The
History Of Our National Anthem
In 1812,
the United States went to war with Great Britain, primarily over freedom of
the seas. We were in the right. For two years, we held off the British, even
though we were still a rather weak country. Great Britain was in a life and
death struggle with Napoleon. In fact, just as the United States declared war,
Napoleon marched off to invade Russia. If he won, as everyone expected, he
would control Europe, and Great Britain would be isolated. It was no time for
her to be involved in an American war.
At first, our seamen proved better than the British. After we won a
battle on Lake Erie in 1813, the American commander, Oliver Hazard Perry, sent
the message "We have met the enemy, and they are ours." However, the
weight of the British navy beat down our ships, eventually. New England,
hard-hit by a tightening blockade, threatened secession.
Meanwhile, Napoleon was beaten in Russia and, in 1814, was forced to abdicate.
Great Britain now turned its attention to the United States, launching a
three- pronged attack. The Northern prong was to come down Lake Champlain
toward New York, and seize parts of New England. The Southern prong was to go
up the Mississippi, take New Orleans and paralyze the West. The Central prong
was to head for the Mid-Atlantic states, and then attack Baltimore, the
greatest port South of New York. If Baltimore was taken, the nation, which
still hugged the Atlantic coast, could be split in two. The fate of the United
States, then, rested, to a large extent, on the success or failure of the
Central prong.
The British reached the American coast, and on August 24, 1814, took
Washington, D.C. Then they moved up the Chesapeake Bay, toward Baltimore. On
September 12, they arrived and found 1,000 men in Fort McHenry, whose guns
controlled the harbor. If the British wished to take Baltimore, they would
have to take the Fort.
On one of the British ships was an aged physician, William Beanes, who had
been arrested in Maryland, and brought along as a prisoner. Francis Scott Key,
a lawyer and friend of the physician, had come to the ship to negotiate his
release. The British Captain was willing, but the two Americans would have to
wait. It was now the night of Tuesday, September 13, 1814, and the bombardment
of Fort McHenry was about to start.
As twilight deepened, Key and Beanes saw the American flag flying over
Fort McHenry. Through the night, they heard bombs bursting, and saw the red
glare of rockets. They knew the Fort was resisting, and the American flag was
still flying. But, toward morning, the bombardment ceased, and a dreaded
silence fell. Either Fort McHenry had surrendered, and the British flag flew
above it; or the bombardment had failed, and the American flag still flew.
As dawn began to brighten the Eastern sky, Key and Beanes stared out at the
Fort, trying to see which flag flew over it. He and the physician must have
asked each other, over and over, "Can you see the flag?"
After it was all finished, Key wrote a four-stanza poem telling the events of
the night. He called it The Defense of Fort McHenry, and it was published in
newspapers, and swept the nation. Someone noted that the words fit an old
English tune called "To Anacreon in Heaven" - a difficult melody, with an
uncomfortably large vocal range.
For obvious reasons, Key's work became known
as The Star Spangled Banner, and in 1931, Congress declared it the official
anthem of the United States.
It is
my hope you will look at the National Anthem with new eyes... Listen to it
with new ears... And, don't let them ever take it away!
Here
Are The Words to The Star Spangled Banner
Oh! say,
can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the
twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through
the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And
the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night
that our flag was still there. Oh! say, does that star-spangled banner
yet wave, Over the land of the free and the home of the brave?
("Ramparts,"
in case you don't know, are the protective walls or other elevations that
surround a Fort. The first stanza asks a question. The second gives an
answer.)
On the
shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep, Where the foe's haughty host in
dread silence reposes, What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering
steep. As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it
catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected, now
shines on the stream. 'Tis the star-spangled banner. Oh! long may it
wave, Over the land of the free and the home of the brave!
("The
towering steep" is again, the ramparts. The bombardment has failed, and
the British can do nothing more but sail away, their mission a failure. In
the third stanza, I feel Key allows himself to gloat over the American
triumph. In the aftermath of the bombardment, Key probably was in no mood to
act otherwise. During World War II, when the British were our staunchest
allies, this third stanza was not sung. However, I know it, so here it is)
And where
is that band who so vauntingly swore, That the havoc of war and the battle's
confusion A home and a country should leave us no more? Their blood has
washed out their foul footstep's pollution.
No refuge
could save the hireling and slave, From the terror of flight, or the gloom of
the grave, And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave, Over the
land of the free and the home of the brave.
(The
fourth stanza, a pious hope for the future, should be sung more slowly than
the other three, and with even deeper feeling.)
Oh! Thus
be it ever, when freemen shall stand, Between their loved homes and the war's
desolation, Blest with victory and peace, may the Heaven - rescued
land, Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then
conquer we must, for our cause is just, And this be our motto - "In God
is our trust." And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
Over the land of the free and the home of the brave.
