willing to be one done, if that symbol is to be replaced to the action of the elected representatives, then it must be for substantial and not trivial offenses, supported by facts and not by surmise. >> watergate, 40 years later on american history tv on c-span3. thanlawyer who argued more 100 cases before the supreme court, francis scott key was originally opposed to declaring war on england. of --marc leepson, arthur author of "what so proudly we hailed: francis scott key, a life" discusses the life of the author of the "star-spangled banner." >> the 200th anniversary of the bombardment of baltimore's fort mchenry will soon be upon us. on september 14, 18 14, after 25

hours of british bombardment, soldiers raised the flag that inspired an american lawyer to write a poem that became our national anthem. we all know about the anthem, but the man behind the song is less well-known. we may be familiar with his name and the key bridge over the all.ac, but that is about it has been more than 75 years since the biography of key has been published, and our speaker toay, marc leepson, is here tell us about what he has discovered through researching and writing his new book about key, "what so proudly we hailed ." saidrian john coppola leepson tells a multifaceted story of the author of the "star-spangled banner" with clarity, precision, and passion, a literary performance akin to a great soloist nailing the high notes in the land of the free and the home of the brave. is a journalist,

historian, and author of eight books.- marc is a former staff writer for "congressional quarterly" and has been a freelance writer since 1986. he has written for many newspapers and magazines, and is arts editor and columnist for the newspaper published by the vietnam veterans of america, he teaches u.s. history at lord inrfax community college virginia. ladies and gentlemen, please welcome marc leepson. [applause] >> thank you, david. thanks for inviting me to be

here today. thank you all for coming. i'll knock off early so we can see the rest of the soccer match. no, i won't. it is my pleasure to talk to you today about this book that i wrote. it is the first biography of francis scott key in more than it is particularly important because it is coming out this year, 2014, the 200th anniversary of him writing the "star-spangled banner." as david mentioned, what percentage of americans know the name francis scott key? i don't know -- 95%, 98% -- who does not know the name? but didn't go to step the -- what do you know about this guy -- but then go to step the. what do you know about this guy? he wrote the "star-spangled banner." what else? not much. what i set out to do was illuminate this man and this time, and a player in the early

republic. he was born in 1779 during the american revolution. he was born in a place called terra rubra, which was his family plantation in maryland, north of frederick maryland, not far from the pennsylvania border, not far from gettysburg, pennsylvania. his great grandfather came over .ere he was a lawyer who became a rich planter, prominent citizen of southern maryland, and he , whiched this place francis scott key's father inherited, and that is where frank grew up. they called him frank, by the way. so that is something you all know now that people do not know. and i'm going to call him frank for the rest -- they call him frankie when he was a kid, but they called him frank, his friends and family. that is where frank grew up, and he had kind of an idyllic childhood there.

his father was named john ross key, and he served in the continental army. the records are kind of sketchy, he wound upow that serving under the market a lafayette -- marquis did lafayette. he was also a lawyer. so was francis scott key's uncle . philip barton key turns out to have more influence on frank than his father did. they schooled him at home. let me tell you about philip barton key. john ross key served in the continental army in the revolution. his brother became a loyalist. not only was he a loyalist, he anded the british army fought against us. he wound up fighting in florida. he got captured along with everybody else. england -- back to he had never been to england, but he went to england after the

war and got tired of life in england and came back to the united date. i think you probably know that loyalist who came back, especially from england, especially for those who fought against us -- they were not tarred and feathered, but most of them did not exactly get a good welcome. --l, philip argan key did philip barton key did. he became a big lawyer in annapolis maryland. he became rich. -- they sent frank to st. john's college in annapolis. you all know about st. john's. it is still there. it's a small liberal arts college that offers classical education. when we say classical, we mean greek and latin, and frank studied greek and latin and graduated in 7096. he read the law in annapolis with his uncle. one of his fellow young lawyers was a man named roger brooke tawny, who later became chief justice of the united states.

he and frank became very good friends. they practiced not together, but they did argue cases together because frank went back to frederick where he hung out, and he and tony were so close that tunney married frank's only sister, so they were friends, colleagues for the rest of frank's life. he graduated from check -- from st. john's. when he was in annapolis, he did not board at the college. inlived with his great uncle a beautiful house near the scott house, which is still in annapolis today. it is privately owned, but it is really -- he had a good life there. read the law, came back, and then he married polly lloyd, so thelloyd family was also in upper income brackets. her father, colonel lloyd, huge .and owner

for those of you who live around here, when you go to chesapeake they bridge, towards the eastern shore, he owned thousands of acres. big slaveowning family, as was the key family. as we will see later, slavery becomes a big issue and francis life.key's he married polly lloyd, and they had two children. he was a young lawyer in frederick, and then they moved to washington, d.c., in 1805. they moved to a house on bridge maint in georgetown, the east-west street in georgetown. their house is on the river, and it's not there anymore. there is a park called francis scott key park. if you come over the key bridge, which is named after francis surprisingly,

there is a park -- if you turn street, there is a park. that's not where the house was. the house was to the left of the bridge because it was turned down in 1947 to make way for the entrance ramp onto the whitehurst freeway. serviceonal park founded by that time, and the park service was going to rebuild the house, so they put the brakes and the logs and everything on the other side where the park is, and then they disappeared. that's all we have left. that is where they lived. they wound up having 11 children, and he became a big lawyer in town. a thriving practice. he would wind up arguing over 100 cases before the supreme court. he later becomes u.s. attorney for washington for eight years under andrew jackson. so let's go up to the events that happened in 1814.

gotpivotal thing that francis scott key to baltimore that day was the battle of place onrg, which took august 20 6, 1814. you all know about that one. that was when the british -- now, the war of 1812 had been going on not much -- i mean, stuff happened, but the war took on a new complexion in the spring of 1814 when the british defeated napoleon and sent over more troops. so these troops had made their way up the chesapeake bay raiding towns up and down the chesapeake bay, and then in august, they invaded washington, d.c. the army that we put up was not good. it might have been one of the most in our military history. the british just rolled through, and then what did they do? they burned washington. they burned the white house.

they burned public buildings. francis scott key, by the way, was a guest -- adamantly against america getting into the war. he called it a lump of wickedness. he saw no purpose in it. the war hawks won out, and we went to war against england. he changed his mind -- i was about to say changed his tune, but maybe we'll talk about that later -- he changed his mind about the war when the british darted doing this rating up and down the chesapeake. things were getting a little too close for comfort, so he actually joined a militia unit, a militia artillery unit in georgetown, and he went out to around the chesapeake. he did not see any action. he came close. and he did not like being in the military, so he kind of hung up his uniform after serving 14 aboard three weeks. he did show up at the battle of bladensburg. key came out to see what he

could do to help because he knew the terrain. he lived around here. he knew people. he did not help people very much. he was among americans who treated anonymously off of that battlefield, and then the british burned washington. the british did not earn any private buildings in washington, d.c. they said they were burning washington to avenge what happened when we burned the city of york, which is toronto, canada. frank and a lot of civilians -- he sent polly and the kids back and, you know, it was a very trying time. they did not know the british were not going to burn the entire city, so after the battle namedysician, a surgeon , a prominent surgeon who lived in upper marlboro, maryland, got involved somehow in the war.

he was not in uniform, but there were some straggler british officers as the british were leaving washington, and he took them prisoner and held them for a couple of days. when the british came and released the prisoners, they were not happy, so they took dr. beans and two other men prisoner. on the ships,m and then the british left and sailed up toward baltimore. beanss a family friend of and was prevailed upon to help arrange their release. prisoner exchanges and prisoner releases were common in the war of 1812, so we had a few british prisoners. what happened was we prevailed , the officer in charge, to get letters from the british prisoners saying how well they were treated, and they were treated well. he went up to baltimore, wrote on his horse, up about 35 miles, with borders and with the letters from british prisoners

saying that the americans were ok, letting them eat more than bread and water. they were positive letters. he was met in baltimore by a man named john skinner, who was a lawyer. he was sort of working for the state department that had the rank of colonel in the army, and he had held a range prisoner exchanges as well. key road to baltimore and met up with skinner. they got on an american ship and began looking for the british fleet. and they found them. the british welcome to them on board. they did these things all the time. they had dinner. they drank wine. they negotiated the release of dr. beans. we believe it was the letters that did the trick. they said, "you can go, but, wait, we are going to bomb baltimore back to the stone age, so you cannot leave until then. they took skinner, beans, and

key and put them on another british ship, and they moved as they move closer to baltimore and put them back on that american sloop that they sailed out to find the british, but under guard. you sometimes hear that francis scott key wrote it when he was being held prisoner by the british. he was not free to go, but he would be free to go. why did the british want to bomb baltimore back to the stone age? the war was controversial before and during -- not in baltimore. baltimore people -- they are not called baltimorons, are they? someone will have to tell me that later because i have to do it talk in baltimore coming up, and i definitely do not want to say that. the people of baltimore were adamant war hawks from the beginning. the british hated -- they called .t a nest of thieves the navy needed all the help it can get, and it asks private ship owners to help raid british ships.

they are called privateers. there were more privateers from baltimore than anywhere else. people could not wait to get after the british. the british, contrary to what they were going to do in washington, which was not burned public rulings, they wanted to raze the city. they had a pretty armada. they had four om ships -- bomb threw just ships that bombs. you know about fort mchenry. it sticks out in baltimore harbor. colonel armstead, who was in charge of defending fort mchenry -- let me just back up a little bit -- as bad as the american army did in bladensburg, folding like a cheap suit, as we did, it was the opposite in baltimore. they could see the fires of washington burning from the high points of the city, and they knew the british meant business. for two in a half, three weeks, they had trained militiamen,

15,000 militiamen in addition to the troops at fort mchenry, which was bristling with cannons. they build defenses. they built fortifications, so they were ready for the british, and the british were ready for them. there were a kid of components to the british attack on baltimore. we do not often hear about the land component. those started about the same time. we all know about the rockets and the bombs bursting in air, but the battle of northpoint started just before the bombs bursting in air, and the british were on their way towards baltimore when their commanding colonel shot dead off of his horse, and that sort of took the steam out of the british. the americans also put up a really good fight. but the british got very close to the gates of baltimore on the land part. then we had a tremendous storm that happened. storms have a way of influencing military history throughout the world. it had an influence on this battle. the british sort of got stalled.

the bombardment happened. straight hours, 1500 bombs, cannons, artillery, rockets. it was maybe unprecedented in the history of warfare to that time that continuous a bombing. armstead did also was he purposely scuttled old ships in the harbor so that the british could not get close enough. after the 25 consecutive hours of bombing, not one person was killed on land in baltimore. houses shook to their foundation. people were scared out of their wits. only four soldiers were killed at fort mchenry. by the way, we were throwing out a lot of bombs ourselves. key, skinner, and beans were in a ship behind the two british lines. onlinere has a key cam where you can look at baltimore 24 hours a day lives and see what francis scott key saw.

well, not exactly, but anyway, he was an amateur poet, francis scott key was. he wrote that amateur poetry. it was never meant to be seen outside family and friends. after he died, somebody published a book. if you go on google books, you can read it. so don't just take my word for it. the poetry was bad. so he was stirred to write a poem that night by what he saw and into the morning. he wrote it on the back -- not an envelope, a letter that he had in his pocket. or he started it on the back of a letter. what did he see? well, the 1500 bombs, this tremendous thunderstorm, and then it all ended about 3:00 in the morning. but it was dark. it was rainy. they could not see. they did not know who one -- won. correct me if i'm wrong -- they

did not have twitter back then. they could not see. they waited until the dawn's early light -- blue, that's a .ood phrase but when don happened, the storm had not gone away, and they still could not see. finally, don rises enough. they can see a flag, but they cannot see what it is. it is hanging limp. then a breeze comes, and our flag was still there, and he was moved to write this poll and. the british let him go. once he saw the flag, of course, he knew we had prevailed. the other thing people do not remember about the battle -- this is a turning point of the war of 1812. after the british slunk off in ? it is-- is slunk a word now. thank you. after the british left in defeat with their tail between their legs, they sort of lost heart for the fight. peace talks were going on before that. they intensified. by the end of the year, we had

