Young America Rising at the Ballot Box and Strangling the Serpents Disunion and Secession
Columbia: “Well done, Sonny! ‘Go it while you’re young, for when you’re old you can’t.'”
The potential for secession and disunion because of the issue of slavery was part of the contentious election campaigns of 1860.
The quoted phrase in this September 1860 political cartoon from Harper’s Weekly appears to be from a tune, “Go It While You Are Young” that can be dated at least as early as 1845.
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Publisher: Keith’s Music Publishing House, 67 & 69 Court St.
Publisher Location: Boston
Publication Date 1845
Form of Composition: strophic with chorus
Instrumentation: piano and voice
Engraver, Lithographer, Artist: Lith. of E.W. Bouve
The Sheridan Libraries, Johns Hopkins University, The Lester S. Levy Sheet Music Collection, T.G. Booth’s Celebrated Comic Songs, Go it While You’re Young, (accessed 9-25-2020)