With boastful pride we independents say,
"I'm free of debt; I owe not any man."
If that be true, we're desolate indeed -
Belonging to a shameful pauper clan.
We owe no one? I have a mounting debt,
That, in my span of years, I cannot pay
To those great, gallant souls who trod this earth,
And gave their wealth of life's best gold away.