Having observed yet another anniversary of our nation’s independence, it may benefit us to recall a rather obscure bit of our history. A glimpse back over two centuries may help us recover a bit of understanding of the faith-fabric of our nation’s founding.
In the War of 1812, the British sought to re-subjugate the breakaway colonies of America. Would their Independence last just under forty years…or would it go on?
British troops burned Washington, and had taken captives. Francis Scott Key, a young lawyer, was sent to the British fleet anchored in Chesapeake Bay to negotiate the release of a friend, Dr. William Beanes. He was detained overnight on ship as the British heavily bombarded Fort McHenry. The fate of the fort…and indeed of the young nation called the ‘United States of America’ seemed in doubt!
As darkness set in, and the bombardment continued, the captives wondered, waited and watched.
Key put His thoughts in the form of a poem that would later be published, and later became our national anthem:
Oh 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, o’er 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! Oh, say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave? O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
So, in response to the heavy British assault, had the Americans brought the flag down? What would the first rays of light reveal? Had they given up…would there be a white flag of surrender in its place…or was the stars and stripes still there, battle –weary and tattered?
