Posted on 09/18/2003 5:15:17 AM PDT by sheltonmac
Our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner, was written by Francis Scott Key during the British attack on Fort McHenry on September 13, 1814. The British bombardment, which continued for 25 hours, involved 1,500 bombshells that weighed as much as 220 pounds and carried lighted fuses that would cause them to blow up when they reached their target. Not being very dependable, the bombs often exploded in midair.
Key watched the battle with apprehension, knowing that as long as the shelling continued, Fort McHenry had not surrendered. Long before daylight there came a sudden and mysterious silence. What Key did not know was that the British attack had been abandoned, the attackers judging Baltimore as being too costly a prize.
In the predawn darkness, Key waited for the sight that would end his anxiety: the sight of Fort Henrys great flag blowing in the breeze. When at last daylight came, the flag was still there!
Forty-seven years later, Francis Scott Keys grandson would be arrested by order of President Abraham Lincoln. Lincolns suspension of the writ of habeas corpus on April 27, 1861, was based upon his conviction that any person not unconditionally supportive of the war against the South was guilty of treason. In a classic example of political jabberwocky, Lincoln stated, Arrests by process of courts and arrests in cases of rebellion do not proceed altogether upon the same basis. In the latter case the arrests are made not so much for what has been done, as for what probably would be done. In other words, what a person might do could now get him arrested by federal authorities!
Because Marylands sympathies were with the South, Lincoln interceded to make sure it wouldnt pass an ordinance of secession. He had Maryland legislators arrested, along with other leading citizens, including newspaper publishers. One of those imprisoned was Francis Key Howard, the editor of the Baltimore Exchange. As he sat imprisoned in Fort McHenry, Howard penned the following words. Ironically, the date was September 13, 1861.
When I looked out in the morning, I could not help being struck by an odd and not pleasant coincidence. On that day, forty-seven years before, my grandfather, Mr. F. S. Key, the prisoner on a British ship, had witnessed the bombardment of Ft. McHenry. When on the following morning the hospital fleet drew off, defeated, he wrote the song so long popular throughout the country, the Star Spangled Banner. As I stood upon the very scene of that conflict, I could not but contrast my position with his, forty-seven years before. The flag which he had then so proudly hailed, I saw waving at the same place over the victims of as vulgar and brutal a despotism as modern times have witnessed.
Later, Howard was removed from Fort McHenry to the casemate prison at Fortress Monroe, imprisoned because the federal government had in its possession ample evidence of the fact, that all who had been arrested had in some way violated the laws. After further imprisonments in Fort Lafayette in New York Harbor and Fort Warren in Boston, Howard was finally released on November 27, 1862. Upon his discharge from prison, he wrote these powerful words: We came out of prison just as we had gone in, holding the same just scorn and detestation [for] the despotism under which the country was prostrate, and with a stronger resolution that ever to oppose it by every means to which, as American freemen, we had the right to resort.
Four months before being discovered and deported to a Nazi concentration camp, Anne Frank wrote in her now famous diary: I want to go on living even after my death. Anne Frank wanted to make a lasting difference in her world. As we see the storms of despotism arise in our nation, we, too, must see the importance of being concerned and involved.
I believe every follower of Jesus Christ who values liberty must be responsible to do something. I also suggest that every believer in Jesus Christ must stand up for faithfulness to Scripture, for the founding principles of this nation, and for obedience to Christs call to resist the oppressors and destroyers of this age. Doing something, even if it feels hopeless or seems insignificant, is better than doing nothing at all. We are commissioned by our Lord onto the streets, footpaths, and byways of the world to minister to the whole person, whoever he or she may be.
This anti-American hunk of dog-crap is the guy we build monuments to?
... Doing something, even if it feels hopeless or seems insignificant ...I shall chew bubble gum until justice flows through our land like a mighty river. Or until I run out of bubble gum.
And then its time to kick ass.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Looks like he was a major believer in thoughtcrime. Had a few problems with freedom of the press IIRC as well.
Lincoln's position for preserving the union sounds familar in today's terms as well; "You are either for us or you are against us".
Anne Frank also wrote; "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world".
It is well that men are not judged by a single entry but rather on the entire content of their ledger.
Schools do not even come close to portraying the truth about him.
Most people think Lincoln freed all the slaves (false - slavery was legal in many 'Union' states until well after the war)
He freed the slaves before the war (false - The E.P. was written well after the start of the war),
That hostilities began only after racist, Southern, US citizens attacked (false - blockading a port has always been recognized as an act of war, and the southerners were no more racist than the Northerners).
Those Southerners then decided to seceed (false - SC seceeded long before the port was blockaded)
The southern states never seceeded legally (false - the state legislatures conviened and voted to seceed, and Jefferson Davis was never given a day in court - because the North feared losing.)
But Charleston wasn't blockaded.
Or that Fort Sumpter had no purpose?
The Union presence in Fort Sumter was due to the fact that the U.S. government owned the fort. At no time did the troops in the fort interfere with shipping into and out of the port. On the contrary, it was the southern batteries who were firing at anything flying the Stars and Stripes.
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