D G

Hello again, your Honor- I think you know me well
D A D

My name is Richard Carlile, and the truth to you I’ll tell
D G

My charge is sedition and libel in the press- 

D G A

I’ve printed no lies, sir, but sedition I’ll confess
G D

for a king is still a man, no less or greater than
Em G Bm

Those who delve the loam and dig the deathly mines
D G

And the station of your birth gives you no claim over the earth
D G Bm

No right over our labor and no right over our minds

 

Chorus:
D G D

You’ll never silence me, with your troops or with your jail
D G A 

you’ll never silence me- and let the truth stand for my bail
G D Em Bm

Take my paper, take my pen, and I will come to raise again
G D G A D

And I’ll sing your name, Oh Liberty, until every man and woman’s speaking free

 

I know the charge against me, and I’ll tell you what it’s for- 

for putting books and putting power into the hands of the working poor, 

and for writing these words I know are true: 

There’s the servants and there’s the masters and there’s a war between the two

I’ve seen men locked into your cells, your priests damn us into hell

your yeomen cut the people down- 

with the gun and saber too on the fields of Peterloo,

and the Corn Law and wage slavery in the slums of London Town 

 

Chorus

 

Is there any Earthly power to put King George on the run,

More than the Yankee rebels, more than Boney’s guns? 

But the common folk of Britain, could do with their arms crossed  

What all the arms of Europe had ventured and had lost 

We are co-conspirators, engaging in the war 

Declared on us the day they forged a crown

And put reason into chains, put people in the same 

But people, by refusing, could pull any tyrant down

 

Chorus