FROM THE LIBRARY OF 
 REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON. D. D. 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO 
 
 THE LIBRARY OF 
 
 PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 
FRANC IS SCOT T KEY 
 
 THE slender volume. " Francis Scott 
 Key. Author of 'The Star-Spangled 
 Banner'; What Else He Was and 
 Who He Was " (Washington: Key-Smith 
 & Co.). and written by F. S. Key-Smith, a 
 member of the bar of the District of 
 Columbia, although lacking somewhat in 
 literary form and style, is nevertheless an 
 addition of some value to the biographical 
 history of the country- The author— pre- 
 sumabl5 r a relative of his subject— has 
 taken much pains to get together the 
 complete life story of the author of our 
 national anthem, and the account he 
 presents of Mr. Key's character and 
 achievements is a flattering full-length 
 picture of the man. Mr. Key-Smith 
 traces the genealogy of his subject from 
 the time of the coming to this country 
 .from England of a certain Philip Key in 
 172t3; and, after describing the influences 
 under which the poet spent his youth, 
 devotes much attention to his career as 
 a lawyer and statesman. He argued 
 many important cases before the Su- 
 preme Court, and was several times Dis- 
 trict Attorney of the District of Colum- 
 bia. There is also a detailed account- 
 perhaps the most circumstantial that has 
 ever been published — of the incidents 
 leading up to the circumstances in which 
 Key wrote the song that gained for him 
 natioual renown. The author takes issue 
 with some of the statements made by 
 George Theodore Sonneck, of the Library 
 of Congress, in his " Report " on our 
 patriotic songs, and gives very good rea- 
 sons for his own contentions. The book 
 has several illustrations, and contains a 
 number of poems written by Key as well as 
 one which (as pointed out in this Review 
 on April 23) was published in England 
 when Key was in his teens and is there- 
 fore wrongly ascribed to him. The book's 
 appearance is timely, in view of the un- 
 veiling of a monument to Key at Balti- 
 more on May 15. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 
 in 2012 with funding from 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary Library 
 
 http://archive.org/details/francissOOsmit 
 
FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
V' 
 
 sep 21 mi 
 
 •i 
 
 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 
 THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 
 
 WHAT ELSE HE WAS 
 AND WHO 
 
 BY 
 
 F. S. Key-Smith, Esq. 
 
 Member of the 
 Bar of the District of Columbia 
 
 Published by 
 
 KEY-SMITH AND COMPANY 
 
 Evans Building, Washington, D. C. 
 
Copyright 
 
 F. S. Key-Smith 
 
 1911 
 
 Printed by 
 
 National Capital Press, Inc. 
 
 Book Manufacturers 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Foreword 6 
 
 Acknoivledgments 7 
 
 Our Patriot 8 
 
 I. His Ancestors 9 
 
 II. His Early Years 13 
 
 III. As a Churchman and Christian . . 16 
 
 IV. The Lawyer 23 
 
 V. The Statesman and Diplomat ... 44 
 
 VI. The Star Spangled Banner 62 
 
 VII. The Old Georgetown Home 89 
 
 VIII. In Conclusion 92 
 
 IX. Heaven Claims Its Own 96 
 
 Appendix 99 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 This volume is designed to give a better 
 insight into the character, and to make 
 known the many and varied talents and 
 achievements, of Francis Scott Key, for in 
 composing his tribute to his country's flag, 
 contained in the beautiful lines of the 
 "Star Spangled Banner," the splendor 
 with which he crowned his name has shone 
 so brightly that it has extinguished the 
 brilliancy of his many other great deeds 
 and signal services, so that little, if any- 
 thing, is known of them. 
 
 A belief that the American people will be 
 interested in learning something of the 
 author of their National Anthem, as a 
 man, a lawyer, orator and statesman, as 
 well as a poet and patriot, has prompted 
 the preparation and publication of this 
 book, a task by no means light, involving 
 both courage and industry. Should it be 
 graciously received the author will not re- 
 gret the labor, research and time expended. 
 
 F. S. Key-Smith. 
 
 Washington, D. C, March 1, 1911. 
 
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 
 
 In the preparation of this book, for as- 
 sistance rendered, my acknowledgments 
 are due to Mr. Bichard Bathbun, of the 
 Smithsonian Institution, to whom I am in- 
 debted for the picture of the original flag ; 
 to Mr. John T. Loomis, of Washington, 
 D. C, for the picture and letter of Mr. 
 Samuel Sands, who first set the words in 
 type; to Mr. Hugh T. Taggart, of Wash- 
 ington, D. C, for interest and encourage- 
 ment; to Miss Alice Key Blunt, of Balti- 
 more, Md., for much assistance derived 
 from many old manuscripts and letters ; to 
 Mr. Frank Key Howard and sister, Miss 
 Nancy Howard, of Baltimore, Md., for the 
 picture of Key appearing as frontispiece; 
 to the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 
 at Philadelphia for the portrait of Key 
 from Charles Willson Peale's oil painting, 
 and to Mr. Lawrence C. Wroth and Edwin 
 Higgins, Esq., of Baltimore, for many 
 courtesies extended. 
 
 The encouragement and kindness shown 
 me by the above has lightened very greatly 
 the task assumed. 
 
10 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 named: Richard Ward; Philip; Thomas; 
 Francis; Edmond; John and Susannah 
 Gardiner: Edmond studied law in England 
 and upon his return to Maryland he prac- 
 ticed his profession with much success and 
 gained distinction, becoming the Attorney 
 General of the Province. 
 
 Francis married Ann Arnold Ross, a 
 daughter of John Ross, who came to this 
 country in an official capacity connected 
 with the land office in 1730, and settled in 
 Ann Arundel County near Annapolis. 
 
 Here at the junction of the Severn River 
 with Round Bay, seven miles from An- 
 napolis, he built a large spacious Manor 
 House on his estate named Belvoir. This 
 is also still standing. The materials used 
 in its construction were in all probability 
 brought from England. In the walls, which 
 are sixteen inches in thickness, are wide 
 windows with deep recesses extending 
 nearly to the one-time beautiful floors of 
 hard polished oak. 
 
 To the marriage of Francis Key with 
 Ann Arnold Ross were born three children, 
 John Ross Key, Philip Barton Key and 
 Elizabeth Scott Key. John Ross married 
 Ann Phoebe Dagworthy Charlton. 
 
 Upon his father dying intestate, he, be- 
 ing the eldest, by the English law of primo- 
 
HIS ANCESTORS 11 
 
 geniture then in force in the Colony, in- 
 herited the whole of the estate. However, 
 with a nobleness of spirit and generosity 
 rarely seen, he divided equally with his 
 younger brother. And again, upon his 
 brother's share being confiscated because 
 of his loyalty to England during the Bevo- 
 lution, although John Boss Key had fought 
 with distinction in the American cause as 
 an officer of the Continental Army and 
 given largely of his finances toward its 
 support, he, nevertheless, again divided his 
 inheritance with his brother. 
 
 He made his home upon his estate, Terra 
 Bubra, in Frederick County, Maryland. 
 Here was born to him two children, a son 
 and a daughter, Francis Scott Key and 
 Ann Arnold Key. 
 
 The daughter married Boger Brooke 
 Taney, Secretary of the Treasury under 
 President Jackson and subsequently Chief 
 Justice of the United States Supreme 
 Court. 
 
 Amid fertile valleys skirted by tall 
 wooded mountain ranges, upon this estate 
 of nearly three thousand acres, through 
 which flowed Pipe Creek, Francis Scott 
 Key and his sister roamed and were 
 reared. 
 
 Out across the green fields and meadows 
 
12 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 where grazed the peaceful herds and flocks, 
 or waved in the warm bright sunshine the 
 golden grain, from the verandas of their 
 home they could gaze and dreamily idle 
 away their childhood days. Thus imbibing 
 all that is best and purest in nature is it 
 remarkable that there was added to his 
 many other qualities and talents, a Chris- 
 tian's soul and a poet's fervor? To her 
 many graces, the little girl, so tenderly 
 reared, should have possessed in woman- 
 hood such exceptional qualities as to touch 
 and hold the unimpulsive heart of her hus- 
 band, a most phlegmatic man, a great law- 
 yer and jurist? 
 

FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 From Charles Willson Peale's Oil Painting 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 His early years. 
 
 But to draw the curtain from across the 
 portal which opens out upon the modest 
 yet firm and beautiful life, so full of 
 healthy example and worthy of emulation, 
 of the principal dramatis persona of this 
 book. That richly endowed and very tal- 
 ented man, who combined in such rich per- 
 fusion and rare perfection all of the most 
 admirable qualities of the Christian, pa- 
 triot, statesman, lawyer and poet, Francis 
 Scott Key. Nature ushered him into the 
 trials and hardships of this life on the 9th 
 day of August, 1780, and during nearly 
 sixty-three years of sojourn in this world, 
 as expressed by one of his granddaughters, 
 he ever "kept the stars in sight, though the 
 stripes of life were laid upon him, as upon 
 all." 
 
 Much of his early life while attending 
 school and college was spent with relatives 
 in and around Annapolis. At Belvoir he 
 was tutored in the first branches of a lib- 
 eral education and received much religious 
 instruction. 
 
 His grandmother, Mrs. Key, was totally 
 blind, having lost her eyesight by fire and 
 
 13 
 
14 FEANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 smoke in rescuing two of her servants 
 from the flames when her father's house 
 was burned. Her Christian fortitude un- 
 der her terrible affliction impressed itself 
 deeply upon his pure and highly sensitive 
 nature, and no doubt had much to do with 
 his own sublime and perfect faith. 
 
 During his attendance at St. John's Col- 
 lege, where he was graduated, he resided 
 with his great-aunt, his grandmother's sis- 
 ter, Mrs. Upton Scott, who was Elizabeth 
 Ross. 
 
 A fellow student of Roger Brooke Taney, 
 he read law in the office of Jeremiah Town- 
 ley Chase. He was required to give strict 
 attendance at court, that he might the bet- 
 ter learn from observation and experience. 
 
 Having spent so much of his youth in 
 and about Annapolis, it was only natural 
 that one of the belles of Maryland's Capi- 
 tal City should have captivated his heart. 
 In 1802 he married Mary Tayloe Lloyd, 
 granddaughter of Edward Lloyd, Royal 
 Governor of the Colony from 1709 to 1714. 
 The wedding took place in the mahogany 
 wainscoted drawing room of the old Lloyd 
 house, which was built in 1772, and is now 
 in good state of preservation. He had 
 eleven children, six boys and five girls, 
 Elizabeth Phoebe; Maria Lloyd; Francis 
 
HIS EARLY YEARS 15 
 
 Scott, Jr.; John Boss; Ann Arnold; Ed- 
 ward Lloyd; Daniel Murray; Philip Bar- 
 ton; Ellen Lloyd: Alice; and Charles 
 Henry. 
 
 In his suit for the hand of his bride his 
 closest rival was his best friend, Daniel 
 Murray, and it has been very properly ob- 
 served it was a remarkable fact that he 
 retained this friendship, a circumstance 
 which testifies most strongly to the great 
 characters of both. It is said that Miss 
 Lloyd would make curl papers of his love 
 sonnets and took particular pains that he 
 should learn of it. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 As a Churchman and Christian. 
 
 A devout Christian, he was a regular at- 
 tendant at church and took an active part 
 in all religious affairs. At family prayers, 
 which he regularly conducted twice a day, 
 every member of his family, including the 
 servants, were required to be in attend- 
 ance. In the Sunday School he taught a 
 Bible class of young men for many years, 
 and was one of the vestrymen of St. John's 
 Episcopal Church in Georgetown. 
 
 At the present time can be seen on the 
 east wall of this church a tablet bearing 
 an inscription of his composition* to the 
 memory of the Rev. Johannes I. Sayrs, a 
 former rector. In later years his own 
 memory has been perpetuated in a memo- 
 rial window in Christ Church, Georgetown. 
 However, the best memorial, bearing trib- 
 ute to his Christianity and religious effort, 
 is possibly to be found in his own lines in 
 the hymn beginning, "Lord, with glowing 
 heart I'd praise Thee."f The last two 
 lines, namely: "And, since words can 
 
 *See Appendix. 
 
 fThe complete hymn is to be found in the Appendix. 
 
 16 
 
AS A CHURCHMAN AND CHRISTIAN 17 
 
 never measure, Let my life show forth thy 
 praise/ ' demonstrate his appreciation of 
 the inadequacy of words to correctly ex- 
 press a meaning, and typify his legal ac- 
 cumen and training. 
 
 Upon the Rev. Walter Dulany Addison, 
 another former rector of St. John's, be- 
 coming much enfeebled by age and ill 
 health he was given a lay reader's license 
 and for years read the service and visited 
 the sick, oftentimes even holding up the 
 aged rector's arms while he pronounced 
 the benediction. 
 
 In speaking of his church work and re- 
 ligious character, Mr. Lawrence C. Wroth, 
 in a very excellent and interesting article, 
 appearing in the June number for 1909, 
 Maryland Historical Magazine, says that 
 on at least two occasions he seriously con- 
 templated entering the ministry. His au- 
 thority for the statement is contained in a 
 letter to Mr. Key from Dr. Kemp then rec- 
 tor of St. Paul's Church, Baltimore, and 
 afterwards suffragan Bishop of Maryland, 
 proposing that Mr. Key enter the ministry 
 and suggesting an association with him, in 
 the parish of St. Paul's, and Mr. Key's 
 replies under date of Georgetown, April 4 
 and 28, 1814. In the first of which he says, 
 a few years before he had thought of pre- 
 
18 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 paring himself for the ministry, but adds, 
 from all the consideration he could give the 
 subject he had concluded that such a step 
 was impossible, and in his letter of April 
 28, he adds "I have thought a good deal 
 upon this subject, and the difficulties that 
 at first occurred to me appear insurmount- 
 able. ' ' Aside from a tendency towards the 
 ministry, upon a careful reading of this 
 correspondence, it will be seen he never se- 
 riously contemplated the step. He was, 
 it is true, a very devout man, having 
 a very great interest in the church 
 and rendered it no doubt a very great 
 service in many ways, being indefatiga- 
 ble in his efforts in its behalf, recon- 
 ciling on more than one occasion the two 
 factions of high and low church, or the 
 "formalist and evangelical. ' ' He was of 
 the latter party and differed greatly in his 
 views with Dr. Kemp, and so wrote him. 
 He believed, as he said, the Episcopal 
 Church was the best form of religion, but 
 he also distinctly said he did not think it 
 the only valid one. 
 
