. Our country in story . first time the StarSpangled Banner to a tuneborrowed from a piece ofmusic for the flute, entitledAnacreon in Heaven/ Thesong was at once caught upand sung throughout thecountry. It is now playedby the bands on our warvessels and at the even-ing parades of our mili-tary posts. Foreign nationsrecognize it as our nationalsong, and as such it willprobably stand until we shallhave another suitable origi-nal poem set to some stirring melody composed by anAmerican musician. Properly speaking, we have not, as yet, any nationalhymn. The Star Spangled Banner describes only a sin
. Our country in story . first time the StarSpangled Banner to a tuneborrowed from a piece ofmusic for the flute, entitledAnacreon in Heaven/ Thesong was at once caught upand sung throughout thecountry. It is now playedby the bands on our warvessels and at the even-ing parades of our mili-tary posts. Foreign nationsrecognize it as our nationalsong, and as such it willprobably stand until we shallhave another suitable origi-nal poem set to some stirring melody composed by anAmerican musician. Properly speaking, we have not, as yet, any nationalhymn. The Star Spangled Banner describes only a singleincident, whereas, our national anthem, when it is writ-ten, must express the whole of our nations aspirations—its trust in God; its devout confidence in a just cause;its devotion to right; and, finally, its firm purpose ratherto die than to submit to injuries or wrong. It may notbe boastful nor speak of vengeance. It must breathe thespirit of a Washington and of a Lincoln rather than thatof a Caesar or a FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 198 OUR COUNTRY IN STORY However, the flag that gave birth to the inspiringsong which comes so near to being a really nationalhymn, still exists as a proof that our flag once had fifteenstars and fifteen stripes. For the scorched and tatteredbanner (17) that waved so nobly over Fort McHenry andunfolded so gracefully to the eager eyes of Francis Keyby the dawns early light is still preserved in ourNational Museum at Washington. The flag with the fifteen stripes and fifteen starsremained our national standard for twenty-three the Union had grown to number twenty necessitated another change in the flag. HenceCongress declared that we return to the original thirteenstripes, but that henceforth a star be added in the bluefield on the admission of every new state. Accordingly,the blue field in our present flag (18) displays forty-eightstars, one for each of the states in our Union. When in 1861 a number of the southern st
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