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Show Lee: F reneeu as a Propagandist in 1775 79 Pride sent me here, pride blasted in the bud, Which, if it can, will build its throne in blood, With slauter'd millions glut its tearless eyes, And make all nature fall that it may rise.-« Come, let's embark, your holy whining cease, Come, let's away, I'll hang myself for peace. As wartime propaganda this falls short. The reader does hate Gage, but rather feels sorry for the misguided old man. And since he has left the country, he no longer stands as the tangible embodiment of a hateful system. This was the last of Freneau's political -propaganda until he returned to America in 1778. At the close of 1775 he wanted only "a safe retirement from all mankind."16 not There is no question of Freneau's right to fame as a politi cal satirist and propagandist in the years following 1778; but if we had only the poems of 1775 by which to judge him, he could scarcely qualify. The most effective Revolutionary propaganda roused the public with such postulates as that the foes of Ameica were all frauds, tricksters, rogues, and liars, and that the British governing classes were all corrupt, licentious, and immoral. These concepts are to be found in all wartime propaganda. Indeed, in the poems we have been considering here, they are to be found as underlying assumptions, but they are not forceful enough in Freneau to provoke action. It is as if the author feared exaqqera tion. Such an attitude is intellectual and honorable, it is scarcely efficacious as propaganda for the masses. But Freneau learned. "Libera Nos, Domine," which was published in revised form in 1786 and in 1809, is superior to "American Liberty" and the General Gage poems. It does not labor for attention, its thrusts are deft and fatal, its tone is con vincing. From the group at St. [arne's, who slight our petitions, And fools that are waiting for further submissions From a nation whose manners are rough and severe, From scoundrels and rascals.e+do keep us all clear. who murder and plunder." The English are "pirates are now Montague, "the little fat man with his pretty white hair," and Tryon, "swelled with importance," and The ... enemy leaders the scoundrel, Lord North, "with his tooth-full of brains." "Pattee, op cit., p. 208. Leary places "Mac in his Freneau chronology. (See Leary, p. 422.) Swiqqen" at the end of 1775 |