 He was a delegate to every General Con- 
 vention from 1814 to 1826, consecutively, 
 and attended all excepting the first. Later, 
 at the Convention of 1830, it was due al- 
 most entirely to his efforts that the two 
 parties were reconciled and united upon 
 
AS A CHURCHMAN AND CHRISTIAN 19 
 
 one man, (in the person of Rev. William 
 Murray Stone,) for the Episcopate of 
 Maryland, and again at the Convention of 
 1839 he mollified the contending factions, 
 which brought about the election of Bishop 
 Whittenham. At the Convention of 1820 
 it is said he was the only one allowed to 
 stand up in defense of evangelical truth. 
 
 He was a life-long friend of Bishop 
 Meade, of Virginia, who refers to him as 
 such in his celebrated book, ' ' Old Churches, 
 Ministers and Families of Virginia.'' A 
 trustee of the General Theological Semi- 
 nary from its founding in 1820 until his 
 death, and one of the founders of the Theo- 
 logical Seminary near Alexandria, Vir- 
 ginia. 
 
 Although at all times and in all things 
 obedient to the canons of the church and 
 respectful of its authority and the author- 
 ity of those above him, he was quick to 
 resent any unwarranted rebuke from that 
 authority. When the differences of opin- 
 ion existing between Dr. (then Bishop 
 Kemp) and himself led the former to un- 
 justly take him to task for doing what he 
 considered to be his duty, he replied with 
 some spirit, stating at length the excep- 
 tional circumstances under which he had 
 felt called upon to baptize, at the request 
 of its mother, a supposedly dying infant, 
 
20 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 and explaining that lie knew of no canon 
 of the church prohibiting lay baptism of 
 infants, especially under the circumstances 
 which prompted him, but, on the contrary, 
 knew of several instances in which it had 
 been done and sanctioned under even less 
 imperative conditions, he proceeds, "This, 
 sir, is what I have done and I thought it 
 right. You think it so clearly wrong that 
 a moment's reflection ' ought to have ar- 
 rested my progress. ' I have reflected upon 
 it since, and deliberately, and am still with- 
 out any other reason for supposing it may 
 be wrong than your telling me so. I hope, 
 sir, you will excuse me for saying that this 
 (tho' certainly worthy of serious consider- 
 ation) is not sufficient for me. I can not 
 acknowledge error when I do not see it, 
 and trust you hold me so entitled to an 
 opinion of my own as not to be bound to 
 renounce it and confess myself wrong 
 merely because any person, though entitled 
 to the greatest respect, thinks differently. ' ' 
 From the necessarily brief consideration 
 and extracts here given of this more or less 
 unfortunate misunderstanding it should 
 not be assumed that Mr. Key was disre- 
 spectful to the Bishop. The correspond- 
 ence clearly shows the contrary. His let- 
 ters show merely the spirit of the man, 
 disappointed, and perhaps chafing some- 
 
AS A CHURCHMAN AND CHRISTIAN 21 
 
 what from an unmerited rebuke adminis- 
 tered by one to whom he had looked rather 
 for praise and sympathy than censure and 
 criticism. No doubt Bishop Kemp's at- 
 titude was produced in a large measure by 
 the difference of opinion existing between 
 them on chuch matters in general accent- 
 uated by the small part taken by Mr. Key 
 in joining in a protest to the House of 
 Bishops against his election. As Mr. 
 Wroth very correctly observes, the Bishop 
 seems never to have quite forgiven him, al- 
 though he refused to concur in the charge 
 that the election was the result of " pre- 
 meditated management" basing his joinder 
 in the protest upon the ground of "insuffi- 
 cient notice. ' ' 
 
 John Eandolph of Roanoke, whose faith 
 had been greatly shaken by reading works 
 like Voltaire, frequently confided in him, 
 and is said to have been greatly restored 
 in his faith in Christianity in consequence. 
 In a letter to Randolph he disposes of the 
 arguments against Christianity in short 
 order, and pays a great tribute to his un- 
 conquerable faith in these words : 
 
 "I don't believe there are any new ob- 
 jections to be discovered to the truth of 
 Christianity, though there may be some art 
 in presenting old ones in a new dress. My 
 faith has been greatly confirmed by the 
 
22 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 infidel writers I have read: and I think 
 snch would be their effect upon anyone who 
 has examined the evidences. Our church 
 recommends their perusal to students of 
 divinity, which shows she is not afraid of 
 them. Men may argue ingeniously against 
 our faith, as indeed they may against any- 
 thing — but what can they say in defense 
 of their own — I would carry the war into 
 their own territories, I would ask them 
 what they believe — if they said they be- 
 lieved anything, I think that they might be 
 shown to be more full of difficulties and 
 liable to infinitely greater objections than 
 the system they oppose and they were cred- 
 ulous and unreasonable for believing it. 
 If they said they did not believe anything, 
 you could not, to be sure, have anything 
 further to say to them. In that case they 
 would be insane, or at best illy qualified to 
 teach others what they ought to believe or 
 disbelieve. ' ' 
 
 For this purity of character and un- 
 swerving sincerity in his Christian faith, 
 the richest of his earthly rewards was the 
 exalted honor, permitted him by Provi- 
 dence, of immortalizing his name upon the 
 flag of his country in christening it, 1 1 The 
 Star Spangled Banner." 
 
THE ORIGINAL FLAG 
 Suspended in front of the Smithsonian Institution 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Lawyer. 
 
 As a lawyer lie was equalled by few and 
 excelled by none. Among his contempora- 
 ries lie took first rank, and of most of the 
 important causes the records of those 
 courts before which he practiced disclose 
 his name as attorney on one side or the 
 other. When we recollect the bar of his 
 day was made up of such men as Webster, 
 Clay, Choate, Wm. Pinkney, Luther Mar- 
 tin, Reverdy Johnson, William Wirt, and 
 the bench of such legal giants as Marshall 
 and Story, it is enough to say that he took 
 first rank. 
 
 In a letter, dated Baltimore, July 25, 
 1875, Reverdy Johnson, one of the most 
 distinguished lawyers Maryland and the 
 country ever produced, pays this tribute to 
 his legal and literary talents and attain- 
 ments : 
 
 "My acquaintance with Mr. Key commenced 
 some twenty years before his death, and soon 
 ripened into friendship. I have argued cases 
 with him and against him in the courts of 
 Maryland and in the United States Supreme 
 Court. He had evidently been a diligent legal 
 student, and being possessed of rare ability, 
 he became an excellent lawyer. In that par- 
 
 23 
 
24 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 ticular, however, he would, I have no doubt, 
 have been more profound but for his fondness 
 for elegant literature, and particularly for 
 poetry. In this last he was himself quite a 
 proficient. Some of his writings are truly 
 gems of beauty. His style of speaking to a 
 court was ever clear, and his reasoning logical 
 and powerful; whilst his speeches to juries, 
 when the occasion admitted of it, were beau- 
 tifully eloquent. To the graces of his many 
 accomplishments he possessed what is still 
 more to his praise, a character of almost re- 
 ligious perfection. A firm believer in the 
 Christian dispensation, his conduct was regu- 
 lated by the doctrines inculcated by its found- 
 er and this being so his life was one of perfect 
 purity." 
 
 He began the practice of law at Fred- 
 erick, Maryland, in 1801, but subsequently 
 removed to the District of Columbia, tak- 
 ing up his residence in Georgetown and 
 forming an association in the practice with 
 his uncle, Philip Barton Key. Under 
 Presidents Jackson and Van Buren he was 
 three times appointed United States Dis- 
 trict Attorney for the District of Columbia, 
 his first appointment being confirmed by 
 the Senate, January 29, 1833, and he was 
 succeeded on July 3, 1841, by Philip E. Fen- 
 dall. During his administration of the of- 
 fice of United States District Attorney he 
 demonstrated his capabilities for that 
 important position and his keen appre- 
 ciation for its responsibilities in a most 
 
THE LAWYEK 
 
 25 
 
 remarkable manner. While in attend- 
 ance at the funeral in 1835 of War- 
 ren E. Davis, a member of Congress 
 from South Carolina, as President Jack- 
 son and his cabinet awaited on the east 
 portico of the Capitol for the remains to 
 be brought from the Eotunda, a man con- 
 cealed behind one of the large pillars fired 
 at the President. General Jackson was im- 
 mediately surrounded by his friends, who 
 interposed in his defense, and before the 
 assailant could fire a second shot he was 
 overpowered and taken into custody. 
 
 Carried before the Circuit Court of the 
 United States for the District of Columbia, 
 he was given a hearing. Mr. Key, as Dis- 
 trict Attorney, conducted the examination 
 on behalf of the Government. Bitter feel- 
 ing against the prisoner was rife, as it was 
 generally believed that the act was insti- 
 gated by a party of political conspirators 
 led by a prominent man. The assailed was 
 the President of the United States, but 
 what was even more to Mr. Key, his warm 
 personal friend, to whom he owed much, 
 especially his appointment to the office he 
 then held and whose duties imposed upon 
 him the prosecution of the assailant. 
 
 Entertaining a strong conviction that in 
 a criminal proceeding the duty of the rep- 
 resentative of the government is prosecu- 
 
26 FEANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 tion and not persecution — an impartial 
 vindication of the law, and justice between 
 the state and the alleged offender, his self- 
 control and circumspection, notwithstand- 
 ing he naturally must also have enter- 
 tained an intense feeling against the cul- 
 prit, prevented a miscarriage of justice 
 and removed the popular misbelief of a 
 criminal conspiracy against the life of the 
 President, as it was clearly shown by the 
 impartial and careful examination he con- 
 ducted that the prisoner was insane. 
 
 During the Harrison and Van Buren 
 presidential contest in 1840 Georgetown 
 was as much excited and divided over the 
 campaign as any part of the country, and 
 there were lively times between the Whigs 
 and Democrats. After General Harrison's 
 inauguration half a dozen citizens of the 
 town addressed a petition to the President 
 containing accusations against the collect- 
 or of the port, Eobert White, charging the 
 misuse of his office for political purposes 
 and stating that he was obnoxious to his 
 fellow-townsmen. 
 
 It was requested that White be removed 
 and Henry Addison appointed in his stead. 
 These requests, or, as lawyers say, the 
 prayers, of the petition were granted. 
 White removed and Addison appointed. 
 
THE LAWYEB 27 
 
 A bitter libel suit by White against those 
 making the charges resulted. Mr. Key, 
 Colonel William L. Brent, and his son 
 Eobert J. Brent, represented the plaintiff, 
 while the defendants were represented by 
 General Walter James, Kichard L. Coxe, 
 Joseph H. Bradley, John Marbury, and 
 Bobert Auld. 
 
 The trial came on for hearing before the 
 Circuit Court of the District of Columbia, 
 and the court held that the petition to the 
 President containing the objectionable 
 charges- against White, which were the 
 foundation of the suit, being a privileged 
 communication, could not be admitted in 
 evidence or read to the jury. Of course, 
 this ruling lost for the plaintiff his case, 
 but Mr. Key did not stop with this, he 
 promptly carried the case to the Supreme 
 Court of the United States, where he re- 
 versed the judgment of the lower court. 
 
 A particular consideration of very many 
 of the important cases in which Mr. Key 
 appeared as counsel, is impossible in a 
 book of this size. 
 
 However, as the law was his profession 
 and as so little is generally known of him 
 as a lawyer, it is deemed proper that at 
 least a few of the most important ones 
 should be considered. 
 
28 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 When the Alexandria Canal Company, 
 under authority conferred by Act of Con- 
 gress, undertook to construct across the 
 Potomac River an aqueduct for the pur- 
 pose of connecting with the Chesapeake 
 and Ohio Canal, that Alexandria might 
 likewise use this waterway with George- 
 town for transportation, it became neces- 
 sary to construct a number of piers in the 
 river to support an aqueduct bridge. To 
 properly do this large cofferdams were 
 built, into which a great deal of clay and 
 gravel was dumped. Much of this, in one 
 way or the other was spilt on the outside 
 of the dams and washed down stream. 
 Now, the Potomac was, of course, a high- 
 way, and in those days used as such a great 
 deal more than at present, and to obstruct 
 the navigation of the river was, of course, 
 a serious matter, and it may be imagined 
 also that Georgetown did not care to see an 
 outlet to the west opened to Alexandria, 
 thus bringing its merchants into competi- 
 tion with her own. 
 
 Under rights claimed from a compact 
 between the states of Maryland and Vir- 
 ginia which secured to the citizens of these 
 states the free and unobstructed use of the 
 river, the mayor and the citizens of 
 Georgetown, fearing, as they alleged, that 
 the channel would be obstructed and navi- 
 
THE LAWYER 29 
 
 gation retarded, applied to the courts for 
 an injunction enjoining the canal company 
 from continuing its operations which they 
 termed a public nuisance. The duty of 
 prosecuting the case devolved upon Mr. 
 Key as Recorder of the town. 
 
 Upon the hearing of the case in the Cir- 
 cuit Court of the District of Columbia the 
 injunction was refused and an appeal was 
 taken to the Supreme Court of the United 
 States, where the case was ably argued 
 and some very interesting and nice ques- 
 tions of law raised. Among other things 
 it was contended that the Act of Congress 
 authorizing the construction of the aque- 
 duct was unconstitutional, as under the 
 compact between Maryland and Virginia 
 the city of Georgetown and its citizens had 
 a right of property in the free navigation 
 of the river of which they could not be de- 
 prived by an Act of Congress. The Su- 
 preme Court, however, affirmed the decree 
 of the lower court, holding that the act was 
 not unconstitutional, and that whatever 
 rights were secured by the compact be- 
 tween Maryland and Virginia were secured 
 to their citizens in their capacity as sover- 
 eign states and not as individuals; conse- 
 quently, upon the cession of the District 
 of Columbia to the United States the rights 
 under such compact passed to the United 
 
30 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 States and Congress could, if it thought 
 necessary, abridge them. 
 
 In the case of the Bank of Columbia 
 against Okeley, involving another and 
 more important question of constitutional 
 law, Mr. Key, as the attorney for the bank, 
 was, on an appeal to the Supreme Court, 
 more successful. Prior to the cession of 
 the District of Columbia to the United 
 States the legislative assembly of Mary- 
 land, in the act incorporating the bank, 
 gave to its president a summary remedy 
 for collecting its debts by which the clerk 
 of the court, upon the sworn application 
 of the president, was required to issue an 
 attachment against the property of any 
 debtor of the bank who had consented in 
 writing that his bonds, bills or notes should 
 be negotiable at the bank. The defendant, 
 Okeley, became liable to the bank for fail- 
 ure to pay such an obligation, and upon 
 the proper application being made to the 
 clerk an attachment issued under which the 
 United States Marshal seized the property 
 of the defendant in satisfaction of the 
 claim. 
 
