responded
With soldiers and ships.
The colonists stood firm,
With hands on their hips.
“You expect us to pay.
You expect us to bow.
But I’ll tell you what:
We're Americans now!
All people are equal!
Even the king!
So we don’t have to do
What he says. Not a thing!”
In Seventeen-seventy-six,
In July
Thirteen *states* signed
A document.
Do you know why?
Thomas Paine was a lawyer
From Scotland. He wrote
That the land was in Crisis.
Join up and vote
As a union of states
To become independent
And then to go forth
As a nation, resplendent!
And so, in the City
Of Brotherly Love
On the 4th of July,
This gathering of
Citizens of the new
States in attendance
Signed ‘A Declaration
Of Independence.’
Then over the mountains
And down through the valleys,
Rode a horse messenger
Through streets and alleys
It took him five days
To get through them all
And arrive July 9th
At New York City Hall.
Then hundreds of rebels,
Angry young men
Read it out loud just
At sunset. And then
They got tools and rope,
And walked through the dark
To glare at the statue
In Bowling Green Park.
Massachusetts was fully
Revolting. It grew,
And New York and the others
Would soon join in too.
They’d either have victory
Or be defendants
In the American War
Of Independence.
But they needed bullets
To be made, of lead.
“Melt down the statue,
From its hooves to its head.”
“It’ll make lots of musket balls
For our new state.”
And it made forty thousand
(and eighty-eight).
“What about these crowns?”
Asked some kids at the fence.
“Cut those down too; that
Would be ‘Common Sense’.”
They ran for their saws
To cut the lead crowns
Off the high fence posts,
And then threw them down.
You know, Bowling Green Park
Is still here today.
It’s easy to get here.
I'll show you the way.
When you go to the Statue
Of Liberty, you’ll say,
“Hey, there’s Bowling Green Park,
Right across old Broadway!”
Though hundreds of years
Have passed since that night
The fence that was damaged
Is treated just right
People reach up and touch it.
Astonished, they say,
“I can still feel the saw marks!
To this very day!”
We are Americans.
That means we all share
In the gifts that were earned
By the rockets’ red glare.
We are all equal,
Girl, boy, woman, man.
So go up and touch those
Old fenceposts. You can!
Now listen, my children,
And you shall hear
Of a land of equality,
Not one of fear.
’E PLURIBUS UNUM,’
Wherever you’re from
Was our country’s
Motto, “From many, one.”