STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, The, a patriotic song composed by Francis Scott Key 14 Sept. 1814, and now recognized throughout the United States as the national anthem, al though it is not such in legal fact, Congress having repeatedly rejected proposals — one as recently as 1914— to make a declaration to that effect by resolution. Nearly 100 years after it was written the song was prescribed by formal orders to be played in the army and navy on occasions of ceremony, and that is the extent of its official recognition to-day. Foreigners have long believed 'The Star Spangled Banner' to be the fully accented national anthem of America, and in their armies and navies, and on all public occasions when it is desired to honor America in music abroad, the familiar air is played. While many on this side of the water were inclined for many years to discredit the song and to ad vocate strenuously the claims of 'My Country Tis of Thee,' The Battle Hymn of the Re public,' and even 'Yankee Doodle' and 'Dixie,' the standing of 'The Star-Spangled Banner' was never disputed in other lands.
Even as late as the Spanish War of 1898 the 'Star-Spangled Banner' had only limited popular recognition and the general disposition at that period, at least in New England, was to elevate 'My Country, Tis of Thee,' to the place of honor. Marching troops in Cuba and Porto Rico, as all the world knows, were partial to 'There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town To-night.' In the Civil War, 'John Brown's Body' and 'Yankee Doodle,' on one side, and 'Dixie' and 'The Girl I Left Behind Me,' on the other side, were the favorite in spirations of the stalwart men who clashed on a hundred bloody fields. During the War with Germany in 1917-18 debate and difference on the subject of whether we have a pre-eminently preferred national anthem and what that anthem is vanished altogether. The National Star-Spangled Banner Commission laid the groundwork for the change. Th's commission was organized in Baltimore for the purpose of preparing the centennial celebration of Key's song in September 1914 and for many months before that it conducted an active and wide spread propaganda. Patriotic organizations, such as the Sons of the Revolution, the Society of the War of 1812. and others, co-operated with enthusiasm and did much to develop pub ltc opinion. No other candidate for acceptance as the national anthem had this systematic and vigorous backing, and no other writer of an American patriotic song has had so many honors paid to him as Key, for whom Con gress has erected an imposing sculptured memorial in Fort McHenry and whose linea ments are preserved in public statuary as far from the scene of his labors as San Francisco.
The incidence of war so soon after this propa ganda caused it to have a maximum effect.
The Star-Spangled Banner' was composed by one of the best of the American types. Key was poet, scholar, lawyer, public official and churchman, and member of a distinguished family. He wrote 'The Star-Spangled Banner' in a burst of inspiration. It was written in a moment of acute national stress and expressed, as it does still, the characteristic feelings of the country — not desiring to provoke war, but rising with determination to take arms in defense of the national honor when a crisis required it. In literary form it is far superior to most patriotic songs, and even without the music would find wide popularity on its merits as a poetical composition.
It struck the popular fancy at first and has held it in large measure ever since. Key had the words printed in hand-bill form in the office of The Baltimore American, and distributed on the streets of the delivered city in September 1814, before the British fleet which had been beaten off from Fort McHenry had gotten out of the Chesapeake. It was sung on the stage of the famous Pfolliday Street Theatre in Baltimore and taken up with intense eagerness by the people there and throughout the nation. Few incidents in our national history have been beclouded by so much misconception of fact as the origin of this anthem. The most com mon error, which has had an unfortunate habit of creeping into print, is that Key composed the words while he was a prisoner of war on the British fleet which attacked Fort McHenry. Key was not a prisoner of war, but had gone to the fleet on the cartel ship Minden. used by the American government in negotiating ex changes of prisoners, for the purpose of obtain ing the release of a civilian, Dr. William Beancs of Upper Marlborough, Md., who was being detained because he had caused the arrest of British marauders. As Key reached the fleet, when the attack on Baltimore was about to begin, he was kept behind the British lines until it was over in order that he might not convey information of the impending move ment. He was treated with the utmost con sideration and was promptly released when the attack ended. When he was rowed ashore on the morning after the bombardment he had in his pocket, scribbled on the hack of an old letter, the draft of the song which has become so famous since. The original manuscript is owned by Henry Walters, owner of the Walters Art Gallery. The flag whose "broad stripes and bright stars" burst upon Key's enraptured vision on that September morning of 1814 is preserved in the National Museum at Wash ington, D. C.
The words of the song follow: