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This issue of the National Intelligencer contains an early printing of Francis Scott Key’s song “The Defence of Fort M’Henry,” which later became the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Key set the verses to the melody of the popular British tune, “Anacreon in Heaven.” Although Key’s identity as the author was first revealed in the Frederick-Town Herald on September 24, the editors of the National Intelligencer had not yet learned this information. This issue appeared seven days after the song’s first appearance in the Baltimore Patriot and Evening Advertiser on September 20, 1814, and one day after it appeared in the Daily National Intelligencer on September 26.
[FRANCIS SCOTT KEY].
National Intelligencer, September 27, 1814. Washington, DC: Gales & Seaton. 4 pp., 12? x 20½ in.
Inventory #26266
Price: $10,000
Excerpts
“DEFENCE OF FORT M’HENRY
“From a Baltimore Paper.
“The annexed song was composed under the following circumstances – A gentleman had left Baltimore, in a flag of truce, for the purpose of getting released from a British fleet a friend of his, who had been captured at Marlborough. He went as far as the mouth of the Patuxent, and was not permitted to return lest the intended attack on Baltimore should be disclosed. He was therefore brought up the bay to the mouth of the Patapsco, where the flag vessel was kept under the guns of a frigate, and he was compelled to witness the bombardment of Fort M’Henry, which the Admiral had boasted that he would carry in a few hours, and that the city must fall. He watched the flag at the Fort through the whole day with an anxiety that can be better felt than described, until the night prevented him from seeing it. In the night he watched the Bomb-Shells, and at an early dawn his eye was again greeted by the proudly-waving flag of his country.
“Tune—Anacreon in Heaven.
“O! say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there¾
O! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
“On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that, which the breeze o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream.
’Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free, and the home of the brave.
“And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash’d 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 freemen shall stand,
Between their lov’d home, and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n-rescued land,
Praise the power that hath made and preserv’d us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto¾‘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.
“[Whoever is the author of those lines, they do equal honor to his principles and his talents.]—Nat. Intel.” (p4/c1)
Historical Background
On August 24, 1814, both President James Madison and Secretary of State James Monroe were present with American defenders at Bladensburg, Maryland. The British under Major General Robert Ross routed the defenders, forcing an American retreat that came to be known as the “Bladensburg Races.” The way was now clear for the invaders to move on the nation’s capital, eight miles away.
Later that day, the British entered Washington, D.C., and burned most government buildings to the ground, including the Executive Mansion and the Capitol. Fortunately, Madison had heeded Monroe’s advice, as clerks at the State Department had stuffed the records of the Confederation and Continental Congresses, George Washington’s papers as Commander of the Continental Army, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution into coarse linen sacks and carted them out of harm’s way. A few days later, Alexandria, Virginia, a major port, surrendered without a fight.
After the British left, Monroe—who had remained with the army—returned, and Madison placed him in charge of defending what was left of the city. The President temporarily appointed Monroe as Secretary of War on September 27, 1814. Monroe replaced John Armstrong Jr., who had done little to prepare Washington for defense, believing that the British would not attack a city of minor strategic significance. Monroe thus became the only person to hold the positions of Secretary of State and Secretary of War simultaneously.
The British forces left Washington and sailed up the Chesapeake Bay toward Baltimore. On September 12, they attempted a combined assault with army troops landing at North Point and a naval force proceeding up the Patapsco River. The Americans met them with well-organized resistance and strong fortifications. A sniper killed British General Ross early in the engagement, and the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbor, which lasted for twenty-five hours, was a failure. The British retreated, providing the Americans with a victory and a powerful boost to morale after the destruction of Washington.
Additional Content
This issue also includes a letter from General Jacob Brown about the ongoing siege of Fort Erie in modern Ontario (p1/c1); a lengthy letter on the war from a man in Washington, D.C., to his friend in Boston (p2/c1-4); letters on the Battle of Lake Champlain, together with lists of killed and wounded (p2/c4-p3/c1); an account of the British attack on Fort McHenry by Lt. Colonel George Armistead, the American commander there (p3/c1-2); the passage of a resolution by the U.S. House of Representatives to appoint a committee to consider temporarily moving the seat of government (p3/c3-4); a letter by Andrew Jackson to the governor of Tennessee, requesting that the state’s entire militia to be sent to him in Mobile (p3/c5); and a variety of advertisements, including one offering a $50 reward for the return of runaway slave Jack from Prince George County, Maryland (p3/c5); and another from the sheriff of Washington County, Maryland, requesting that a Virginia owner retrieve a runaway slave he is holding in jail (p1/c5).
National Intelligencer (1800-1870) was a prominent newspaper published in Washington, DC. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson, then vice president and a candidate for the presidency, persuaded Samuel Harrison Smith, the publisher of a Philadelphia newspaper, to open a newspaper in Washington, the new capital. Smith began publishing the National Intelligencer, & Washington Advertiser three times a week on October 31, 1800. In 1809, Joseph Gales (1786-1860) became a partner and took over as sole proprietor a year later. From 1812, Gales and his brother-in-law William Winston Seaton (1785-1866) were the newspaper’s publishers for nearly fifty years. From 1813 to 1867, it was published daily as the Daily National Intelligencer and was the dominant newspaper of the capital. They also continued thrice weekly and weekly editions. Supporters of the administrations of Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, Gales and Seaton were the official printers of Congress from 1819 to 1829. From the 1830s to the 1850s, the National Intelligencer was one of the nation’s leading Whig newspapers, with conservative, unionist principles.
Condition: Small portion excised from left-hand column of page one, professionally infilled; toned at left margin.
