Little Mac, little Mac you’re the very man, Go down to Washington as soon as you can, Lincoln’s got to get away and make room for you, We must beat Lincoln and Johnson too. Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah! Sound the rally thro’ the whole United States Little Mac and Pendleton are our candidates. Democrats, democrats, do it up brown, Lincoln and his N***heads^ won’t go down, Greeley and Sumner and all that crew, We must beat Lincoln and Johnson too. Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah! Sound the rally thro’ the whole United States Little Mac and Pendleton are our candidates. Abrahan the Joker soon will DISKIVER We’ll send him on a gun boat up Salt River, Scotch caps and military cloak’s won’t do, We must beat Lincoln and Johnson too. Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah! Sound the rally thro’ the whole United States Little Mac and Pendleton are our candidates. Southern men come again, Little Mac’s a trump, He’ll restore the Union with a hop, skip and jump, With n**** proclamations full in view, We must beat Lincoln and Johnson too. Hurrah, Hurrah, Hurrah! Sound the rally thro’ the whole United States Little Mac and Pendleton are our candidates.
Note (provided by Laura Prichard): This satirical campaign song paraphrases and combines two of his earlier songs: "Nelly Bly" (for the verses) and "Better Times Are Coming" (for the chorus). The text supportes General George McClellan, who was put forward by the Copperheads politcal party in 1864 to run against then-President Abraham Lincoln (and who did not win the Democratic presidential nominations until seven months after Foster's death). J. Marsh first issued this song in Philadelphia in 1864, copyrighted by Foster’s daughter Marion, with text either by the publisher or by Foster’s politically-active sister Henrietta Angelica Foster Wick Thornton (1818-1879, see Ken Emerson’s Doo-dah! Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture, Da Capo, 1997).
Text Authorship:
- possibly by J. Marsh [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
- possibly by Henrietta Angelica Foster Wick Thornton (1818 - 1879) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Stephen Collins Foster (1826 - 1864), "Little Mac! Little Mac! You're the very man", 1864. [voice, SATB chorus, piano] [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Laura Prichard [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2016-08-14
Line count: 28
Word count: 195