"Poetry and music," says Sir John Lubbock, "unite in song. From the
earliest ages song has been the sweet companion of labor. The rude
chant of the boatman floats upon the water, the shepherd sings upon the
hill, the milkmaid in the dairy, the plowman in the field. Every trade,
every occupation, every act and scene of life, has long had its own
especial music. The bride went to her marriage, the laborer to his
work, the old man to his last long rest, each with appropriate and
immemorial music."
It is strange that Lubbock did not mention specifically the power of
music in inspiring the soldier as he marches to the defense of his
country, or in arousing the spirit of patriotism and kindling the love
of country, whether in peace or war, in every bosom. "Let me make the
songs of a country," Fletcher of Saltoun has well said, "and I care not
who makes its laws."
Not to know the words and the air of the national anthem or chief
patriotic songs of one's country is considered little less than a
disgrace. To know something of their authors and the occasion which
inspired them, or the conditions under which they were composed, gives
additional interest to the songs themselves.
Francis Scott Key, author of "The Star-spangled Banner," one of the, if
not the most, popular of our national songs, was born in Frederick
County, Maryland, on August 1, 1779. He was the son of John Ross Key,
an officer in the Revolutionary army.
Young Key's early education was carried on under the direction of his
father. Later he became a student in St. John's College, from which
institution he was graduated in his nineteenth year. Immediately after
his graduation he began to study law under his uncle, Philip Barton
Key, one of the ablest lawyers of his time. He was admitted to the bar
in 1801, and commenced to practice in Fredericktown, Maryland, where he
won the reputation of an eloquent advocate. After a few years' practice
in Fredericktown, he removed to Washington, where he was appointed
district attorney for the District of Columbia.
Young Key was as widely known and admired as a writer of hymns and
ballads as he was as a lawyer of promise. But the production of the
popular national anthem which crowned him with immortality has so
overshadowed the rest of his life work that we remember him only as its
author.
The occasion which inspired "The Star-spangled Banner" must always be
memorable in the annals of our country. The war with the British had
been about two years in progress, when, in August, 1814, a British
fleet arrived in the Chesapeake, and an army under General Ross landed
about forty miles from the city of Washington.
The army took possession of Washington, burnt the capitol, the
President's residence, and other public buildings, and then sailed
around by the sea to attack Baltimore. The fleet was to bombard Fort
McHenry, while the land forces were to attack the city.
The commanding officers of the fleet and land army, Admiral Cockburn
and General Ross, made their headquarters in Upper Marlboro, Maryland,
at the house of Dr. William Beanes, whom they held as their prisoner.
Francis Scott Key, who was a warm friend of Dr. Beanes, went to
President Madison in order to enlist his aid in securing the release of
Beanes. The president furnished Key with a vessel, and instructed John
L. Skinner, agent for the exchange of prisoners, to accompany him under
a flag of truce to the British fleet.
The British commander agreed to release Dr. Beanes, but would not
permit Key and his party to return then, lest they should carry back
important information to the American side. He boastingly declared,
however, that the defense could hold out only a few hours, and that
Baltimore would then be in the hands of the British.
Skinner and Key were sent on board the Surprise, which was under the
command of Admiral Cockburn's son. But after a short time they were
allowed to return to their own vessel, and from its deck they saw the
American flag waving over Fort McHenry and witnessed the bombardment.
All through the night the furious attack of the British continued. The
roar of cannon and the bursting of shells was incessant. It is said
that as many as fifteen hundred shells were hurled at the fort.
Shortly before daybreak the firing ceased. Key and his companions
waited in painful suspense to know the result. In the intense silence
that followed the cannonading, each one asked himself if the flag of
his country was still waving on high, or if it had been hauled down to
give place to that of England. They strained their eyes in the
direction of Baltimore, but the darkness revealed nothing.
At last day dawned, and to their delight the little party saw the
American flag still floating over Fort McHenry. Key's heart was stirred
to its depths, and in a glow of patriotic enthusiasm he immediately
wrote down a rough draft of "The Star-spangled Banner."
On his arrival in Baltimore he perfected the first copy of the song,
and gave it to Captain Benjamin Eades, of the 27th Baltimore Regiment,
saying that he wished it to be sung to the air of "Anacreon in Heaven."
Eades had it put in type, and took the first proof to a famous old
tavern near the Holliday Street Theater, a favorite resort of actors
and literary people of that day. The verses were read to the company
assembled there, and Frederick Durang, an actor, was asked to sing them
to the air designated by the author. Durang, mounting a chair, sang as
requested. The song was enthusiastically received. From that moment it
became the great popular favorite that it has ever since been, and that
it will continue to be as long as the American republic exists.
Key died in Baltimore on January 11, 1843. A monument was erected to
his memory by the munificence of James Lick, a Californian millionaire.
The sculptor to whom the work was intrusted was the celebrated W. W.
Story, who completed it in 1887. The monument, which is fifty-one feet
high, stands in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. It is built of
travertine, in the form of a double arch, under which a bronze statue
of Key is seated. A bronze figure, representing America with an
unfolded flag, supports the arch.
On the occasion of the unveiling of this statue, the New York Home
Journal contained an appreciative criticism of Key as a poet, and the
following estimate of his greatest production.
"The poetry of the 'Star-spangled Banner' has touches of delicacy for
which one looks in vain in most national odes, and is as near a true
poem as any national ode ever was. The picture of the 'dawn's early
light' and the tricolor, half concealed, half disclosed, amid the mists
that wreathed the battle-sounding Patapsco, is a true poetic concept.
"The 'Star-spangled Banner' has the peculiar merit of not being a
tocsin song, like the 'Marseillaise.' Indeed, there is not a restful,
soothing, or even humane sentiment in all that stormy shout. It is the
scream of oppressed humanity against its oppressor, presaging a more
than quid pro quo; and it fitly prefigured the sight of that long file
of tumbrils bearing to the Place de la Revolution the fairest scions of
French aristocracy. On the other hand, 'God Save the King,' in its
original, has one or two lines as grotesque as 'Yankee Doodle' itself;
yet we have paraphrased it in 'America,' and made it a hymn meet for
all our churches. But the 'Star-spangled Banner' combines dignity and
beauty, and it would be hard to find a line of it that could be
improved upon."
Over the simple grave of Francis Scott Key, in Frederick, Maryland,
there is no other monument than the "star-spangled banner." In storm
and in sunshine, in summer and in winter, its folds ever float over the
resting place of the man who has immortalized it in verse. No other
memorial could so fitly commemorate the life and death of this simple,
dignified, patriotic American.
"A sweet, noble life," says a recent writer, "was that of the author of
our favorite national hymn--a life of ideal refinement, piety,
scholarly gentleness. Little did he think that his voice would be the
storm song, the victor shout, of conquering America to resound down and
down the ages!"