Baltimore Celebrates 200th Anniversary of our National Anthem

My home state of Maryland, where I had the great privilege to serve as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the district that covered almost half the state, tends to be ignored these days as little more than the Baltimore Amtrak stop on the Acela Express between New York and Washington.

But in September 1814, Baltimore was the scene of one of the major battles of the War of 1812 at Fort McHenry.

The War of 1812, currently celebrating its bicentennial, might be called America’s forgotten war.

In an era of so-called “modern” education that ignores or denigrates much of our nation’s history, much more attention should be paid to what was truly the “second War of Independence” against the British. This war forged our national character, proving that Americans could unite, not only to win their liberty and independence, as at Yorktown in 1791, but to keep it.

But it also gave us the theme that has in many ways defined our great nation for 200 years.

This week, Baltimore is hosting “Star-Spangled Spectacular,” a celebration of the 200th anniversary of our National Anthem, “The Star-Spangled Banner.” The week of events includes an air show by the Blue Angels, outdoor concerts, as well as tours of classic tall ships and U.S. Navy vessels.

But most Americans don’t stop to remember the man who wrote our nation’s anthem.

Francis Scott Key made his mark in our nation’s history while standing alongside a small group of Americans, including Betsy Ross, Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry, Paul Revere and John Hancock.

School children should know his name; most Americans do know his anthem, if only at ballparks; but what enabled him to express, in words and song, what became the official anthem of America?

He wrote the anthem words in the early dawn of September 14, 1814 after witnessing a 24-hour British bombardment of Baltimore’s Fort McHenry. The lines in “the dawn’s early light” after the battle when “our flag was still there” meant the welcome defeat of the hated British.

The successful defense of Baltimore in September 1814 marked a turning point in the War of 1812.

A month prior, the British victory at the Battle of Bladensburg in August 1814 had allowed them to capture and burn the Capitol building and the President’s Mansion in Washington, D.C. (The name “White House” comes from the paint over burned walls). President James Madison barely escaped capture, as fleeing First Lady, Dolly Madison, managed to save Gilbert Stuarts’ portrait of George Washington.

Next on the British revenge list was Baltimore, a port city that alone had accounted for about 30% of all British merchant ships captured by the U.S. during the war. The British called Baltimore “a nest of pirates.” (Based on subsequent Maryland politics, some might say this is still an apt description).

Three months later, on December 24, 1814, the Treaty of Ghent formally ended the war. If you take a look at the map of Maryland, you can see why Baltimore was so important in this war.

Right Place, Right Time

On September 13–14, 1814 Francis Scott Key was on a mercy mission seeking the release of Dr. William Beanes, a prisoner of the British. The British agreed to release him, but Key and Beanes were forced to stay with the British until the attack on Baltimore was over.

Key watched the terrific bombardment from a truce ship in the Patapsco River. On the morning of September 14th, 1814, Key saw the American flag still waving above Fort McHenry. Inspired, he began writing verses on the back of a letter he had in his pocket. When Key reached Baltimore, his poem, titled “Defence of Fort McHenry” was printed on pamphlets by The Baltimore American newspaper.

Key’s poem was later set to the tune of a British song called “To Anacreon in Heaven”, the official song of the Anacreontic Society, an 18th-century gentlemen’s club of amateur musicians in London. The song was later used during the Civil War. Eventually, Congress made it the official national anthem in 1931.

But I found the surprising answer to who the real Francis Scott Key was in a new book I enjoyed, What So Proudly We Hailed: Francis Scott Key, A Life by Marc Leepson.

Key, (1779-1843), was an amateur poet from an early age, but he also became one of Maryland’s leading orators and lawyers, appointed U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C, by his close friend, President Andrew Jackson, whom Key advised.

Key himself was a contradiction when it came to the central national issue of race. He opposed slavery, yet he owned slaves, which he eventually freed. He was leader in the American Colonization Society, an 1816 group of white leaders including James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster and Henry Clay. They sought to create a fund and process by which free American Negroes could emigrate to Africa based on a belief that they could never be accepted in the U.S., an idea that even Abraham Lincoln endorsed.

Yet Key was adamantly opposed to slave trafficking and frequently represented fugitive slaves in court at no cost, seeking their freedom and opposing their return to their masters as the U.S. law then required.

Perhaps we can best understand the inspired patriotism of Francis Scott Key by reviewing the words of our National Anthem.

A deeply religious man, Key gave Americans sound advice for all time: “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, And this be our motto – “In God is our trust.””

Faithfully yours,

Bob Bauman JD
Chairman, Freedom Alliance

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