 Okeley 's attorneys made a motion to 
 quash the attachment upon the ground that 
 the act of the assembly of Maryland con- 
 ferring such rights was void for being con- 
 trary to both the Bill of Eights of Mary- 
 
THE LAWYER 31 
 
 land and the Constitution of the United 
 States in that it deprived the defendant of 
 his right of trial by jury guaranteed by 
 those instruments. 
 
 The Circuit Court took some such view 
 of the matter, quashing the attachment. 
 On appeal to the Supreme Court of the 
 United States, however, that court held, as 
 provision was made in the law securing to 
 the defendant, after seizure of his prop- 
 erty, the right of a trial by jury upon a 
 proper showing and application, all rights 
 guaranteed by either the Bill of Eights of 
 Maryland or the Constitution of the United 
 States were preserved to him. 
 
 In connection with this decision it is in- 
 teresting to note that similar proceedings 
 are now very generally authorized by 
 statute, especially where non-residents and 
 absconding debtors are concerned. 
 
 A decision of much interest to taxpay- 
 ers, or, more properly speaking, to those 
 who do not pay their taxes, is to be found 
 in the case of the City of Washington 
 against Pratt. 
 
 In this case, which likewise reached the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, Mr. 
 Key as the representative of Pratt, filed 
 a bill in equity to enjoin the corporation 
 of Washington from executing a deed of 
 
32 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 Pratt's property to certain purchasers at 
 a tax sale. 
 
 The validity of the attempted sale was 
 attacked by Mr. Key upon some six or 
 seven grounds, all of which the court sus- 
 tained. The two principal ones being, 
 first; the property was not assessed and 
 sold in the name of the true owner, and, 
 second, that more than one lot was sold 
 when the proceeds from the sale of any one 
 was sufficient to satisfy the taxes upon the 
 whole. The sale was accordingly declared 
 void and set aside. 
 
 During the latter years of his life he was 
 engaged, among others, as counsel for Mrs. 
 Myra Clark Gaines in the celebrated con- 
 troversy known as the Gaines case and 
 which arose by reason of Daniel Clark 
 making two wills, one in 1811 and a second 
 in 1813. By the first he left all of his 
 property to his mother, and the executors 
 thereunder sold a large lot of valuable 
 land belonging to him to the City of New 
 Orleans. By the latter will he left his 
 daughter, Myra Clark Gaines, his sole 
 beneficiary, and upon coming of age and 
 learning of her right she instituted suit in 
 the New Orleans courts to recover her 
 property. In the defense to her suits, 
 among other things her legitimacy was at- 
 tacked. The case occupied the attention 
 
THE LAWYER 33 
 
 of the courts, both of Louisiana and the 
 United States, for over a third of a cen- 
 tury. Finally, however, Mrs. Gaines won, 
 but it was not until 1867, or twenty-odd 
 years after the death of Mr. Key. 
 
 In one of the reports of the case in the 
 Supreme Court of the United States it is 
 observed : ' i The case, with two accompany- 
 ing it, constituted the seventh, eighth and 
 ninth appeals to this court of a controversy 
 known as the ' Gaines case. ' For more than 
 one-third of a century, in one form and an- 
 other, it had been the subject of judicial 
 decision in this court, and the records now 
 — complicated in the extreme — reach near- 
 ly eight thousand closely printed pages. 
 The court, when the case was last heard 
 before it, spoke of it as 'one which, when 
 hereafter some distinguished American 
 lawyer shall retire from his practice to 
 write the history of his country's jurispru- 
 dence, will be registered by him as the 
 most remarkable in the records of its 
 courts. ' ' ' Space will not permit of a fuller 
 consideration of the case at this time, but 
 for the information of those who might 
 care to investigate it further it may be con- 
 cluded by saying full reports can be found 
 in the reported decisions of the Supreme 
 Courts of Louisiana and the United States. 
 Under titles of Gaines vs. Hennen, Freutes 
 
34 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 vs. Gaines, and Gaines vs. City of New Or- 
 leans. From the fact alone that Mr. Key 
 was engaged in this celebrated case we 
 have no difficulty whatsoever in determin- 
 ing that he stood as high in his profession 
 as any lawyer of his day. 
 
 The last case to which I shall refer, is 
 extremely interesting and, although, be- 
 cause of the most happy aud fortunate 
 change in the condition of things, is no 
 longer of any practical importance, at- 
 tracted at the time a large assemblage of 
 refined and intelligent persons of both 
 sexes to the hearing before the Supreme 
 Court of the United States. 
 
 The case grew out of the capture of a 
 slave trader off the coast of Florida, then 
 Spanish territory. A Spanish vessel named 
 the Antelope, in the act of ' receiving a 
 cargo of Africans, was captured on the 
 coast of Africa by the Arraganta, a priva- 
 teer manned in Baltimore. 
 
 In charge of a prize crew from the Ar- 
 raganta she was carried to the coast of 
 Brazil, and the Arraganta being there 
 wrecked, thence to the coast of Florida 
 where she was discovered hovering very 
 near the coast of the United States, by 
 Captain Jackson of the U. S. Eevenue Cut- 
 ter Dallas. Supposing her to be either a 
 pirate or engaged in smuggling slaves into 
 
THE LAWYER 35 
 
 the United States, the captain went in 
 quest of her and, discovering that she car- 
 ried a cargo of slaves and was manned by 
 officers and men who were citizens of the 
 United States, he brought her into the port 
 of Savannah for adjudication by the 
 United States courts as lawful prize. 
 
 The vice consuls of Spain and Portugal 
 interposed claims on behalf of the subjects 
 of their respective countries, to whom it 
 was alleged the vessel and slaves belonged, 
 which claims the United States opposed, 
 upon the ground that the trade in which 
 the vessel was engaged was in violation of 
 the laws of the United States, and now that 
 she and her cargo were within the territo- 
 rial jurisdiction of this country they were 
 amenable to our laws. The consuls of 
 Spain and Portugal claimed the Africans 
 as slaves who, in the regular course of le- 
 gitimate commerce had been acquired as 
 property by their fellow subjects and de- 
 manded their restoration under the law 
 of nations, and particularly under the 
 terms of a treaty between the United 
 States and Spain which provided that 
 property rescued from pirates should be 
 restored to Spanish owners on their mak- 
 ing proof of property. 
 
 As the founder and principal promoter 
 of the American Colonization Society, the 
 
36 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 object of which was the emancipation and 
 colonization of the negroes, under a pro- 
 tectorate of the United States, on the west 
 coast of Africa, Mr. Key's sympathies with 
 the negro cause were well and favorably 
 known; accordingly, the attorney-general, 
 Mr. Wirt, engaged him to assist in the 
 prosecution of the government's claims in 
 this case. In making the opening argu- 
 ment, Mr. Key, among other things, said : 
 
 "The Spanish owners show as proof of prop- 
 erty, their previous possession; and the pos- 
 sessor of goods it is said, is to be presumed the 
 lawful owner. This is true as to goods; be- 
 cause they have universally and necessarily an 
 owner. But these are men of whom it cannot 
 be affirmed that they have universally and 
 necessarily an owner." 
 
 Opposed to Mr. Key were Charles J. 
 Ingersoll, of Philadelphia, and John M. 
 Berrien, of Georgia. 
 
 Among the spectators in court was Gov- 
 ernor Foote, of Mississippi, and some 
 years afterwards he paid a glowing tribute 
 to the speech of Mr. Key in the following 
 language : 
 
 "On this occasion he greatly surpassed the 
 expectations of his most admiring friends. 
 The subject was particularly suited to his hab- 
 its of thought, and was one which had long en- 
 listed, in a special manner, the generous sen- 
 sibilities of his soul. It seems to me that he 
 said all that the case demanded, and yet no 
 
THE LAWYER 37 
 
 more than was needful to be said; and he 
 closed with a thrilling and even an electrifying 
 picture of the horrors connected with the 
 African slave trade, which would have done 
 honor to either a Pitt or a Wilberforce in their 
 palmiest days." 
 
 However, public sentiment was not yet 
 abreast with his high and exalted ideas, 
 and for reasons based npon the laws of na- 
 tions, as then understood, the court, in an 
 opinion written by no less a jurist than the 
 great Chief Justice, John Marshall, held, 
 that as the traffic in which the Spanish ves- 
 sel was engaged was not in violation of the 
 laws of Spain the ship and her human car- 
 go must be restored to their owners. How- 
 ever, the force and eloquence of Mr. Key's 
 argument was not without effect. It made 
 a profound impression on the court, which 
 Chief Justice Marshall acknowledged at 
 the outset of his opinion in these words : 
 
 "In examining claims of this momentous im- 
 portance, claims in which the sacred rights of 
 liberty and of property come in conflict with 
 each other; which have drawn from the bar a 
 degree of talent and of eloquence, worthy of 
 the questions that have been discussed, this 
 court must not yield to feelings which might 
 seduce it from the path of duty, but must obey 
 the mandate of the law." 
 
 Some years after, at a convention of the 
 American Colonization Society, Mr. Key 
 offered this resolution: 
 
38 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 "Resolved, That a committee be appointed to 
 prepare and present a memorial to Congress, 
 recommending such measures to be taken for 
 the protection of the colonies now established 
 on the African coast, the promotion of Ameri- 
 can commerce on that coast, and the suppres- 
 sion of the slave trade, as the National Legis- 
 lature may approve." 
 
 In speaking in favor of its adoption, Mr. 
 Key said : 
 
 "Light has pierced into the thick darkness 
 that has long enveloped that outcast continent, 
 and treasures and blessings of a benignant 
 Providence are seen to smile in all her plains 
 and wave in all her forests. It is true this 
 fair creation of God has been marred by the 
 wickedness of man. A trade abominable and 
 detestable beyond all epithets that can be 
 given to it, at the very name of which the 
 blood curdles, and no man hears it who 'having 
 human feeling does not blush, and hang his 
 head to think himself a man,' has long since 
 desolated Africa and disgraced the world but 
 
 * * * the dawning of a better day appears 
 
 * * * the virtue and benevolence of man 
 shall repair the outrages committed by the in- 
 humanity of man. The trade that has wasted 
 and debased Africa shall be banished by a 
 trade that shall enlighten and civilize her, and 
 repeople her solitary places with her restored 
 children, and Africa thus redeemed and res- 
 cued from curse, and the world from its re- 
 proach, shall vindicate the ways of God to 
 
 Could these hopes have been realized 
 what inestimable blessings would not have 
 
THE LAWYER 39 
 
 been bestowed upon both races and our 
 country ? 
 
 As well as a large practice before the 
 courts, Mr. Key enjoyed an equally as 
 large and lucrative one before the Execu- 
 tive Departments of the Government, es- 
 pecially the War Department and the 
 General Land Office before which he prose- 
 cuted and represented many claims for 
 claimants from every section of the coun- 
 try, including Wisconsin, Missouri, Ar- 
 kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, and 
 Alabama. Land claims on behalf of both 
 white and Indian claimants, pension claims 
 on behalf of widows and orphans, salaries 
 and allowances due army and navy officers 
 and claims for provisions furnished the 
 army by different persons at various times. 
 
 Under date of June 6, 1835, W. R. Hallett 
 writes Mr. Key from New York recalling 
 that he had the pleasure of his acquaint- 
 ance at Tuscaloosa, Ala., when he, Hallett, 
 was a member of the Alabama Legislature. 
 The object of the letter was to engage Mr. 
 Key to represent him during his absence 
 abroad in some matters pending at the 
 time before the Land Office. And again 
 over three years later, under date of 
 August 27, 1838, Mr. Hallett writes him 
 from Mobile to the effect that on behalf of 
 his, Hallett 's, friend, Joshua Kennedy, he 
 
40 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 is enclosing Mr. Key a check for one thou- 
 sand dollars, with a view of retaining Mr. 
 Key's services for Mr. Kennedy, saying 
 that Mr. Kennedy requests him to attend 
 to his business generally, such as he may 
 have before Congress and the Supreme 
 Court, and that he wishes him not to take 
 any business against him. Coming as these 
 letters do from acquaintances made in Ala- 
 bama while there upon a delicate and im- 
 portant mission for the Government, there 
 could not possibly be a stronger testimo- 
 nial of the ability and dignity with which 
 he conducted both the matter intrusted to 
 him and himself. 
 
 To consider at any length the numerous 
 cases would serve no good purpose. The 
 papers and correspondence are very vol- 
 uminous. However, it may be mentioned 
 that one case he fought through two hear- 
 ings before the Commissioner of the Land 
 Office, one hearing before the Attorney 
 General of the United States, to whom it 
 was referred, and then upon brief and let- 
 ter before the Hon. Levi Woodbury, Sec- 
 retary of the Treasury, and finally upon 
 bill in chancery before the Circuit Court of 
 the United States for the District of Co- 
 lumbia. The case grew out of a contro- 
 versy between adverse claimants of 640 
 acres of land lying between the Des Moines 
 
THE LAWYER 41 
 
 and the Mississippi Rivers. Mr. Key's 
 clients, Samuel Marsh and others, claimed 
 title to the land by purchase from the half- 
 breed Sac and Fox Indians under a treaty 
 made between the United States and the 
 Indians reserving title to the lands in the 
 Indians with the right to sell if they de- 
 sired. The other claimants were the heirs 
 of Thomas F. Reddick, who claimed title 
 under an old Spanish grant prior to the 
 treaty under which the United States ac- 
 quired Louisiana, of which territory the 
 lands were a part. Albert G. Harrison and 
 Edward Brooks represented the Reddick 
 heirs. Both sides hotly contested the cause 
 and there appears to have been created 
 some little feeling between counsel. In a 
 letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. 
 Key, in speaking of his opponent, Mr. Har- 
 rison, says: "As to his patience being 
 exhausted and his passion excited, I have 
 nothing to say. This gives him, I presume, 
 no peculiar claims to consideration, though 
 it may seem to excuse in some measure the 
 passion of his communication in which he 
 speaks of ' taking steps to show the country 
 the great injustice that has been done to 
 those he represents.' I should regret to 
 think that he expected to gain anything by 
 such an intimation. What have his clients 
 to complain off What course has been 
 
42 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 taken with them that has not been taken 
 with all claimants whose claims are con- 
 tested by connictory claimants.?" 
 
