Two National Anthems – Two Philosophies Regarding the Almighty

in my humble opinion, by donn clarius

Remember the last time you tried to sing our national anthem? virtually unsingable, right? The
Star-spangled Banner was written in September 1814 at the Battle of Baltimore. It tells the story
of how proud and blown away we were that our flag was still flying after a hopeless bombardment by
the world’s super¬ power – Great Britain.
Fort McHenry was then guarding our Navy – actually our ‘Rent-a-Fleet!’ Our navy consisted of only
three ships; we were fighting the ONLY super-power in the world; to say that we needed help would
be an understatement; we contracted with pirates to fight on our behalf – called ‘Privateers;’ Fort
McHenry was defending them.
Most folks know about only our anthem’s first verse; there are four; the second and third are
unfortunate, however the final is truly profound; it recounts how we won the Battle of Washington
City two-and-a-half weeks earlier.
We’re taught only part of the story about the War of 1812; for example, we’re taught that those
dastardly Brits torched our still-under-construction national capital; what we’re not told is that
a year-and-a-half earlier we had burned down Canada’s Parliament Building – that’s a war crime!
We were officially at war with Great Britain, but they were tied up in Europe fighting the real
threat – Napoleon. Canada was then known as ‘British North America;’ in the decades following our
revolution our two nations had becomd best of friends, so the army in New York and New England
refused to invade.
President Madison was kind; rather than court-martial the troops he merely transferred more from
the South. Not only that, but were begged forgiveness for burning down their Parliament, and
solemnly promised never to do anything like that again. However, a year later the U.S. broke that
promise.
In the spring of 1814, our army marched into Ontario and burned to the ground a half-dozen cities
that had been founded by former American colonists. This is
another historical fact that we’re not told; during our revolution only a third of colonists wanted independence; there was an equal number who wanted to remain British; after we
won, they moved to Canada, where they’re called ‘Loyalists;’ the Loyalists founded several Canadian
cities, especially in Ontario.
Why, you may ask, are we not taught in school our faults and missteps? As Winston Churchill wrote,
“History is written by the victors!” During the 1990s, when the U.S. was combing thru our
documents, and patriotic songs with a proverbial fine-toothed comb, looking for any hint of
reliance upon God… either explaining it away, or sometimes removing it, Canada added a prayer to
its national anthem – “God – keep our land glorious and free!” Canada is not known for being a
godly nation; we used to be!
For the first two years of that war we were holding our own; however, in late spring of that year
the British came over en masse; they were devastating our troops; imagine how Americans felt on
Independence Day, 1814, realizing that would be our final celebration of independence! How quickly
things change!
In early September 1814 our army suffered a bitter defeat in Bladensburg, Maryland; hundreds of our
troops ran away in terror, lest they be slaughtered by the Brits. By the time the enemy reached
Washington City we had cleared out; the enemy torched ev’ry building but the Post Office!
After that they set ablaze the Executive Mansion; meanwhile the President watched the conflagration
from across the Potomac, in Virginia. Suddenly from nowhere a powerful storm came to town;
hurricanes only come to that area ev’ry 35- or 40-years, but as if on cue – there it was to save
the day! Next came a powerful tornado that targeted the British encampment; more enemy troops were
slain by those two storms than by all our troops!
With these facts in mind, please read our anthem’s final verse: “May the heav’n-rescued lancf’
praise the Pow’t’ that hath made, and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must- when our cause
it is just, and this be our motto

  • ‘In God is Our Trust! Then the Star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave o’er the land of the
    free, and the home of the brave!” [* upper-case means God, Who had
    sent those storms!]
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