I've read elsewhere that this version of the lyrics was written as a sort of "Take That!" to the Americans. Sure, General Taylor gets an awesome funeral, but that doesn't change the fact that he's dead. Originally, this was the British shoving the death of a respected President in the Americans' faces, and since Canada was a British colony at the time, this is the version that became traditional.
I've read elsewhere that this version of the lyrics was written as a sort of "Take That!" to the Americans. Sure, General Taylor gets an awesome funeral, but that doesn't change the fact that he's dead. Originally, this was the British shoving the death of a respected President in the Americans' faces, and since Canada was a British colony at the time, this is the version that became traditional.