 In an opinion written entirely in his own 
 hand and signed, Mr. Key, under date of 
 February 12, 1839, says: "I have fully ex- 
 amined all the documents and title papers 
 and evidences in relation to the claims of 
 the heirs of Thomas F. Reddick to 640 
 acres, for which a patent has been recently 
 issued to them," and, continuing, "I con- 
 sider the title to the half-breeds, or those 
 who have purchased from them, as unques- 
 tionably a superior title and unaffected by 
 this patent — the holders under the half- 
 breeds should compel the holders of this 
 patent to bring an ejectment on it in the 
 territorial court, or they may at once file a 
 bill in equity in the same court to vacate 
 the patent." 
 
 The case is an extremely interesting one, 
 but the limits of this little volume will not 
 permit of a further discussion of it. 
 
 However, enough has been related of the 
 cases in which he figured to give a clear 
 insight into both his character and ability. 
 
 We find him courteous and properly gen- 
 erous in his dealings with both his clients 
 and the attorneys with whom he is asso- 
 ciated or opposed. Fearless of both men 
 and things because his conscience was ever 
 
THE LAWYER 43 
 
 clear. Impetuous at times, perhaps, but 
 never without self-control. Respectful of 
 the opinions of others, at the same time de- 
 manding the same of them, and intolerant 
 when denied. Earnest and energetic in all 
 he undertook. A hard student and an ex- 
 cellent man and lawyer. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Statesman and Diplomat. 
 
 A statesman, rather than a politician, 
 Speaker Reed's definition to the contrary 
 notwithstanding, he believed, as he wrote 
 John Randolph, that a man had no more 
 right to decline public office than to seek 
 it. 
 
 In a discourse on education, delivered 
 February 22, 1827, before the Alumni of 
 St. John's College, in St. Ann's Church, 
 Annapolis, he points out the duty of the 
 state to its citizens in a fearless and most 
 remarkable manner: 
 
 "There are and ever will be," says he, "the 
 poor and the rich, the men of labor and the 
 men of leisure, and the state which neglects 
 either neglects a duty, and neglects it at its 
 peril for whichever it neglects will be not only 
 useless but mischievous. 
 
 "It is admitted that the neglect of one of 
 these classes is unjust and impolitic. Why is 
 it not so as to the other? If it is improper to 
 leave the man of labor uneducated, * * * 
 is it not at least equally so to leave the man of 
 leisure, whose situation does not oblige him to 
 labor, and who, therefore, will not labor, to 
 rust in sloth or riot in dissipation? 
 
 "This neglect would be peculiarly unwise in 
 a government like ours, luxury is the vice most 
 fatal to republics, and idleness and want of 
 education in the rich promote it in its most 
 
 44 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 45 
 
 disgusting forms. Nor let it be thought that 
 we have no cause to guard against this evil. 
 It is perhaps the most imminent of our perils." 
 
 In view of some recent disclosures of the 
 riotous living of the uneducated sons of 
 some of our rich men, the prophetic truth 
 of this prediction is quite apparent. 
 
 A great lawyer, as we have seen, with re- 
 markable oratorical powers in the forum 
 of legal debate, he was likewise, when occa- 
 sion required, equally brilliant and con- 
 vincing in the field of popular oratory. Al- 
 though not caring to mix in with politics to 
 any great extent, nevertheless, when he 
 considered the good of a worthy cause de- 
 manded his services he was prompt to take 
 the stump in its behalf. In this way he is 
 known to have stumped, not only his native 
 state, Maryland, but Pennsylvania and 
 Virginia also, and on such an occasion at 
 Frederick, Maryland, in paying an extem- 
 poraneous tribute to his country, his great 
 mind, grasping the situation of the future 
 as well as the present, sounded a keynote 
 which, in the words of prophecy, ring even 
 more true now than then, a timely and 
 mighty warning. These were his words : 
 
 "But, if ever forgetful of her past and pres- 
 ent glory, she shall cease to be 'the land of the 
 free and the home of the brave,' and become 
 the purchased possession of a company of 
 
46 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 stock jobbers and speculators, if her people are 
 to become the vassals of a great moneyed cor- 
 poration, and to bow down to her pensioned 
 and privileged nobility, if the patriots who 
 shall dare to arraign her corruptions and de- 
 nounce her usurpations, are to be sacrificed 
 upon her gilded altar; such a country may 
 furnish venal orators and presses but the soul 
 of national poetry will be gone. That muse 
 will 'Never bow the knee in mammon's fane.' 
 No, the patriots of such a land must hide their 
 shame in her deepest forests, and her bards 
 must hang their harps upon the willows. Such 
 a people, thus corrupted and degraded, 
 
 'Living, shall forfeit fair renown, 
 
 And, doubly dying shall go down, 
 
 To the vile dust from whence they sprung, 
 
 Unwept, unhonored and unsung.' " 
 
 In appreciation of the trust and confi- 
 dence which can be reposed in such sterling 
 qualities, President Jackson singled him 
 out for a mission to Alabama of the utmost 
 delicacy and importance. 
 
 In the early spring of 1832 the United 
 States made a treaty with the Creek In- 
 dians, under the terms of which the In- 
 dians conditionally ceded to the United 
 States all their lands east of the Missis- 
 sippi Kiver. By the provisions of the fifth 
 article of the treaty there was imposed 
 upon the United States three duties — first, 
 subject to the exceptions therein made, the 
 removal of all the settlers from the whole 
 of the ceded territory; second, the survey 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 47 
 
 of the country and location of the Indian 
 reservations therein ; third, for a period of 
 five years from the ratification of the 
 treaty the removal of all persons found 
 upon the reservations so located. 
 
 The manner of removal the government 
 found in an Act of Congress, approved 
 March 3, 1807, entitled "An Act to prevent 
 settlements being made on lands ceded to 
 the United States, until authorized by 
 law." The Act provided that intruders 
 upon the public lands should be removed 
 by the United States Marshal, aided by the 
 military, if necessary, acting under the or- 
 ders of the President. 
 
 The tract ceded by the Creek Treaty 
 comprised nine southern counties of the 
 State of Alabama and contained, in addi- 
 tion to the Indians, a population of nearly 
 three thousand white persons, emigrants 
 from North and South Carolina, Georgia, 
 Tennessee, and Kentucky, as well as from 
 other parts of Alabama. 
 
 Each county had its full quota of state 
 officials; and judges, magistrates, sheriffs, 
 notaries public and other officers were ap- 
 pointed from among the settlers. All the 
 necessary and usual tribunals for the ad- 
 ministration of justice and the preserva- 
 tion of the peace were established and law 
 and order prevailed. 
 
48 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 Such was the situation during the sum- 
 mer and early fall of 1833 when the United 
 States Marshal for the southern district of 
 Alabama, acting upon instructions from 
 the President, undertook the herculean 
 task of expelling an entire community pop- 
 ulated by representatives of a thrifty and 
 determined race that so dearly loves the 
 sway of empire that it has never yet been 
 known to yield dominion, once acquired. 
 
 Besides, as is the way with the pioneer 
 settler, most, if not all, had exchanged 
 their means of transportation for imple- 
 ments of husbandry and were without the 
 means to remove. Fairly prosperous, con- 
 tented and happy, maintaining themselves 
 and their families by the tillage of the soil, 
 as a whole they disturbed no one and were 
 quick to resent their being disturbed. 
 
 Furthermore, the powers of the general 
 government not being as generally well 
 known and understood then as now, they 
 were very much inclined to dispute the 
 right of the United States to disturb them. 
 
 In their rights, as they understood them, 
 they were, in the main, supported by the 
 Governor of Alabama, the Honorable John 
 Gayle, who, in a lengthy letter to the Secre- 
 tary of "War, objected to the employment 
 of the military force to remove the settlers, 
 and without questioning the constitution- 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 49 
 
 ality of the Act of Congress under which 
 the Marshal, aided by the military, was en- 
 deavoring to enforce the stipulations of the 
 Creek Treaty, he argued that Congress in 
 passing the act did not contemplate a case 
 in which the ceded territory was situated 
 within the jurisdictional limits of a state 
 over which the administration of state 
 laws prevailed and within which were es- 
 tablished her courts of justice and other 
 tribunals for the government of the people. 
 
 That the enforcement of the President's 
 orders, carrying with it, as it necessarily 
 did, the expulsion of all the settlers with- 
 out discrimination would deprive the state 
 of all means of enforcing its laws within 
 the territory, thereby rendering the admin- 
 istration of justice and the suppression of 
 crime impossible. 
 
 Furthermore, the treaty did not contem- 
 plate the removal of the settlers who had 
 not wronged the Indians and who in set- 
 tling upon the land solely for the purpose 
 of cultivation had no intention of claiming 
 title thereto. 
 
 In reply, under date of October 22, 1833,' 
 the Secretary wrote the Governor that the 
 right of the state to extend its jurisdiction 
 over the ceded district was not questioned, 
 but the ownership of land and jurisdiction 
 over it were distinct questions. 
 
50 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 The United States in this instance, he 
 said, was a great land holder, possessing 
 under the Constitution the right to make 
 "All needful rules and regulations con- 
 cerning their territory and property, ' ' and 
 that it had made a regulation by which in- 
 truders on government lands should be re- 
 moved, which regulation, in the employ- 
 ment of the military force, when necessary, 
 acting under orders of the President, was 
 but repelling force with force and exercis- 
 ing no more stringent measures than were 
 conceded to an individual under like cir- 
 cumstances, and it could not be supposed 
 the government was less secure in its 
 rights. 
 
 He met the Governor's objection that the 
 enforcement of the President's orders de- 
 prived the state of the means of maintain- 
 ing law and order in a large part of its do- 
 main with the suggestion that until the lo- 
 cations could be made under the treaty it 
 would not be impracticable to attach the 
 whole of the ceded territory to one or more 
 of the organized counties of the state where 
 the public lands had been sold, "thus pro- 
 viding for the complete exercise of both 
 civil and criminal jurisdiction, without in- 
 terfering with the property of the United 
 States.' ' 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 51 
 
 The Honorable Clement C. Clay, then a 
 representative in Congress from Alabama, 
 in a letter to the Secretary of War, pointed 
 out a distinction between the case of set- 
 tlers occupying public lands with the pre- 
 sumed acquiescence of the government and 
 a mere trespasser, the former, he said, 
 could not be dealt with and treated as a 
 wrongdoer. 
 
 A fierce controversy ensued resulting in 
 open resistance to the Marshal, and upon 
 the United States troops, under command 
 of Major James L. Mcintosh, stationed at 
 Fort Mitchell, Alabama, being ordered to 
 assist in the removal of the settlers, a riot 
 resulted. Several towns were burned and 
 a settler named Hardeman Owen, was shot 
 and killed by a soldier. The entire frontier 
 was quickly in a terrible state of excite- 
 ment. 
 
 Immediately indictments were found 
 against the Deputy Marshal, Austelle, 
 Lieutenant David Manning, and three pri- 
 vates, charging them with the murder of 
 Owens, but upon the sheriff attempting to 
 execute the warrants and arrest the sol- 
 diers, Major Mcintosh interposed, and the 
 warrants were returned into court in- 
 dorsed "Not served for fear of being 
 killed. ,, 
 
52 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 An attachment for contempt of court is- 
 sued against Major Mcintosh, being like- 
 wise treated with contumely, the court im- 
 mediately requested of the Governor a 
 sufficient force of militia to secure obe- 
 dience to the mandates of the law and the 
 court. 
 
 Instead of complying with this request 
 the Governor enclosed all the papers in a 
 letter to the Secretary of War, with the 
 request that the President's attention be 
 directed to them, whereupon a truce fol- 
 lowed. 
 
 The situation, however, aroused the 
 greatest indignation throughout the entire 
 country. A company of young men from 
 New York State, headed by J. VanVleck 
 and N. G. Eosseter, in a letter to Governor 
 Gayle, dated, Hudson, New York, Decem- 
 ber 29, 1833, volunteered their military 
 service to the cause of Alabama. To the 
 Secretary of War were sent anonymous let- 
 ters, in which the writers stated a Union 
 man within the ceded territory had no de- 
 fense but his arms, and that they were 
 willing and ready to shoulder theirs in de- 
 fense of the Constitution and the laws of 
 the United States. 
 
 Another such letter, dated Creek Nation, 
 December 10, 1833, stated that a General 
 Woodward was endeavoring to raise a 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 53 
 
 company in defense of the intruders 
 against what they termed Federal bayo- 
 nets, and the Deputy Marshal wrote the 
 Secretary of War confirming such rumors, 
 saying he had been reliably informed that 
 the militia had been ordered to hold them- 
 selves in readiness. 
 
 On October 31, 1833, when the contro- 
 versy was at its height, the Secretary of 
 War, by direction of the President, ad- 
 dressed a letter to Mr. Key, informing him 
 that it was the wish of the President that 
 he repair to the district within the State of 
 Alabama ceded to the United States by the 
 Creek Indians and examine into the state 
 of things arising out of the government's 
 instructions for the removal of the in- 
 truders. 
 
 He was further instructed, immediately 
 upon his arrival, to communicate with the 
 military officers, the Marshal, Deputy Mar- 
 shal, and the United States Attorney for 
 the Southern District of Alabama, and in- 
 form them that the government greatly de- 
 sired to preserve the proper ascendency of 
 the civil authority, and that the military 
 officers were to follow the directions of the 
 Marshal, and both were to be governed by 
 his, Mr. Key's, advice in everything relat- 
 ing to the execution of their duty. As 
 broad powers, it is submitted, as ever were 
 
54 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 given to a representative of onr govern- 
 ment. That he was to advise them to sub- 
 mit to all legal process from the state 
 courts and conduct their defense before 
 both the state and United States courts 
 whenever it became necessary. 
 
 Should he deem a proceeding before a 
 state court to be vexatiously conducted he 
 was to remove the case, if possible, to the 
 United States courts for determination, 
 and should any officer of the United States 
 be arrested by process from the state 
 courts while in the discharge of his duty, 
 he was to apply to the United States Dis- 
 trict Judge for a writ of habeas corpus and 
 move for his discharge. In conclusion, he 
 was authorized, if he deemed it expedient, 
 to communicate with the Governor of Ala- 
 bama and explain his instructions. 
 
 Mr. Key arrived at Fort Mitchell on the 
 eleventh day of November, 1833, and, as 
 we have seen, his instructions left him free 
 to act as he thought best. What evil con- 
 sequences might not have ensued to the 
 nation had powers thus broad, at so crit- 
 ical a moment, been entrusted to one less 
 capable and sincere it is impossible to say. 
 To his everlasting fame and credit, it 
 should ever be remembered, he so con- 
 scientiously and diplomatically handled 
 the delicate situation that at the expiration 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 55 
 
 of nineteen days from the date of his ar- 
 rival he had the matter so well in hand he 
 was enabled to report to the Secretary of 
 War that he believed an amicable settle- 
 ment could be effected in accordance with 
 the wishes of the President. 
 
