The sun was just beginning to set on September 13th, 1814. The War of 1812 was on the verge of ending but of course, at the time, no one really knew that - and for the young United States it wasn’t ending well. Just three weeks before, Washington was on fire. The White House, or the Presidential Mansion as it was then referred to, had been set ablaze by British troops along with other government buildings. The British had occupied Washington for twenty-six hours before being pushed back into their Navy fleet floating in the nearby harbor. To say the enemy was closing in was a drastic understatement - they already had. The only question was whether the newly formed country could keep them at bay.
From a wider vantage point, the United States had only declared independence from England thirty-eight years ago and ratified the Constitution twenty-six years prior. From Francis Scott Key’s viewpoint, what he was witnessing could very well be the end of the bold but fragile experiment called a constitutional republic.
Francis Key was a young lawyer and a layman poet who presently found himself along with his friend and acquaintance John Skinner, a prisoner exchange agent, in the very heart of the beast. Aboard the HMS Tonnant, an 80 gun ship of the British Royal Navy, both men under orders from Washington were there to discuss the release of an American who the British were currently holding hostage. The negotiating had gone fairly well until the three Americans aboard the enemy ship became aware of British plans to bomb Fort McHenry in Baltimore that very night. Knowing the Americans would disclose their attack on Baltimore when released, British officers secured the three Americans until the battle was over.
There was nothing the three Americans could do except wait and watch. But being miles away from the land, it was hard to tell how the small fort was holding up. From a tiny window aboard the enemy ship, all Key and his two friends could see in the distance was the American “storm flag” waving in the distance directly above Fort Mc Henry. Thankfully the flag was large enough to see from afar measuring seventeen by twenty-five feet in size. In the midst of a rainstorm the massive flag waved as the British bombardment began.
It was only a storm flag but somehow Key sensed that as long as he could see it, Baltimore still had a chance against the British onslaught, and that America might not be lost. At twilight's last gleaming, Key proudly hailed the striped and starred ensign. Now, under bleak moonlight, at times, the flag could not be seen. Yet, as the British bombs burst in the air and by their rocket’s red glare, Key could dimly make out, if only for a few seconds at a time, that the flag was somehow still streaming. Ironically, it was only by the violent explosions in the airspace surrounding the Fort, giving brief visibility of the flag, that comforted Key throughout the long and loud night.
Finally though, the sun began to rise. All Key could do was rally his friends and ask if by the dawn’s early light, they could discern whether the star spangled banner still stood. As the three captives strained to look for the flag among the smoke and carnage, their collective hearts sank as it was no longer where it had been. What they didn’t know was that those at Fort McHenry momentarily lowered the large storm flag to swap it out with another even bigger garrison flag.
To show that the British attack throughout the night was unsuccessful, the new fifty pound flag they rose over the damaged fort, measured thirty feet tall and forty-two feet wide. Waving over the land of the free and brave, it brandished fifteen stripes, each measuring two feet wide, and fifteen stars each measuring two feet in diameter. While Ft. McHenry suffered much ruin, the British bombardment had ultimately failed. As the British ceased firing, Francis Scott Key exhaled at the beautiful sight of the massive star spangled banner being raised. He was now assured that Baltimore still stood, and more than that, America would remain to be a government under God, of the people, by the people, and for the people.
If you’re anything like me, you take pride in singing the national anthem even though you possibly haven’t studied the story behind it or looked at its words too closely. Although you know the basic lyrics and general sentiment of the short song you sometimes forget a word here and there. So you emphasize the parts you know and quietly mumble those in question. But while the national anthem is always sung with gusto, pride, and confidence from both those in front and behind the microphone, as we note from the story above, the poem, written by Francis Scott Key in 1814, then titled The Defense of Fort M’Henry, was not penned in positive assertiveness but rather fearful and humble questioning. In actual fact, the 1st stanza from the poem’s initial four, that which the national anthem has been condensed, is actually two back-to-back questions.
And that's the point.
The Star Spangled Banner is a circumspect question, not a reckless statement. I believe that the spirit in which the poem was originally written is the spirit in which it should be understood today.
Will America remain?
Knowing America has survived many external and internal threats since her inception in 1776, it’s easy but naive to think she will never fail in the future. But knowing history and being familiar with the depravity of men should lead us into a humble and somewhat fearful place of healthy speculation and caution. This is because the success or failure of the United States always depends upon her citizens. That’s why when Benjamin Franklin was asked in 1787 while walking out of the Constitutional Convention, whether America would be a republic or a monarchy, he wittingly and soberly responded “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Nearly two hundred years later, President Reagan likewise aptly warned about our responsibly to maintain America saying, “Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. The only way they can inherit the freedom we have known is if we fight for it, protect it, defend it, and then hand it to them with the well fought lessons of how they in their lifetime must do the same. And if you and I don’t do this, then you and I may well spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it once was like in America when men were free.”
So, next time you sing the National Anthem resolve to ponder the question it collectively and ultimately asks us all. Yes, sing it loudly and proudly, but sing it knowing that the liberties and freedoms America stands for can be taken away at anytime. America is bold and America is beautiful, but she is also delicate. Francis Scott Key witnessed this firsthand and wrote his poem so we would not have a prideful presumption in America, but humble hope.
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 rocket's 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 yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Micah Coate, President and Host of Salvation and Stuff
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