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Since
Veteran’s Day is fast approaching (11 November) I have decided to write, for
the first time, a devotion on our National Anthem.
Most Americans whose heads are graced with at least a few grey
hairs will recall the history of the writing of the Star Spangled Banner from a
British ship outside the waters surrounding Fort McHenry. Unfortunately today,
American history is not well-taught in our public schools and many younger
Americans have little knowledge of the history of our National Anthem, or of
the circumstances surrounding our Providential founding as a nation among the
nations of the earth.
Francis
Scott Key penned the words to the anthem while being detained aboard a ship of
the British Fleet in Baltimore harbor of Chesapeake Bay during the night of 13-14
September 1814. The Banner whose stripes gave Key hope was the smaller storm
flag which flew amidst the smoke, haze and rocket flashes above Fort McHenry.
That tattered flag is on display at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC.
It served as a registration point for the naval guns of the Fleet. The American
force at Fort McHenry held out throughout the barrage of attacks of that massed
British Fleet lying offshore. As the dawn of morning illumined the sky, the
tattered and torn storm flag was lowered and replaced by the full-sized banner
that told Key the Fort had prevailed through such a thunderous assault as he
had witnessed throughout the hours of darkness. Hope had seemed forlorn as
Washington had recently been burned by the British, but now hope abounded.
The
origin of the tune is in question, however, an English composer named John
Stafford Smith is believed to have been its composer. The tune was used in an
English song called “To Anacreon in Heaven” by Ralph
Tomlinson.(1778) Col. Skinner, garrison commander of Fort McHenry,
persuaded Key to take his poem to the offices of the Baltimore American where
it was printed in handbill form, and within a month, the anthem was widely
known and sung.
The
STAR SPANGLED BANNER was adopted as the American National Anthem by an act of
Congress on March 3, 1931 pursuant to a petition originated by the Veterans of
Foreign Wars, garnering more than five million signatures. President Hoover
signed the measure into law the next day, March 4, 1931. The anthem
is comprised of four stanzas but, unfortunately, only the first is popularly sung
today. The second stanza is very much like a prayer and appeals to the
Sovereignty of God in preserving us as a nation among those of the earth.
The Star Spangled Banner
O! 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 rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
O! say does that star spangled banner still wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
O! thus be it ever when freeman shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation;
Blest with victory and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land,
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, IN GOD IS OUR TRUST.
And the star spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
The National Motto of the United States is derived from the third
to the last line of the second stanza above – IN GOD IS OUR TRUST. An act of
Congress adopting the words, IN GOD WE TRUST, was signed into law by President
Dwight D. Eisenhower on 30 July 1956, and is codified in 36 USC, para 302 as
the National Motto of the United States of America.
The
National Anthem, and the National Motto, has come under malicious attack over
recent years, but the patriotic zeal of red-blooded Americans have
prevailed to retain this rousing tribute to the Providence of God in our
Founding and Preservation. One’s heart cannot help but swell with pride mixed
with humility at the endearing stains of this wonderful anthem.
I
remember when the US State Department ordered an evacuation of US personnel
from Iran following the ascension to power of the Godless Khomeini regime in
Iran. I was on the next to last evacuation lift. There was great joy when the
wheels of the aircraft broke ground at Mehrabad Airport. But when the pilot
announced crossing the border into Turkey, we all broke forth with the National
Anthem. That anthem brought to our mind’s eye that same tattered flag that had
flown over Fort McHenry and every American post since, and the liberty it
represents. Needless to say, every veteran’s heart is melted, too, by the
memory of that flag being raised over the blood-bought island of Iwo Jima
during the Pacific Theater of the Second World War.
Let
us never forget God is our Sovereign, and He is the Author of Liberty.