 On December 16, 1833, upon the written 
 request of Governor Gayle, he wrote him 
 the terms of the general government, stat- 
 ing that none other could be had. 
 
 Briefly, these were that the locations 
 would be completed by the fifteenth day of 
 the January following, and that the lands 
 lying outside of the reservations would be 
 released from the effect of the orders of 
 removal, while those settlers whose lands 
 were found to be within the reservations 
 would be accorded an option of purchasing 
 their lands from the Indians before being 
 required to remove. If the state would ac- 
 cept these conditions the government 
 would suspend the further enforcement of 
 its orders until after the surveys of the lo- 
 cations were made. 
 
 A couple of days later he received assur- 
 ances from the Governor that the terms 
 were satisfactory, and a little later the fur- 
 ther assurance that now that the state of- 
 ficials understood the purpose of the gov- 
 ernment the legislature would co-operate 
 in seeing that justice was done between the 
 
56 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 settlers and the Indians by the enactment 
 of a law making it penal for any person to 
 occupy land within which was located a 
 reservation without a title from the In- 
 dians. 
 
 On December 18, 1833, less than six 
 weeks, it can be seen from the date of his 
 arrival, he set out for his home in the Dis- 
 trict of Columbia, having accomplished the 
 full object of his mission without the ne- 
 cessity of asking permission to concede a 
 single point in the negotiation of the set- 
 tlement, and without having to resort to 
 the courts or other coercive measures. 
 
 The history of this most critical compli- 
 cation is given somewhat in detail, that the 
 delicacy and importance of the situation, 
 being better understood, the great service 
 rendered his country at this juncture may 
 be fully appreciated. His negotiations 
 brought him frequently a guest to the home 
 of Governor Gayle, and Mrs. Gayle, in her 
 journal, has left some very interesting 
 glympses of the social side of the visit. 
 Among other things, she says: "Francis 
 Scott Key, the District Attorney for the 
 District of Columbia, is here at present for 
 the purpose of assisting to settle the Creek 
 controversy. He is very pleasant — intelli- 
 gent you at once perceive. His counte- 
 nance is not remarkable when at rest, but 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 57 
 
 as soon as he lifts his eyes, usually fixed 
 upon some object near the floor, the man of 
 sense, of fancy, and the poet is at once 
 seen. But the crowning trait of his char- 
 acter, I have just discovered, he is a Chris- 
 tian." 
 
 As the author of America's national 
 song, his fame had preceded him. The 
 young ladies of Tuscaloosa, vieing with 
 each other, concocted many clever schemes 
 to gain for their albums a stanza or two of 
 original verse from the poet's pen. 
 
 One of these, Miss Margaret Kornegay, 
 the niece of Senator William E. King, con- 
 ceived the idea of making a rhymed request 
 and prevailed upon Mrs. Gayle, who was a 
 clever poet herself, to write one for her, 
 which Mrs. Gayle did in the following 
 lines: 
 
 TO MR. F. S. KEY. 
 
 "Thanks, gentle fairy — now my album take 
 And place it on his table ere he wake, 
 Then whisper, that a maiden all unknown, 
 Claims from the poet's hand a trifling boon; 
 Trifling per chance to him, but oh! not so 
 To her whose heart has thrilled, long, long ago, 
 As his inspiring lays came to her ear, 
 Lending the stranger's name an interest dear. 
 A timid girl may yet be bold to admire 
 The Poet's fervor, and the Patriot's fire; 
 But 'tis not these — though magical their power 
 They cannot brighten woman's saddened hour, 
 And she, the happiest, has saddened hours, 
 
58 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 When all life's pathways are bereft of flowers, 
 And her bowed spirit feels, as felt by thee, 
 That to 'live always' on this earth would be 
 For her, for all, no happy destiny. 
 Poet and Patriot ! Thou may'st write for fame, 
 But by a tenderer and holier name 
 I call thee — Christian! write me here one lay, 
 For me to read and treasure when thou art 
 away." 
 
 The album, together with the verse, was 
 secretly placed on the table in Mr. Key's 
 room. 
 
 The stratagem worked well, and like be- 
 got like, which was evidently expected. 
 The muse was awakened in his breast and 
 Miss Kornegay, in the stanzas following, 
 received the coveted contribution. 
 
 "And is it so? a thousand miles apart, 
 Has lay of mine e'er touched a gifted heart? 
 Brightened the eye of beauty? won her smile? 
 Rich recompense for all the poet's toil. 
 That fav'ring smile, that brightened eye, 
 That tells the heart's warm ecstacy, 
 I have not seen — I may not see — 
 But, Maiden kind! thy gift shall be 
 A more esteemed and cherished prize 
 Than fairest smiles or brightest eyes. 
 And this rich trophy of the poet's power 
 Shall shine through many a lone and distant 
 
 hour: 
 Praise from the fair, how'er bestowed, we 
 
 greet ; 
 In words, in looks outspeaking words, 'tis 
 
 sweet ; 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 59 
 
 But when it breathes in bright and polished 
 
 lays 
 Warm from a kindred heart, this, this is 
 
 praise. 
 We are not strangers ; in our hearts we own 
 Chords that must ever beat in unison; 
 The same touch wakens them; in all we see, 
 Or hear, or feel, we own a sympathy ; 
 We look where nature's charms in beauty rise, 
 And the same transport glistens in our eyes. 
 The joys of others cheer us, and we keep 
 A ready tear, to weep with those who weep. 
 'Tis this, that in the impassioned hour, 
 Gives to the favored bard the power, 
 As sweetly flows the stream of song, 
 To bear the raptured soul along, 
 And make it, captive to his will, 
 With all his own emotion thrill. 
 This is a tie that binds us; 'tis the glow, 
 The 'gushing warmth' of heart, that Poet's 
 
 know. 
 We are not strangers — well thy lines impart 
 The patriot's feeling of the poet's heart. 
 Not even thy praise can make me vainly deem 
 That 'twas the poet's power, and not his theme, 
 That woke thy young heart's rapture, when 
 
 from far 
 His song of vict'ry caught thy fav'ring ear: 
 That victory was thy country's, and his strain 
 Was of that starry banner that again 
 Had waved in triumph on the battle plain, 
 Yes, though Columbia's land be wide, 
 Though Chesapeake's broad waters glide 
 Far distant from the forest shores 
 Where Alabama's current roars; 
 Yet o'er all this land so fair 
 Still waves the flag of stripe and star; 
 Still on the warrior's banks is seen, 
 And shines in Coosa's valley green, 
 By Alabama's maiden sung 
 With patriot heart, and tuneful tongue. 
 
60 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 Yes, I have looked around me here 
 
 And felt I was no foreigner; 
 
 Each friendly hand's frank offered clasp 
 
 Tells me it is a brother's grasp : 
 
 My own I deem these rushing floods, 
 
 My own, these wild and and waving woods, 
 
 And — to a poet, sounds how dear! — 
 
 My own song sweetly chanted here. 
 
 The joy with which these scenes I view 
 
 Tells me this is my country too ; 
 
 These sunny plains I freely roam; 
 
 I am no outcast from a home, 
 
 No wanderer on a foreign strand, 
 
 'This is my own, my native land.' 
 
 We are not strangers: still another tie 
 Binds us more closely, more enduringly; 
 The Poet's heart, though time his verse may 
 
 save, 
 Must chill with age, and perish in the grave. 
 The Patriot too, must close his watchful eye 
 Upon the land he loves ; his latest sigh 
 All he has left to give it, ere he die. 
 But when the Christian faith in power hath 
 
 spoke 
 To the bowed heart, and the world's spell is 
 
 broke, 
 That heart transformed, a never-dying flame 
 Warms with new energy, above the claim 
 Of death t' extinguish ; — oh ! if we have felt 
 This holy influence, and have humbly knelt, 
 In penitence, for pardon ; sought and found 
 Peace for each trouble, balm for every wound ; 
 For us, if Faith this work of love hath done, 
 Not alike only are our hearts — they're one; 
 Our joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, the 
 
 same — 
 One path our course, one object »11 our aim ; 
 Though sundered here, one home at last is 
 
 given, 
 Strangers to earth, and fellow heirs of Heaven. 
 
THE STATESMAN AND DIPLOMAT 61 
 
 Yes! I will bear thy plausive strain afar, 
 A light to shine upon the clouds of care, 
 A flower to cheer me in life's thorny ways, 
 And I will think of her whose fav'ring lays 
 Kind greeting gave, and in the heart's best hour 
 For thee its warmest wishes it shall pour. 
 
 And may I hope, when this fair volume brings 
 Some thought of him who tried to wake the 
 
 strings 
 Of his forgotten lyre, at thy command — 
 Command that warmed his heart, and nerved 
 
 his hand — 
 Thou wilt for one, who in the world's wild 
 
 strife 
 Is doomed to mingle in the storms of life. 
 Give him the blessing of a Christian's care, 
 And raise in his defence the shield of prayer." 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 The Star Spangled Banner* 
 
 Having wantonly destroyed the Ameri- 
 can Capital, "the seat of Yankee Liberty," 
 as Cockburn termed it, the British, fearing 
 that the American troops, reinforced from 
 the surrounding country, would return 
 during the night to vindicate their wrongs 
 and punish the outrages, under cover of 
 darkness, the same evening, leaving their 
 campfires burning to conceal their move- 
 ments, made good their retreat to their 
 ships in the Patuxent. Numerous strag- 
 glers from their ranks now pillaged the in- 
 habitants of the towns and farms of the 
 country through which the retreating army 
 passed. 
 
 At Upper Marlborough, a town situated 
 about sixteen miles from Washington on 
 the road leading to Benedict, especially 
 noted in that day for the refinement and 
 culture of its people, lived Dr. William 
 Beans, a highly respected citizen and 
 prominent physician. 
 
 On the afternoon of the succeeding day, 
 after the so-called battle of Bladensburg, 
 
 *The complete verse is to be found in the Appendix 
 62 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 
 Another View 
 

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 63 
 
 the Doctor was entertaining several 
 friends, among them Dr. William Hill and 
 Mr. Philip Weems, at the spring house in 
 the garden in the rear of his residence, 
 when a party of these marauding strag- 
 glers, dusty, tired and greatly belated, 
 having been caught and drenched in a ter- 
 rific wind and rain storm, reported to have 
 been the severest experienced in years, 
 came into the Doctor's garden and intrud- 
 ed themselves upon him and his little com- 
 pany. 
 
 Elated over their supposed victory of 
 the day previous, of which the Doctor and 
 and his friends had heard nothing, they 
 were boisterous, disorderly and insolent, 
 and upon being ordered to leave the prem- 
 ises became threatening. Whereupon, at 
 the instance of Dr. Beans and his friends, 
 they were arrested by the town authori- 
 ties and lodged in the Marlborough jail. 
 One brawny fellow, however, succeeded in 
 making good his escape during the night, 
 regained his company, and reported the 
 arrest in a most exaggerated manner, stat- 
 ing that they had been horribly maltreat- 
 ed; that the Doctor had tried to poison 
 some of the men, and that those still in 
 custody were in peril of their lives. 
 
 Admiral Cockburn, vindictive by nature 
 anyway, and seeing in the case a good op- 
 
64 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 portunity for revenge, immediately de- 
 spatched a squad of marines to Dr. Beans' 
 residence with orders to arrest him. They 
 arrived there about one o'clock in the 
 morning, breaking in the door of his resi- 
 dence, dragging the Doctor out of bed, 
 hardly giving him time to dress, and 
 marched him, half clad, astride a bareback 
 mule, through the woods to the British 
 lines. Here he was refused a hearing, 
 placed in irons and imprisoned in the hold 
 of one of the British ships like a convicted 
 felon. 
 
 The news of the arrest and the rough 
 treatment of the Doctor quickly spread 
 through the town and naturally aroused 
 the greatest indignation. On the next even- 
 ing Mr. Eichard West arrived at the resi- 
 dence of Mr. Key in Georgetown, and 
 telling him of the arrest and treatment of 
 his fellow-townsman, explained that he had 
 called at the instance of the Doctor's 
 friends in Marlborough to say that, having 
 themselves failed in their efforts to secure 
 the release of the Doctor, being even re- 
 fused permission to see him, they were 
 alarmed for his safety and thought it ad- 
 visable for him — Mr. West — to call and 
 request Mr. Key to obtain, if possible, the 
 sanction of the Government for his going 
 to the British Admiral, under a flag of 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 65 
 
 truce, to intercede for the Doctor's release 
 and it was hoped that Mr. Key would un- 
 dertake the mission. 
 
 As may be readily imagined, this was 
 not an easy or pleasant undertaking, but 
 believing it to be his duty, Mr. Key cheer- 
 fully complied. Sending his family to his 
 father's estate at Pipe Creek, Maryland, 
 he applied to the Department of State for 
 the necessary letters, and having received 
 them, on the morning of the 3rd of Sep- 
 tember, 1814, left his home to go to Balti- 
 more for the purpose of securing the co- 
 operation of Col. John S. Skinner, the 
 agent of the United States for Parole of 
 Prisoners, at that port, afterwards a prom- 
 inent editor and publisher and Assistant 
 Postmaster-General of the United States, 
 to whom he carried a letter from the De- 
 partment, authorizing him to aid Mr. Key 
 in his efforts to secure the release of Dr. 
 Beans. Neither of them knew definitely 
 where to find the British fleet, but, suppos- 
 ing it to be somewhere in the Chesapeake, 
 they set sail from Baltimore in the United 
 States cartel ship "Minden," in search of 
 it. 
 
 With our present-day facilities for rapid 
 travel and communication we are apt to 
 under estimate the hazards of such a jour- 
 ney. We should not, therefore, forget that 
 
66 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 a trip from Washington to Baltimore, in 
 those days of stage coach travel was a 
 day's journey, and that a sail from Balti- 
 more to the mouths of the Patuxent and 
 Potomac Rivers, a distance of over one 
 hundred miles, at which point they met the 
 British fleet, required all of two days un- 
 der the most favorable conditions. If we 
 presume, therefore, that Mr. Key left Bal- 
 timore, in company with Colonel Skinner, 
 on the morning of the 5th of September or 
 the morning of the next day after leaving 
 his home in Washington, he could not have 
 met the British fleet before the evening of 
 the sixth and possibly the morning of the 
 seventh, depending upon the winds. His- 
 tory records that he returned to Baltimore 
 with the fleet, arriving at North Point on 
 the morning of the tenth, and that he was 
 not permitted to leave until the morning 
 after the bombardment of Fort McHenry, 
 which was the fourteenth. It will be seen, 
 therefore, to all intents and purposes, he 
 and his party were prisoners in the British 
 fleet for at least a week. From all accounts 
 this does not appear to be fully realized. 
 But to return to our narrative. Upon meet- 
 ing with the British they were courteously 
 received by Admiral Cochrane, upon the 
 British ship " Surprise, ' ■ but when Mr. 
 Key made known his mission he found the 
 
THE STAK SPANGLED BANNEK 67 
 
 Admiral in no mood to comply, and he was 
 frankly informed that as Dr. Beans had 
 been instrumental in inflicting the most 
 atrocious injuries and humiliations upon 
 the British troops and deserving the sever- 
 est punishment, the British Admiral had 
 determined upon hanging him to the yard 
 arm of his vessel. 
 
