Quote or Proverb: Sleep on your matchlocks and keep your powder dry (1836)

[Joel S. Berson]

Again, as things approach the 18th century, I look in EAN.

Not much later than Garson's 1832 for "Put your
trust in God, and keep your powder dry."

"Sleep on your matchlocks and keep your powder
dry!"  [Ttle of article prompted by the election
of Van Buren, taken from the Washington Sun, presumably a little earlier.]

Haverhill [Mass.] Gazette, published as The Essex
Gazette; Date: 12-01-1836; Volume: XI; Issue: 23; Page: [2], col. 5.  [EAN]

Joel

At 1/24/2011 02:20 PM, Garson O'Toole wrote:
>Yesterday, Jonathan Lighter mentioned the phrase "In God we trust -
>everybody else cash." The phrase below resonated in my memory:
>
>Put your trust in God, and keep your powder dry.
>
>This expression appears in the Proverbs section of the Oxford
>Dictionary of Quotations, and the entry points to a quotation from the
>ballad ‘Oliver's Advice’ by Valentine Blacker:
>
>Put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.
>
>ODQ specifies a date of 1856. The Yale Book of Quotations also has
>this quotation and traces it back to 1834. Both references note that
>the phrase is attributed to Oliver Cromwell.
>
>OED (August 2010) contains a pertinent phrase
>under the headword powder (noun):
>
>Phrases P1. e. to keep one's powder dry: to adopt a practical or
>realistic policy; to act prudently or cautiously; to be on the alert.
>[With allusion to words attributed (apparently originally in quot.
>1834) to Oliver Cromwell:
>
>1834    W. Blacker Oliver's Advice in E. Hayes Ballads of Ireland
>(1855) I. 192   The Pow'r that led great William, Boyne's reddening
>torrent thro',—In his protecting aid confide, and every foe defy—Then
>put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry.
>
>
>Here are selected citations for the saying starting in 1832.
>
>Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
>Date 1832 February 28
>Topic: Education-Ireland
>Speaking: The Earl of Radnor
>
>On that occasion, Mr. Archdal concluded his speech by saying, "My
>friends, I will now only add the words used by Oliver Cromwell to his
>army, when marching through a ford—"My boys trust in the Lord, and
>keep your powder dry."
>
>
>Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
>Date 1832 April 16
>Topic: Affray at Newtownbarry-Captain Graham
>Speaking: The Marquis of Clanricarde
>
>As a sample of the spirit in which persons belonging to those
>Associations conducted themselves, he need only refer to an address
>delivered lately at a great conservative meeting by a Mr. Archdale, a
>clergyman too, he believed. The Christian spirit of this address might
>be judged of when he informed the House that the speaker exhorted his
>hearers "to put their trust in God and keep their powder dry."
>
>
>Hansard - Parliament of the United Kingdom - Lords Sitting
>Date 1832 July 26
>Topic: Parliamentary Reform-Bill for Ireland-Committee
>Speaking: The Duke of Richmond
>
>Why, at one of the meetings in the north of Ireland, he understood
>this was the language used:—" My boys, keep the Bible safe in your
>hands, and take care that your powder is dry."
>
>
>Switching focus to the colonies in 1833, here is a quotation
>attributed to Cromwell that refers to an older form of weaponry,
>pikes. This excerpt also includes a version using gunpowder instead of
>powder:
>
>Cite: 1833 May 27, Adams Sentinel, Cromwell's Oratory, Page 3,
>Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. (NewspaperArchive)
>
>Cromwell's Oratory -- "Trust in the Lord, and rely on your pikes," was
>on one occasion Cromwell's address to his soldiers on going into
>battle. On another occasion his general address was, "Trust in the
>Lord, and keep your gunpowder dry."
>
>
>Switching focus to Dublin, here is an instance of "Oliver's Advice"
>published in 1834:
>Cite: 1834 December, The Dublin University magazine, Oliver's Advice,
>Page 700, Number XXIV, Volume IV, Dublin, Ireland, William Curry, Jun.
>and Company. (Google Books full view)
>
>OLIVER'S ADVICE
>ADAPTED TO "THE TIMES THAT BE."
>
>The night is gathering gloomily, the day is closing fast—
>The tempest flaps his raven wing in loud and angry blast;
>The thunder clouds are driving athwart the lurid sky—
>But, "put your trust in God, my boys, and keep your powder dry."*
>
>* There is a well-authenticated anecdote of Cromwell. On a certain
>occasion when his troops were about crossing a river to attack the
>enemy, he concluded an address, couched in the usual fanatic terms in
>use among them, with these words—"put your trust in God; but mind to
>keep your powder dry."
>
>(The above footnote is from the 1834 publication.)
>
>Garson
>
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