Francis Scott Key

In response to the Hard-lined push by the liberal media and the current president to expand communism with the promise of security, in America. The founding fathers like Franklin and Madison and Jay and others warned that security is anti-liberty and communism is anti-freedom. As a patriot, I chose the following piece of our history and resulting federally adopted anthem to illustrate the importance of our cause for liberty and freedom.

Our National Anthem:
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 rockets' 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?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the mornings' first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country shall leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

O thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation!
Blessed with victory and peace, may the heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation
Then conquer we must when our cause it is just
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Francis Scott Key was born on August 1, 1779, in western Maryland. His family was very wealthy and owned an estate called "Terra Rubra."

When Francis was 10 years old, his parents sent him to grammar school in Annapolis. After graduating at the age of 17, he began to study law in Annapolis while working with his uncle's law firm. By 1805, he had a well-established law practice of his own in Georgetown, a suburb of Washington, D.C. By 1814, he had appeared many times before the Supreme Court and had been appointed the United States District Attorney.

Francis Scott Key was a deeply religious man. At one time in his life, he almost gave up his law practice to enter the ministry. Instead, he resolved to become involved in the Episcopal Church. Because of his religious beliefs, Key was strongly opposed to the War of 1812. However, due to his deep love for his country, he did serve for a brief time in the Georgetown field artillery in 1813.

During the War of 1812, Dr. William Beanes, a close friend of Key's was taken prisoner by the British. Since Key was a well-known lawyer, he was asked to assist in efforts to get Dr. Beanes released. Knowing that the British were in the Chesapeake Bay, Key left for Baltimore. There Key met with Colonel John Skinner, a government agent who arranged for prisoner exchanges. Together, they set out on a small boat to meet the Royal Navy

On board the British flagship, the officers were very kind to Key and Skinner. They agreed to release Dr. Beanes. However, the three men were not permitted to return to Baltimore until after the bombardment of Fort McHenry. The three Americans were placed aboard the American ship and waited behind the British fleet. From a distance of approximately eight miles, Key and his friends watched the British bombard Fort McHenry.

After 25 hours of continuous bombing, the British decided to leave since they were unable to destroy the fort as they had hoped. Realizing that the British had ceased the attack, Key looked toward the fort to see if the flag was still there. To his relief, the flag was still flying! Quickly, he wrote down the words to a poem which was soon handed out as a handbill under the title "Defence of Fort McHenry." It was renamed "The Star- Spangled Banner" by an adoring public. It became a popular patriotic song. It was not until 1931, however, that it became our national anthem.
by Jim Rogers in "Parks As Classrooms"

Francis Scott Key wrote the words to "The Star-Spangled Banner," the national anthem of the United States of America. Key was born and raised in western Maryland. He became a lawyer, first in Frederick and then in what is now the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. During the War of 1812, when it seemed likely that British forces would overtake Baltimore, Key travelled to Fort McHenry in September of 1814 to negotiate the release of Dr. William Beanes, who was being held captive by the British. Key succeeded in getting Beanes released, but was unable to leave, due to the British bombardment of the fort. During the bombardment Key was aboard a ship, some eight miles away, watching as the British shelled Fort McHenry. When the smoke cleared the next morning, Key was able to see the U.S. flag still flying at the fort (the specially-made flag was 30 feet high and 42 feet wide). Inspired by the sight, Key scribbled down a few poetic lines, which he later enhanced at a hotel in Baltimore. The poem, titled "Defence of Fort M'Henry," was widely circulated in newspapers throughout the U.S., then sung to the tune of an English song, "To Anacreon in Heaven." Popularly called "The Star-Spangled Banner," it was adopted on 3 March 1931 as the U.S. national anthem. Key went on to have a successful legal career, serving as a district attorney for Washington, D.C. for many years.