Columbia and independence, a new patriotic song Dedicated to every free born American. Tune--Adams and liberty

The title of the ballad “Columbia and Independence” continues with the following text: “a new patriotic song dedicated to every free born American. Tune—Adams and Liberty.”[1] This new song is in the same elevated language as the song on which it was based,“Adams and Liberty. The Boston Patriotic Song,” which, after Hopkinson’s “Hail Columbia,” was the biggest song hit of 1798. “Adams and Liberty” was written by Robert Treat (baptized Thomas) Paine Jr. (1773-1811)[2] under a commission from the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society and premiered at their anniversary event on June 1, 1798; the enthusiastic reception of Paine’s song “amidst the loudest reiterated plaudits” was reported the next day in the Boston Columbian Centinel (Lawrence 148-49). The tune he chose was “The Anacreontic Song,” an English melody by John Stafford Smith that was soon adopted for additional American political and topical texts (Lichtenwanger 136-70). In 1814 it would gain its most long-lasting text, Key’s “Star-Spangled Banner.”

While it refers to “Adams and Liberty” through the tune choice, “Columbia and Independence” is more of a sequel to that song than a parody. It is a conventional Federalist tribute to America and to Washington. The fifth verse begins with a reference to President John Adams, although his name is not given.