 Exactly how Mr. Key at length prevailed 
 upon the Admiral and succeeded in carry- 
 ing his point, if ever related, has never 
 been preserved. It is supposed that the 
 many and warm expressions of apprecia- 
 tion for the kindnesses and careful treat- 
 ment shown the wounded and suffering 
 British officers by Dr. Beans, contained in 
 letters from these officers to their com- 
 rades, which Colonel Skinner now brought 
 and delivered, had much to do with Mr. 
 Key's success. However this may be, it 
 is not unreasonable to believe that if such 
 had been the sole cause more would have 
 been definitely known about it. Recollect- 
 ing Mr. Key's strong personality, his affa- 
 ble manner and frank sincerity, it is not 
 assuming at all too much to say that in all 
 probability his own eloquent and masterful 
 presentation of the case, in which he used 
 the fact of Dr. Beans' kindness to the 
 British to the very best advantage, as well 
 as the improbability, if not impossibility, 
 
68 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 of one enjoying the esteem and respect of 
 his neighbors to the degree that the Doctor 
 did, and, as Mr. Key now took occasion to 
 forcibly point out, could not possibly have 
 been guilty of the charges preferred 
 against him, had as much, if not more, than 
 all else to do with securing the release of 
 the noted Marlborough physician. 
 
 Having once accomplished the object of 
 their most unpleasant errand, the American 
 party would gladly have returned to their 
 homes. The Admiral, however, fearing 
 they had gained, by their presence within 
 his fleet, some information which might be 
 used to the detriment of his purpose, in- 
 formed them that although he would re- 
 lease Dr. Beans, they would have to be de- 
 tained for a few days until after the deter- 
 mination of an expedition which he was 
 about to make, assuring them at most it 
 would be but a short while. They accord- 
 ingly remained aboard the British ship 
 ' ' Surprise ' ' until the arrival of the fleet at 
 the mouth of the Patapsco on the morning 
 of September 10th, when they were trans- 
 ferred, under guard of British marines, to 
 their own vessel, the "Minden" and an- 
 chored in a position from which they could 
 witness all that would transpire, that their 
 humiliation might be the more complete 
 from the victory which the British were 
 
THE STAE SPANGLED BANNER 69 
 
 confident of acquiring over their country- 
 men, within a couple of hours. With bated 
 breath and throbbing hearts, unconscious 
 of the glorious part their little expedition 
 was destined to play in the history of their 
 country, the lonely, distressed and anxious 
 little party of patriots, under the derisive 
 scorn of their captor's guard, watched the 
 landing at North Point, a distance of 
 twelve miles from the city of Baltimore, of 
 nine thousand soldiers and marines under 
 the command of General Eoss, prepara- 
 tory to an attack upon their country. 
 
 The activity of the British now was 
 great — such an army could not be landed 
 and formed in position in a day. In fact, 
 from the time intervening between the 
 morning of the tenth, when the fleet first 
 appeared at North Point, until the morn- 
 ing of the thirteenth, when the attack be- 
 gan, it is shown three days were necessary. 
 During this time Mr. Key from the deck 
 of his prison ship had ample opportunity 
 to observe the movements of the enemy 
 and reflect upon the situation and the prob- 
 able outcome. 
 
 The total rout of the militia at Bladens- 
 burg and the consequent horrors of the 
 burning of Washington, events so very re- 
 cent, were fresh in his mind, and now, 
 while watching these extensive prepara- 
 
70 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 tions for a similar attack on the principal 
 city of his native state, must have been re- 
 called very vividly. 
 
 Only five days previous he had been in 
 that beautiful and progressive city whose 
 doom fate now seemed rapidly sealing. He 
 knew the comparative strength of its de- 
 fenses, both by land and water, and was 
 also well aware that engaged therein were, 
 unfortunately, no such trained and hard- 
 ened veteran soldiers as he saw landed for 
 its attack and destruction. At best a small 
 army of raw militia, similar to, and in fact 
 partly composed of that which had been so 
 easily routed at Bladensburg, was all there 
 was to meet and engage the intruders. The 
 boastful remark of General Ross "that he 
 did not care if it rained militia, he would 
 take Baltimore and make it his winter 
 headquarters/ ' in the misgivings of the 
 awful moment seemed to savor more of 
 truth than bravado. 
 
 Under such trying circumstances the 
 most phlegmatic nature must have been 
 moved, while the imagination stands 
 aghast to conceive the sensations of his in- 
 tensely patriotic one. Alternate fear and 
 hope spread alarm in his patriotic breast, 
 as he witnessed the landing of the last of 
 the British troops and saw them drawn up 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 71 
 
 in hostile array upon the shores of his 
 country. 
 
 The fleet now closed in upon the little 
 fortress, forming a semi-circle about two 
 and a half miles off its breastwork, from 
 which position of safety it could throw its 
 bombs and missiles of death and carnage 
 without being within reach of the Ameri- 
 can guns. Under different circumstances 
 the maneuvers would have been grand to 
 witness, but now, to him so situated, their 
 terrors and horrors cannot be imagined, let 
 alone described. 
 
 Wafted by a calm September morning's 
 breeze came the booming of cannon and 
 the roar of rapid-firing musketry from the 
 direction of the road leading from North 
 Point to Baltimore, heralding the clash of 
 arms in a death struggle between the well 
 trained and serried ranks of the British 
 regulars and the gallant stand of a small 
 body of freemen in defense of their homes 
 and firesides. 
 
 From the harrowing thoughts of their 
 speedy and certain defeat and destruction 
 he turned with faint heart to the little fort 
 crowning the promontory of \Yhetstone 
 Point. This little place, although light, 
 had some finely planned batteries mounted 
 with heavy guns, as Admiral Cockburn, on 
 
72 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 a previous visit had the pleasure and satis- 
 faction of learning. 
 
 Its garrison of artillery was under the 
 command of Major George Armistead, U. 
 S. A., Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson, the 
 brother-in-law of Mr. Key, was in com- 
 mand of a volunteer battery of artillery, 
 ranking second in command of the fort. 
 
 Prompted by the same spirit of indis- 
 cretion, vacillation and, it may even be 
 said, cowardice, as was largely responsi- 
 ble for the sad fate of Washington, the Ad- 
 ministration had sent Major Armistead 
 orders to surrender. The Major, however, 
 was of different material ; he had not been 
 accustomed to giving up without a fight, 
 and this brave and gallant officer, risking 
 the punishment and disgrace of a court- 
 martial as coolly as he fired at the British, 
 disobeyed his orders. 
 
 Early Tuesday morning, the thirteenth 
 of September, the British, keeping well out 
 of the range of the guns of the fort, began 
 their attack with six bomb and a few rock- 
 et vessels. Major Armistead, fully cog- 
 nizant that his forty-two pounders would 
 not carry as far as the enemy's guns, pa- 
 tiently bided his time and waited for the 
 British to come within range, firing only 
 occasionally to let them know the fort and 
 garrison had not surrendered. The. Brit- 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 73 
 
 ish, from their vantage point of safety, 
 pumped their heavy bombs upon the little 
 fortress with such rapidity, it is said, 
 "four or five bombs bursting in the air at 
 once made a terrific explosion.' ' Some of 
 these bombs were afterwards found intact 
 and weighed from 210 to 220 pounds. 
 
 From six o'clock in the morning, when 
 the attack began, until three in the after- 
 noon, there was no change in the tactics of 
 the British. At the latter hour, however, 
 either tiring of their one-sided game or be- 
 coming a little bolder, some few vessels 
 came nearer the fort and within range of 
 its guns. Its brave defenders, now having 
 the opportunity for which they had re- 
 served their ammunition and waited were 
 not long in taking advantage of it. Open- 
 ing fire with deliberate aim they literally 
 hailed shot and shell upon their antagon- 
 ists, making it so hot for them that they 
 were glad to slip their cables and sail away 
 quicker than they came, "throwing their 
 bombs with an activity excited by their 
 mortification," as an eye witness chron- 
 icles. 
 
 Again the fight was resumed from a dis- 
 tance where the British could throw their 
 bombs upon the fort without getting within 
 range of its guns. As the afternoon waned 
 the cool, gentle breeze of approaching 
 
74 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 evening stirred the turbid atmosphere and 
 catching the folds of our flag, then droop- 
 ing around its staff, unfurled it from its 
 proud position over the ramparts in a last 
 salute as it were to departing day. A shell 
 pierced the banner, tearing from its con- 
 stellation, a star. Once more the gentle 
 winds of Heaven were kind — a slight tre- 
 mor from the recoil — and the banner of 
 the free and the brave again floated out de- 
 fiantly before the mouths of the English 
 guns, bathed in the delicate hues of the 
 "twilight's last gleaming" as the shroud 
 of night fell, closing from sight each float- 
 ing stripe and star. 
 
 Unable longer to discern the movements 
 of the fleet, or see the flag of his country, 
 his comrades, worn and fatigued, retired 
 below. Not so with him, an instrument in 
 the hands of destiny — his sleepless anxiety 
 knew no rest. In the regularity of his 
 paces upon the deck were recorded those 
 patriotic heart throbs from which were to 
 come the genius of the song. 
 
 A resultant fortitude from a most sub- 
 lime Christian faith alone sustained him 
 and sent that consolation of which he tells 
 us in his own beautiful words, "the rock- 
 ets' red glare and the bombs bursting in 
 air, gave proof through the night that our 
 flag was still* there." 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 75 
 
 Between two and three o'clock in the 
 morning the British, with one or two rock- 
 et and several bomb vessels manned by 
 twelve hundred picked men, attempted, 
 under cover of darkness, to slip past the 
 fort and up the Patapsco, hoping to effect 
 a landing and attack the garrison in the 
 rear. 
 
 Succeeding in evading the guns of the 
 fort, but unmindful of Fort Covington, un- 
 der whose batteries they next came, their 
 enthusiasm over the supposed success of 
 the venture, gave way in a derisive cheer, 
 which, born by the damp night air to our 
 small party of Americans on the "Mai- 
 den," must have chilled the blood in their 
 veins and pierced their patriotic hearts 
 like a dagger. 
 
 Fort Covington, the lazaretto and the 
 American barges in the river now simul- 
 taneously poured a galling fire upon the 
 unprotected enemy, raking them fore and 
 aft, in horrible slaughter. Disappointed 
 and disheartened, many wounded and dy- 
 ing, they endeavored to regain their ships, 
 which came closer to the fortifications in 
 an endeavor to protect the retreat. A fierce 
 battle ensued, Fort McHenry opened the 
 full force of all her batteries upon them 
 as they repassed, and the fleet responding 
 with entire broadsides made an explosion 
 
76 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 so terriffic that it seemed as though Mother 
 Earth had opened and was vomiting shot 
 and shell in a sheet of fire and brimstone. 
 The heavens aglow were a seething sea of 
 flame, and the waters of the harbor, lashed 
 into an angry sea by the vibrations the 
 "Minden" rode and tossed as though in a 
 tempest. It is recorded that the houses in 
 the city of Baltimore, two miles distant, 
 were shaken to their foundations. Above 
 the tempestuous roar intermingled with its 
 hubbub and confusion were heard the 
 shrieks and groans of the dying and 
 wounded. But alas! they were from the 
 direction of the fort. "What did it mean? 
 For over an hour the pandemonium 
 reigned. Suddenly it ceased — all was 
 quiet, not a shot fired or sound heard, a 
 deathlike stillness prevailed, as the dark- 
 ness of night resumed its sway. The aw- 
 ful stillness and suspense was unbearable. 
 "The hurley burley o'er and done" — the 
 battle both "lost and won," but how Mr. 
 Key did not know, or had he any means of 
 knowing. Was the last terrific display a 
 gallant final effort of his countrymen be- 
 fore surrender? And were those cries and 
 shrieks the groans of his fellow American 
 patriots, whose hearts, like his own, lay 
 bleeding? Mind of Man! dubbed thou 
 "the mistress of the world," can your 
 

 #«~- A^>/--7X^^ < L-7^ 
 
 n. 
 
 fa* SZZZj/JO&Z 
 
 <?>*£-?£; £~S5 ^isr/^ ^*£ £*J. 
 
 vsti. £rn~* *_f 
 
 j^£- *T7^i S^f&f &** ^ ^S^ <*&^ ^Cc^, 
 cA, /Let. ^r^y, a~^^t--t 
 
 OP*/i*«>. /ICZZ, 
 
 '— tcre«~2> £-rtzr/>~- 
 
 -**>-.&*« 
 
 ^ -7ZT <£»*-*_. ^*~ 
 
 FAC SIMILE OF THE ORIGINAL DRAFT OF THE SONG 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 77 
 
 vainest thoughts conceive, or your imagi- 
 nation picture, the fearful anxiety and 
 agony of this last supreme moment of ter- 
 ror? 
 
 Scarcely thirty-five years of age, may it 
 not be safely said to his fair brow came its 
 first furrow; to his rich suit of waving 
 chestnut hair, its first strains of silver. 
 Who can say? A physical frame taxed to 
 the limit of its strength by long and anx- 
 ious vigil ; nerves shattered and unstrung ; 
 a patriotic heart, overcome by emotion, 
 fearing to hope, could sustain him no lon- 
 ger — exhausted he sank upon his pure 
 Christian soul, like a Eock of Ages, for 
 shelter and succor, murmuring to his God 
 the prayer, Lord, God of Hosts! "The 
 power that has made, preserve us a na- 
 tion. ' ' And thus in sweet communion with 
 his God we leave him for an hour or more, 
 until the break of day, for his proud spirit 
 and genuine modesty never disclosed, even 
 to his closest friends, anything of the awful 
 sensations which he experienced and suf- 
 fered during this time. 
 
