Protection, in thy honoured name 
What wrongs mankind degrade; 
Aggression ‘gainst the rights of man. 
Free labour, land, and trade.

Some clamour for protection 
Against cheap food and clothes: 
Nor dream they in their ignorance 
Of famine’s horrid woes. 

Home manufacturers often seek 
‘Gainst foreigners protection; 
While farmers must pay double price 
Till bunglers gain perfection. 

And when for twenty years they’ve had 
A most tremendous booty, 
They’ll cry you want to ruin them 
If you remove the duty. 

Whoever robs us of a right, 
At manhood strikes a blow; 
Replacing freedom’s happiness 
With tyranny and woe. 

Free trade is part of freedom, 
Which tyrants would invade’ 
And rob us of the benefit, 
The right of honest trade. 

Thus bit by bit they make us 
Slaves to protection’s laws; 
And bit by bit we are deprived 
Of freedom’s peaceful cause.

‘Tis moral wrong on cotton land 
To raise the sugar cane; 
If honest labour must be taxed 
To make the planter’s gain.

When toil and land are rightly used, 
Each for their greatest worth 
No nation needs protection laws’ 
‘Gainst any power on earth.

Protection’s due alone to right 
Resistance unto wrong; 
But right produces plenty, peace, 
And love, so pure and strong. 

While wrong produces poverty, 
And bloody war and hate 
Brings ruin to a nation, 
A colony, or state. 

When will men see wrong never can 
Be bound by time or space; 
“That wrong unto the least of men, 
Is wrong to all the race?”