The Star-Spangled Banner | Page 7

possession.
The long hours were nearly unbearable. Key had seen the fate of
Washington, and anticipated the fate of Baltimore.
At seven the suspense was unrelaxed. The firing from the fleet ceased.
The large ships loomed indistinct and silent in the mist. To the west lay
the silent fort, the white vapor heavy upon it. With eager eyes Key
watched the distant shore, till in a rift over the fort he dimly discerned
the flag still proudly defiant. In that supreme moment was written "The
Star-Spangled Banner."
The British ships slowly dropped down to North Point. Dr. Beanes
went home to Upper Marlborough, very thankful as he saw the
yard-arm of the Surprise melt out of sight, unburdened.
Of all national airs, it breathes the purest patriotism. Those of England,
Russia, and Austria are based upon a sentimental loyalty long outgrown
by this agrarian and practical age. The "Marseillaise" is a stirring call to
arms, and upholds only the worst--the passionate military--side of a
nation's character. "The Star-Spangled Banner," while it is animated,
patriotic, defiant, neither cringes nor boasts; it is as national in its spirit
as it is adequate in the expression of that spirit. Believing, then, that

Key's poem will be the national air of succeeding generations of
Americans, the facsimile of the original draft is here reproduced by the
kindness of Mrs. Edward Shippen, a granddaughter of that Judge
Nicholson who took the first copy of the poem to the "American" office,
and had it set up in broad-sheet form by Samuel Sands, a printer's
apprentice of twelve. He was alone in the office, all the men having
gone to the defense of the city. It is written in Key's hand. The changes
made in drafting the copy will be seen at once, the principal one being
that Key started to write "They have washed out in blood their foul
footsteps' pollution," and changed it for "Their blood has washed out
their foul footsteps' pollution." In the second stanza, also, the dash after
"'T is the star-spangled banner" makes the change more abrupt, the line
more spirited, and the burst of feeling more intense, than the usual
semicolon. The other variations are unimportant. Some of them were
made in 1840, when Key wrote out several copies for his friends.
The song, in its broad-sheet form, was soon sung in all the camps
around the city. When the Baltimore theater, closed during the attack,
was reopened, Mr. Hardinge, one of the actors, was announced to sing
"a new song by a gentleman of Maryland." The same modest title of
authorship prefaces the song in the "American." From Baltimore the air
was carried south, and was played by one of the regimental bands at the
battle of New Orleans.
The tune of "Anacreon in Heaven" has been objected to as "foreign";
but in truth it is an estray, and Key's and the American people's by
adoption. It is at least American enough now to be known to every
school-boy; to have preceded Burr to New Orleans, and Fremont to the
Pacific; to have been the inspiration of the soldiers of three wars; and to
have cheered the hearts of American sailors in peril of enemies on the
sea from Algiers to Apia Harbor. If the cheering of the Calliope by the
crew of the Trenton binds closer together the citizens of the two
English- speaking nations, should its companion scene, no less thrilling,
be forgotten--when the Trenton bore down upon the stranded Vandalia
to her almost certain destruction, and the encouraging cheer of the
flag-ship was answered by a response, faint, uncertain, and despairing?
Almost at once, as the last cheer died away:
Darkness hid the ships. As those on shore listened for the crash, another
sound came up from the deep. It was a wild burst of music in defiance

of the storm. The Trenton's band was playing "The Star-Spangled
Banner." The feelings of the Americans on the beach were
indescribable. Men who on that awful day had exhausted every means
of rendering some assistance to their comrades now seemed inspired to
greater efforts. They dashed at the surf like wild creatures; but they
were powerless.
No; it is too late to divorce words and music.
The song is generally accorded its deserved honor; the man who wrote
it has been allowed to remain in unmerited obscurity. The Pacific coast
alone, in one of the most beautiful of personal monuments,* has
acknowledged his service to his country--a service which will terminate
only with that country's life; for he who gives a nation its popular air,
enfeoffs posterity with an inalienable gift. Yet Key was the close
personal friend of Jackson, Taney,--who was his brother- in-law--John
Randolph of Roanoke, and William Wilberforce. He it was, in all
probability, who first thought