 Such of them as he cared to give the 
 world are found only in the lines of his 
 hymn, ' ' The Star Spangled Banner. ' ' 
 
 Not even to his friend, John Randolph 
 of Roanoke, to whom he wrote shortly 
 thereafter, does he mention them or even 
 
78 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 the fact of his having written the song. All 
 he says of his mission is as follows: 
 
 "You will be surprised to hear that I have 
 since then spent eleven days in the British 
 Fleet. I went with a flag to endeavor to save 
 poor old Dr. Beans a voyage to Halifax, in 
 which we fortunately succeeded. They detained 
 us until after their attack on Baltimore, and 
 you may imagine what a state of anxiety I en- 
 dured. Sometimes when I remembered it was 
 there the declaration of this abominable war 
 was received with public rejoicings. I could 
 not feel a hope that they would escape and 
 again when I thought of the many faithful 
 whose piety lessens that lump of wickedness I 
 could hardly feel a fear. 
 
 a To make my feelings still more acute, the 
 admiral had intimated his fears that the town 
 must be burned and I was sure that if taken it 
 would have been given up to plunder. I have 
 reason to believe that such a promise was 
 given to their soldiers. It was filled with 
 women and children. I hope I shall never cease 
 to feel the warmest gratitude when I think of 
 this most merciful deliverance. It seems to 
 have given me a higher idea of the 'forbearance, 
 long suffering and tender mercy' of God, than 
 I had ever before conceived. 
 
 Never was a man more disappointed in his 
 expectations than I have been as to the char- 
 acter of British officers. With some exceptions 
 they appeared to be illiberal, ignorant and vul- 
 gar and seem filled with a spirit of malignity 
 against everything American. Perhaps, how- 
 ever, I saw them in unfavorable circum- 
 stances." 
 
 Shortly after the attempt oi the British 
 to slip past the fort, which resulted so dis- 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 79 
 
 astrously to their forces and caused the 
 last terrible grand spectacular display, 
 word had reached the flagship of the fail- 
 ure of their land forces and the death of 
 General Ross. On board which, the "Min- 
 den," or the flagship, greater depression 
 was felt, is a question too difficult to deter- 
 mine. Such is war ! 
 
 With the first approach of the gray 
 streaks of dawn, Mr. Key turned his weary 
 and bloodshot eyes to the direction of the 
 fort and its flag, but the darkness had giv- 
 en place to a heavy fog of smoke and mist 
 which now enveloped the harbor and hung 
 close down to the surface of the water. 
 
 Some time must yet elapse before any- 
 thing definite might be ascertained, or the 
 object of his aching heart's desire dis- 
 cerned. At last it came. A bright streak 
 of gold mingled with crimson shot athwart 
 the eastern sky, followed by another and 
 still another, as the morning sun rose in 
 the fullness of her glory, lifting "the mists 
 of the deep," crowning a "Heaven-blest 
 land" with a new victory and grandeur. 
 
 Through a vista in the smoke and vapor 
 could now be dimly seen the flag of his 
 country. As it caught "The gleam of the 
 morning's first beam," and, "in full glory 
 reflected shone in the stream" his proud 
 and patriotic heart knew no bounds; the 
 
80 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 wounds inflicted "by the battle's confus- 
 ion' ' were healed instantly as if by magic; 
 a new life sprang into every fiber, and his 
 pent-up emotions burst forth with an in- 
 spiration in a song of praise, victory and 
 thanksgiving as he exclaimed : 
 
 "'Tis the Star Spangled Banner, Oh ! long may 
 
 it wave, 
 O'er the land of the free and the home of the 
 
 brave." 
 
 As the morning's sun arose, vanquishing 
 the darkness and gloom; lifting the fog 
 and smoke and disclosing his country's 
 flag, victorious, bathed in the delicate hues 
 of morn, only an inspiration caught from 
 such a sight can conceive or describe, and 
 so only in the words of his song can be 
 found the description. 
 
 The first draft of the words were emo- 
 tionally scribbled upon the back of a let- 
 ter which he carried in his pocket and of 
 which he made use to dot down some mem- 
 oranda of his thoughts and sentiments. 
 
 Shortly after sunrise word was received 
 from the British Admiral that the attack 
 had failed and that Mr. Key and his party 
 were at liberty to go at pleasure. They 
 proceeded to Baltimore, and on the even- 
 ing of the same day he wrote out the first 
 complete draft of the song. The next 
 morning, in calling upon Judge Nicholson, 
 
SAMUEL SANDS 
 Who first set the song in type 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 81 
 
 Mr. Key related how he, in company with 
 Colonel Skinner and Dr. Beans, had wit- 
 nessed the bombardment of the fort from 
 the deck of the "Minden," telling the 
 Judge some little of his trying experience, 
 and stating that on the morning after the 
 battle, upon seeing the flag still waving, he 
 had written a song, the draft of which he 
 then drew from his pocket and showed the 
 Judge, who was so impressed with its spir- 
 it and beauty that he insisted upon having 
 it published immediately. He therefore 
 took it to the printing office of Captain 
 Benjamin Edes, on North Street, near the 
 corner of Baltimore, but the Captain not 
 having returned from duty with the Twen- 
 ty-seventh Maryland Kegiment, his office 
 was closed, and Judge Nicholson proceeded 
 to the newspaper office of the Baltimore 
 American and Commercial Daily Adver- 
 tiser, where the words were set in type by 
 Samuel Sands, an apprentice at the time, 
 "printer's devil,' ' but who in later life be- 
 came associated with Colonel Skinner in 
 editing and publishing the American 
 Farmer. Mr. Sands' own version of the 
 part he took in first setting the words in 
 type is given in a letter written by him to 
 General Brantz on January 1, 1877. The 
 letter is a very long one, and only a por- 
 tion is here given. 
 
82 
 
 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 "I will therefore premise that after the bat- 
 tle of North Point and the ceasing of the bom- 
 bardment of Fort McHenry, the British forces 
 retired from our shores, in their boats, to 1he 
 fleet lying in the river, and then proceeded 
 down the bay, leaving our city and its sur- 
 roundings free once more from the dangers of 
 their incursions. Although there were a num- 
 ber of regiments of militia hastily drawn from 
 the counties of our own state as also from the 
 neighboring states of Pennsylvania and Vir- 
 ginia, yet the force which was sent to the front 
 to meet General Ross and his invading army, 
 which had affected a landing at North Point, 
 consisted almost entirely of the Baltimore city 
 regiments, who on the occasion met the veter- 
 ans of Wellington's army and presented their 
 bodies as a bulwark to the first advance of the 
 invaders, a number of them giving their lives 
 to the defense of our fair city and for the pro- 
 tection of their wives and daughters from the 
 consequences of the 'foe's desolation.' These 
 citizen soldiers, when the enemy had disap- 
 peared from our vicinity took up their quarters 
 in and adjacent to the intrenchments and bat- 
 teries erected for our defense upon Louden- 
 slagers hill, just eastward of the city borders, 
 where they remained for some short time until 
 all apprehension of the return of the British 
 fleet had been dissipated. Whilst thus located, 
 Mr. Thos. Murphy, one of the members of Capt. 
 Aisquith's First Baltimore Sharp Shooters, ob- 
 tained leave of absence, and returned to the 
 city, and again opened the counting room of 
 the American which with all the other news- 
 papers of the day, had suspended publication 
 for the time being, the editors, journeymen and 
 apprentices able to bear arms, being in the 
 military service. According tc the best of my 
 recollection I was the only one belonging to the 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 83 
 
 printing office that was left who was not in the 
 military service, being then but fourteen years 
 of age, and not capable of bearing arms I 
 whiled away the time during the suspense of 
 the invasion in looking after the office and in 
 occasional visits to the 'boys' at the entrench- 
 ments. After Mr. Murphy's return, the manu- 
 script copy of the song was brought to the of- 
 fice — I always had the impression that Mr. 
 John S. Skinner brought it, but I never so 
 stated it as a fact, for I had no proof thereof, 
 but it was a mere idea and I never considered 
 it of sufficient importance to make inquiry 
 upon the subject from my old and valued 
 friend, Mr. Murphy, or from Mr. Skinner, who 
 was subsequently engaged with me in the edit- 
 ing of my farm journal and who was the found- 
 er thereof — but the letter of Judge Taney al- 
 luded to above, proves that I was mistaken in 
 that matter — Mr. Skinner was a cartel agent 
 for our government in its intercourse with the 
 British fleet in our Bay and I took up the im- 
 pression that he on his return from the fleet 
 had brought from Mr. Key the manuscript, but 
 Judge Taney gives the particulars of the exam- 
 ination and copying of the song, in this city, 
 by Judge Nicholson and Mr. Key and remarks 
 that one of these gentlemen took it to the 
 printers. 
 
 When it was brought up to the printing of- 
 fice my impression is, and ever has been, that 
 I was the only one of those belonging to the es- 
 tablishment who was on hand, and that it was 
 put in type and what the printers call 'galley 
 proofs' were struck off previous to the renewal 
 of the publication of this paper, and it may be 
 and probably was the case that from one of 
 these proof slips, handbills were printed and 
 circulated through the city. 
 
 This is simply all the part which I had in 
 the transaction alluded to. Although the song 
 
84 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 obtained celebrity in a little time after it was 
 first presented to the world, yet the unimport- 
 ant and very secondary consideration as to 
 who first printed and issued it was never 
 mooted, for probably fifty years thereafter, 
 when I was called upon by sundry persons to 
 give my recollections upon the subject which 
 called forth the responses in the several publi- 
 cations alluded to already. 
 
 At the time I put the song in type, I was an 
 apprentice in the office of the Baltimore Ameri- 
 can and lived in the family of Mr. Murphy — 
 and as this may probably be the last time I 
 will be called upon again to publicly allude to 
 the transactions detailed, I must ask to be 
 permitted here to bear my tribute to the worth 
 and excellency of character of my old friend. 
 He was, in the strictest sense of the term, a 
 gentleman of the most estimable character and 
 was ever held in the highest esteem by all who 
 enjoyed his acquaintance. He was with the 
 rest of the hands of the office and was at the 
 front in that gallant corps of riflemen, the 
 Sharp Shooters, which was pushed forward in 
 the advance of our little army to reconnoiter, 
 and it was to two of them (Wills and Mc- 
 Comas) the death of General Ross was at- 
 tributed, the smoke of their guns indicated 
 whence the fatal bullets came which killed the 
 gallant general and a volley from the escort of 
 Ross was poured into the copse of wood 
 whence the firing proceeded which caused these 
 two youthful heroes to bite the dust. Their 
 fellow citizens afterwards contributed a sum 
 of money to erect a monument to their memory 
 and a lot in the eastern section of the city was 
 appropriated for the purpose." 
 Yours with respect, 
 
 (Signed) Saml. Sands. 
 
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNEE 85 
 
 Copies of the song were struck off in 
 handbill form, and promiscuously distrib- 
 uted on the street. Catching with popular 
 favor like prairie fire it spread in every 
 direction, was read and discussed, until, in 
 less than an hour, the news was all over the 
 city. 
 
 Picked up by a crowd of soldiers assem- 
 bled, some accounts put it about Captain 
 McCauley's tavern, next to the Holiday- 
 Street Theater, others have it around their 
 tents on the outskirts of the city, Ferdi- 
 nand Durang, a musician, adapted the 
 words to the old tune of "Anacreon in 
 Heaven, ' ' and, mounting a chair, rendered 
 it in fine style. 
 
 On the evening of the same day it was 
 again rendered upon the stage of the Holi- 
 day-Street Theater by an actress, and the 
 theater is said to have gained thereby a 
 national reputation. In about a fortnight 
 it had reached New Orleans and was pub- 
 licly played by a military band, and 
 shortly thereafter was heard in nearly, if 
 not all, the principal cities and towns 
 throughout the country. 
 
 While inspiring and thrilling in every 
 line, unlike most national airs, America's 
 National Anthem is devoid of any foolish 
 sentimental loyalty or passionate appeal to 
 arms, but breathing a pure religious senti- 
 
86 FRANCIS SCOTT XEY 
 
 ment of praise and thanksgiving for the 
 victory of the hour, it teaches and inspires 
 in generations to come a lesson of emula- 
 tion for truly brave and gallant deeds 
 whenever "freemen may stand between 
 their loved homes and the war's desola- 
 tion." 
 
 Let it be added that the original flag was 
 made by Mrs. Mary Pinkersgill, assisted by 
 her daughter, Mrs. Caroline T. Purdy. 
 Owing to its immense size, Mrs. Purdy, in 
 a letter, states that permission to use the 
 floor of the malt house of Claggitt's Brew- 
 ery in Baltimore was asked by her mother 
 and obtained, and says, Mrs. Purdy, "I 
 remember seeing my mother down on the 
 floor placing the stars." Whatever our 
 friends, the prohibitionists, may think upon 
 learning this, let them remember that even 
 they for once must admit the floor of a 
 brewery was turned to good account. Mrs. 
 Purdy also states that "after the comple- 
 tion of the flag she and her mother super- 
 intended the topping of it, having it fast- 
 ened in the most secure manner to prevent 
 its being torn away by balls. ' ' 
 
 The accuracy of the version herein given 
 of the arrest of Dr. Beans, as well as the 
 statement that Samuel Sands first set the 
 words of the Star Spanglend Banner in 
 type, seems to be questioned by Oscar 
 
THE STAE SPANGLED BANNER 87 
 
 George Theodore Sonneck, Chief of the Di- 
 vision of Music, Library of Congress, in a 
 book compiled by him, entitled "A Report 
 on the Star Spangled Banner, Hail Colum- 
 bia, America, Etc.," 1909, issued as a gov- 
 ernment publication and printed at the 
 Government Printing Office. It would ap- 
 pear that he prefers to accept the version 
 that Dr. Beans was taken prisoner by the 
 British because of his unwarranted arrest 
 of the British soldiers when the Doctor was 
 in the state of intoxication due to having 
 imbibed too freely of ' ' good punch. ' ' Suf- 
 fice it to say that those who accept such a 
 view of the matter mistake entirely the 
 character of Mr. Key. He would never 
 have interested himself in Dr. Beans' re- 
 lease had such been the cause of the Doc- 
 tor's arrest, for he had no sympathy for 
 those who bring trouble on themselves by 
 reason of their excesses. As for the state- 
 ment that Mr. Sands first set the song in 
 type, his own letter, herein published, 
 wherein he states affirmatively that he did 
 so, and the circumstances he relates under 
 which he was called upon to set the song in 
 type, is a sufficient justification, and it 
 is submitted better evidence that the 
 claims of friends and descendants of others 
 anxious to gain some share in the honor 
 connected with writing and publishing the 
 
88 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 National Anthem. It is most unfortunate 
 that such errors should appear in a publi- 
 cation bearing the official stamp of our gov- 
 ernment. 
 
