of Governor Herbert R. O'Conor 747

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

RADIO STATION WFBR, AND NATION-WIDE HOOK-UP,

September 14, 1942

Baltimore

At dawn, this morning, in this critical period of America's existence,
there was re-enacted at Fort McHenry, here in Baltimore, a scene to thrill
the heart and imagination of every American.

There, at the same location where the sight of the Star Spangled Banner
had inspired Francis Scott Key to write the immortal words of our National
Anthem, Miss Lucy Monroe broadcast them to the Nation, while a Color Guard
and band of the Maryland State Guard recalled the military atmosphere of
that embattled dawn of September 14, 1814.

Then, as today, our Nation was in peril. Enemy troops, attacking by
land, had been repulsed by Maryland's defenders and the foe's Commanding
General killed. The next day the attack was resumed, this time by water, and
all day long the hostile fleet had thrown a shower of rockets and bombs upon the
Fort's defenses. When darkness came, the assault was renewed, and the fleet
continued to fire throughout the nigth. During the 25-hour bombardment it is
estimated there were fired nearly 2, 000 bombs, 400 of which landed within
the limits of Fort McHenry.

An unwilling spectator to this bombardment throughout the night was
Francis Scott Key. A visitor to the invading fleet's Commanding Officer,
trying to secure the release of his friend, Dr. William Beanes, he had kept
aboard the flagship for fear he would reveal information to his compatriots
on shore.

All night long he paced the deck in anxiety. At the burst of dawn, Key
saw that the "Flag was still there" and in his heart flamed the emotion that
translated to paper, gave o the world the immortal words of the Star Spangled
Banner.

A poet once said: "Give me the making of the songs of a nation, and I
care not who makes its laws. "

Yet, with a free and Democratic Nation, it actually is the same thing.
For both the songs and the laws of a free people are the creation of the people.
They exist as National institutions only by the approval of the people. A
group of patriots wrote the Constitution, but it only became our basic law
when the people approved. Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner, but it
was the people's acceptance that made this song our National Anthem.

It is fitting then on this Star Spangled Banner Day—that we take
cognizance of — that we give sober thought to ~ what the American heart
and mind meant to say by the adoption of this anthem.