As those on shore listened for the
crash, another sound came up from the deep. It was a wild burst
of music in defiance of the storm. The Trenton's band was
playing "The Star-Spangled Banner." The feelings of the
Americans on the beach were indescribable. Men who on that awful
day had exhausted every means of rendering some assistance to
their comrades now seemed inspired to greater efforts. They
dashed at the surf like wild creatures; but they were powerless.
No; it is too late to divorce words and music.
The song is generally accorded its deserved honor; the man who
wrote it has been allowed to remain in unmerited obscurity. The
Pacific coast alone, in one of the most beautiful of personal
monuments,* has acknowledged his service to his country--a
service which will terminate only with that country's life; for
he who gives a nation its popular air, enfeoffs posterity with an
inalienable gift. Yet Key was the close personal friend of
Jackson, Taney,--who was his brother- in-law--John Randolph of
Roanoke, and William Wilberforce. He it was, in all probability,
who first thought out the scheme of the African Colonization
Society; the first, on his estate in Frederick County, to open,
in 1806, a Sunday-school for slaves; who set free his own slaves;
and who was, throughout his whole career, the highest
contemporary type of a modest Christian gentleman. This
religious side of Key's character found expression in that find
hymn found in the hymnals of all Protestant denominations,
Lord, with glowing heart I'd praise thee.
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