OLD KEY HOME IN GEORGETOWN 
 In danger of destruction unless saved by the American People 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 The Old Georgetown Home 
 
 On old Bridge Street, now known as M 
 Street, one half block from what was for- 
 merly the Aqueduct Bridge, stands to this 
 day an old colonial house, two stories and 
 gable roof, with dormer windows. To the 
 right of the house as you enter is a one- 
 story brick office. Entering the front door, 
 which is situated at the extreme left of the 
 building, one enters a large spacious hall 
 running the entire depth of the house at 
 the end of which is a door which led origin- 
 ally into a large conservatory. Midway 
 the length of this hall is a large arch, 
 ascending just to the rear of which is a 
 colonial stairway leading to the stories 
 above. On the right of this hall are two 
 large spacious parlors, while in the base- 
 ment below is the dining room, kitchen, and 
 "cold room'' — a bricked-up room, with 
 brick floor, as well, used as a refrigerator 
 and pantry. In the second story are two 
 large bed rooms and large hall room, while 
 
 89 
 
90 FEANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 the third floor contains four bed rooms. 
 The window panes are small, about four by 
 six inches in size, supported in heavy 
 sashes, as was the custom in the days of a 
 century ago. In this now old historic land- 
 mark of the National Capital, Mr. Key 
 lived with his family for many years. It 
 was here that all of his children were born 
 and also where he resided at the time of 
 his memorable mission to the British Fleet. 
 The little brick office was his law office. 
 The general appearance of the place is 
 very different, of course, to-day from what 
 it was then. The one-time beautiful gar- 
 dens in the rear of the house, which sloped 
 gracefully to the edge of the river, have 
 given way to building sites for large fac- 
 tories, warehouses, etc., while Water Street 
 and the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal tra- 
 verse them from side to side. However, 
 enough remains to bear witness as to what 
 the pace at one time was. During the past 
 two years the premises have been in the 
 possession of the Francis Scott Key Me- 
 morial Association and kept open to the 
 public with a view of awakening sufficient 
 interest to make the raising of the neces- 
 sary funds for the purchase and preser- 
 vation of the home possible. 
 
THE OLD GEOKGETOWN HOME 91 
 
 The Officers of the Association include 
 the Hon. Henry B. F. Macfarland, Presi- 
 dent; Admiral George Dewey, U. S. N. ; 
 Bear Admiral Winfield S. Schley, U. S. N., 
 retired, and others. It is to be hoped the 
 purpose may be speedily accomplished. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 In Conclusion. 
 
 In personal appearance Key was hand- 
 some, his eyes were dark bine and his hair 
 curly, he wore neither beard or moustache, 
 and dressed simply. His manner was one 
 of quiet dignity, and he was kind and cour- 
 teous to all. He was very domestic and 
 devoted to his home, wife and children. 
 Naturally with his artistic temperament he 
 was fond of elegant literature and of the 
 poets; Sir Walter Scott was his favorite. 
 He did not care particularly for Byron, 
 while the sentimental Tom Moore he 
 abhorred to the point of requesting his 
 wife to burn the copy of his poems con- 
 tained in their library. 
 
 He possessed in a remarkable degree the 
 confidence of all who knew him. Gentle- 
 men in writing to him to engage his pro- 
 fessional services frankly state that they 
 do so because their friends have recom- 
 mended him as one in whom the utmost 
 confidence could be placed. To such an ex- 
 tent was confidence reposed in his profes- 
 sional integrity that F. S. Lyon writes 
 
 92 
 
IN CONCLUSION 93 
 
 from Demopolis, Alabama, requesting 
 him to engage the attorney to appear on 
 the opposite side of a case in which he was 
 counsel. "As you are engaged against the 
 claim of Follin," writes Mr. Lyon, 
 "I would be greatly obliged to you to re- 
 quest Mr. Swann, or such other gentleman 
 of the profession as you may select, to rep- 
 resent the interests of Follin's widow and 
 children." Another of his clients writes: 
 "I have examined my business in the Land 
 Office entrusted to your care and am happy 
 to say that you have in every instance 
 strictly protected my interest," while yet 
 another, anxious, no doubt, to frequently 
 hear from him admonishes, "For a lawyer 
 to please his clients you have no doubt 
 known that it is required that he should 
 frequently write them." 
 
 When his conscience was awakened to 
 the appreciation of an injury or injustice 
 he was quick to resent it, and yet, as he 
 himself wrote Bishop Kemp, he preferred 
 to follow quietly in his own course of 
 Christian duty without interfering with 
 others and to bear with meekness their in- 
 terference with him. 
 
 He was the Recorder of the City of 
 Georgetown for several years and fre- 
 quently called upon by its citizens to pass 
 opinion upon drafts of proposed legisla- 
 
94 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 tion affecting their interests, both publicly 
 and privately. 
 
 In a letter to Randolph written during 
 the early part of July, 1814, he writes ; the 
 courts had been broken up by a rumor that 
 the British were ascending the Patuxent, 
 and he, with others, marched to Benedict 
 to meet and engage them. Of adventures 
 by "land and flood" all he had to report 
 was being knocked down by a "bone of 
 bacon" and pitched over "my horse's head 
 into the river," but he says this was quite 
 enough for him, and adds he had seen 
 enough of the wars. As a youth, such ad- 
 ventures evidently did not possess the 
 same terrors for him. It is related that 
 while a student at St. John's College he 
 amused his fellow students on one occasion, 
 to the edification no doubt of the faculty, 
 by jumping astride a cow and galloping 
 wildly about the campus upon the fright- 
 ened animal's back. In after years, how- 
 ever, he took life seriously enough, devot- 
 ing himself largely to the interest of others. 
 Long before the slavery question was agi- 
 tated he freed his slaves, and, as we have 
 seen, interested himself to no small extent 
 in trying to better the condition of the 
 colored race. 
 
 At Pipe Creek, upon the family estate, 
 Terra Rubra, he was wont to spend, with 
 
IN CONCLUSION 95 
 
 his family, his summer vacations, a custom 
 he maintained as long as he lived. 
 
 Most of his verse was written spontane- 
 ously and frequently scribbled on the back 
 of old papers and letters, as was the case 
 of even The Star Spangled Banner. It 
 would appear that just as the inspiration 
 struck him he would jot down his thoughts 
 upon anything handy. One little unpub- 
 lished verse appears upon the back of the 
 rough draft of a proposed contract between 
 himself and a young law student anxious 
 to study law under him. It is as follows : 
 
 'Tis a point I long to know, 
 Oft it causes anxious thought. 
 Do I love the Lord or no, 
 Am I His or am I not? 
 
 On the whole he can without hesitation 
 be pronounced a man. His character in- 
 spires and stimulates all who learn it to 
 emulate him in everything and to love no- 
 bleness. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Heaven Claims Its Own. 
 
 On a mid-winter's day, the 11th of Jan- 
 nary, 1843, within a gun's shot of the fort 
 whose stubborn defense will ever be per- 
 petuated in the beautiful lines of his im- 
 mortal verse, Heaven claimed its own, and 
 the Christian soul which had given the man 
 his great strength of character, found its 
 reward in the ' ' full glory ' ' of the life here- 
 after. 
 
 It was while on a professional visit to 
 Baltimore, at the home of his eldest daugh- 
 ter, Mrs. Charles Howard, that Mr. Key 
 breathed his last, upon which site now 
 stands the Mount Vernon Place Methodist 
 Episcopal Church. A few days later the 
 Honorable Hugh L. Legare, the Attorney 
 General, announced his death to the Su- 
 preme Court of the United States on be- 
 half of the Bar of that court, with the fol- 
 lowing tribute : 
 
 "My acquaintance with the excellent man, 
 whose sudden death in the midst of a career of 
 eminent usefulness, public and private, and of 
 the most active devotion to the great interest 
 of humanity, we are now called upon to de- 
 plore, was until a very recent period extremely 
 
 96 
 
HEAVEN CLAIMS ITS OWN 97 
 
 limited. But short as was my personal inter 
 course with him, it was quite long enough tc 
 endear him to me in a peculiar manner, as one 
 of the most gentle, guileless, amiable and at- 
 tractive beings with whom, in an experience 
 sufficiently diversified, it has been my good 
 fortune to act. Ardent, earnest, indefatigable 
 in the pursuit of his objects, and the perform- 
 ance of his duties, eloquent as the advocate of 
 whatever cause he embraced, because his heart 
 was true and his sympathy cordial and sus- 
 ceptible, decided in his conduct without one 
 particle of censoriousness or ascerbity towards 
 others; with the blandest manners, the most 
 affectionate temper, the most considerate tol- 
 eration of dissent, the most patient acquies- 
 cence in the decisions of authority, even where 
 he had the most strenuously exerted himself to 
 prevent them, his life seemed to me a beautiful 
 pattern of all that is lovely, winning and ef- 
 fective in the charity of a Christian gentle- 
 man.*' 
 
 Mr. Justice Thompson, in the absence 
 of the Chief Justice, Mr. Key's brother-in- 
 law, who, of course, was not present, re- 
 plied in part as follows : 
 
 "Mr. Key's talents were of a very high order. 
 His mind was stored with legal learning, and 
 his literary taste and attainments were highly 
 distinguished, and added to these, was a pri- 
 vate character which holds out to the bar a 
 bright example for imitation. The loss of such 
 a man cannot but be sincerely deplored." 
 
 Under date of Cambridge, Mass., March 
 25, 1843, Mr. Justice Story wrote the Chief 
 Justice as follows: 
 
98 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 "I was exceedingly grieved in hearing of the 
 death of Key. His excellent talents, his high 
 morals, his warm and active benevolence, and 
 his most amiable and gentle temper endeared 
 him to all who knew him. To you and Mrs. 
 Taney the loss is irreparable, and to the public, 
 in the truest sense of the word, a deep calam- 
 ity." 
 
 Even so the flag of the free will ever be 
 his best memorial, for his praise will be 
 sung whenever and wherever are heard the 
 words of his song. To all generations the 
 departed patriot will thus make known the 
 true genius and inspiration of patriotism. 
 
 "I have been a base and grovelling thing, 
 And the dust of the earth my home, 
 
 But now I know that the end of my woe, 
 And the day of my bliss, is come. 
 
 Then let them, like me, make ready their 
 shrouds, 
 Nor shrink from the mortal strife, 
 And like me they shall sing, as to heaven they 
 spring, 
 Death is not the end of life." 
 
 —Key. 
 
KEY MONUMENT AT GRAVE 
 Mount Olivet Cemetery, Frederick, Md. 
 

 
APPENDIX 
 
100 FKANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER 
 
 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 gal- 
 lantly 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 that 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 tower- 
 ing steep, 
 As it fitfully blows, now conceals, now dis- 
 closes ? 
 
 Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first 
 beam, 
 
 In full glory reflected now shines in 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 are the foes who so vauntingly 
 swore 
 That the havoc of war, and the battle's con- 
 fusion, 
 
APPENDIX 101 
 
 A home and a country should leave us no 
 more: 
 Their blood has washed out their foul foot- 
 steps' 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 freeman shall stand 
 Between their loved homes and the war's 
 desolation ; 
 
 Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n- 
 rescued land 
 Praise the Power that hath made and pre- 
 served 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 ! 
 
102 
 
 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 
 HYMN 
 
 Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise thee 
 
 For the bliss thy love bestows, 
 For the pardoning grace that saves me, 
 
 And the peace that from it flows. 
 Help, O God! my weak endeavor, 
 
 This dull soul to rapture raise; 
 Thou must light the flame, or never 
 
 Can my love be warmed to praise. 
 
 Praise, my soul, the God that sought thee, 
 
 Wretched wanderer, far astray; 
 Found thee lost, and kindly brought thee 
 
 From the paths of death away. 
 Praise, with love's devoutest feeling, 
 
 Him who saw thy guilt-born fear, 
 And, the light of hope revealing, 
 
 Bade the blood-stained cross appear. 
 
 Lord! this bosom's ardent feeling 
 
 Vainly would my lips express ; 
 Low before thy foot-stool kneeling. 
 
 Deign thy suppliant's prayer to bless. 
 Let thy grace, my soul's chief treasure, 
 
 Love's pure flame within me raise; 
 And, since words can never measure, 
 
 Let my life show forth thy praise. 
 
APPENDIX 103 
 
 A RIDDLE.* 
 
 I made myself, and though no form have I, 
 Am fairer than the fairest you can spy; 
 The sun I outshine in his mid-day light, 
 And yet am darker than the darkest night; 
 Hotter I am than fire, than ice more cold, 
 Richer than purest gems of finest gold, 
 Yet I am never either bought or sold; 
 The man that wants me, never yet was seen ; 
 The poor alone possess me; yet the mean 
 And grudging rich oft give me to the poor, 
 Who yet are not made richer than before; 
 The blindest see me, and the deafest hear; 
 Cowards defy me, and the bravest fear: 
 If you're a fool, you know me; if you grow 
 In knowledge, me you will soon cease to know. 
 Get me — and low and poor thy state will be ; 
 Forget me — and no equal shalt thou see. 
 Xow catch me if you can — I'm sometimes 
 
 caught, 
 Though never thought worth catching, never 
 
 sought. 
 Am I still hid? then let whoever tries 
 To see me, give it up, and shut his eyes. 
 
 *The above conundrum in verse was com- 
 posed by Mr. Key at a dinner party when the 
 company present after dinner were engaged in 
 asking and solving riddles. It was, therefore, 
 written upon the spur of the moment as is true 
 of most all of Mr. Key's poetry, including, as 
 we have seen, even the Star Spangled Banner. 
 The answer to the conundrum is, "nothing" 
 which when perceived demonstrated the clever- 
 ness of the author. 
 
104 FRANCIS SCOTT KEY 
 
 Inscription in St. John's Church. Georgetown 
 
 JOHANNES I. SAYRS. 
 
 "'Hujus ecclesiae rector primus hie quo, 
 Christi servus, fideliter ministrabat, 
 
 Sepultus, jacet." 
 
 Here once stood forth a man who from the 
 
 world, 
 Though bright its aspect to the youthful eye, 
 Turned with affection ardent to his God, 
 And lived and died an humble minister 
 Of His benignant purposes to man. 
 Here lies he now; yet grive not thou for him, 
 Reader ! He trusted in that love where none 
 Have ever vainly trusted. Rather let 
 His marble speak to thee; and should'st thou 
 
 feel 
 The rising of a new and solemn thought, 
 Waked by this sacred place and sad memorial, 
 O, listen to its impulse! — 'tis divine — 
 And it shall lead thee to a- life of peace, 
 A death of hope, and endless bliss hereafter.