the treaty of ghent signed. of course, there was one more big idol in the war of 1812, which happened after the signing of the treaty of ghent, the battle of new orleans, which his name.kson made to his credit, the treaty had not been ratified, so the war was not quite over yet. remember this -- the battle of baltimore is the turning point of the war of 1812. we could be speaking with british accents today if the british had prevailed. goes back to a hotel in baltimore and finishes -- you know, there were 4 versus to this poem or song, and we will talk about whether it was a poem or a song in a little bit. what happens next is not clear. never wrotet key about what happened that night or spoke about it in public. he spoke about it in public once 20 years later, and he just talked in generalities at a

political rally where he sort of deflected what happened from him and talked about the heroes and defenders of baltimore. he wrote one letter on october 4 in which he talked about what happened. never mentioned writing a song or a poem. he talked about dr. beans and the british officers, whom he did not like. the account we have about what happened that night, the one you have already, the one i read, comes from something that was written by frank's brother-in-law published in 1853, 40 years later. he said that frank had told him this after the battle, and so many people wanted to know, he wrote it down for posterity. that is what we have, along with an article that john stewart tonic --rote after out, whichok came

sort of makes skinner the hero, although he does not claim to poem.the somebody, maybe frank's brother-in-law, who married one took thissisters, poll him to a printer in baltimore. within two days, broadsides with this poem had appeared all over the city. including distributed out of fort mchenry. we know that from current accounts. the title was "the defense of fort mchenry." we do not know why, but a few days later, it appeared on sheet music. the name was changed to the "star-spangled banner," and it said, "to be sung to the tune of which was aheaven,"

well-known song in the early republic, and it was not uncommon in those days -- in fact, it was common for words of songs to be put on well-known melodies. it was so popular there were 30, 40, 50 different songs that .eople knew and did not have frank's name on it, although did have a little introduction to it, in which it talked about how it came to be written. newspaperseared in around the country, and then his name became on it. and, of course, it became a patriotic song. not the most popular, but it was one of the patriotic songs laid at patriotic occasions. fourth of july, picnics, other gatherings -- one of the patriotic songs played at patriotic occasions. it was not until the late 1800s that is sort of became the de

facto national anthem, but it did not become the official national anthem until 1931. president hoover signed the bill. was he writing a song or a poem that night? up until relatively recently, most historians believed that he was writing a poem. he was an amateur poet. he had not written one song in his life. he was a very religious man. he almost went into the .piscopal priesthood but he was very pious, very .atriotic he belonged to st. john's church. georgetown is still there, and he was sort of like a late minister.

he was very active and also one of the founders of the virginia theological seminary and very active in the maryland theological seminary as well. he did write two religious hymns , but he was not a songwriter. family had a reputation of being unmusical, which i translate to be tone deaf. ironically, did the man who wrote the words to the song that maybe has been sung by more americans than any other song except "happy birthday" -- you know, was he tone deaf? we just do not know, but historians now believe that written tot song was "anacreon in heaven," that he had that song in mind that night. that was the theme song of the anacreon sick society, --

anacreontic society. it was kind of like a men's fancy book club. they would read a book and get together and discuss it, but they would get together in taverns, and there would be adult beverages involved. hear that the star-spangled banner is to the tune of a quote unquote english drinking song. it wasn't "99 bottles of beer on the wall." it was sort of a little more high-minded than that, so i kind of take offense at that. we do know it is very hard to sing. werebly with those guys all drunk and singing it, it was easy. ever started on a high note, you are sunk on the "star-spangled banner." i spent a good amount of time talking about how he came to write the song because that is what people want to know about, and people do not know about, it was 1814.

he lived until 1843, and he was a prominent lawyer. he disdained politics for most of his life. he did not like the combat of ms. of it -- combat of -- comb it and thef mean-spiritedness. for some reason we're not totally clear of, he became enamored of andrew jackson when he was running for president. his brother-in-law was the maryland campaign manager for jackson. that might have been one reason, but he was very enthusiastic for whenon, so much so that jackson became president, he became a very close adviser to jackson. he was a member of jackson tossed kitchen cabinet. this was the first time the term kitchen cabinet came into being, and it was a disparaging term. jackson was the seventh president, but the first who was not born in virginia or massachusetts. he was an outsider. he was from tennessee, and

tennessee was outside. when jackson came in, he wanted to do things differently, but he useadvised that he should old washington-experienced people to be in his official cabinet. he said he would do that, but he would have his closest friends and advisers be his ditching cabinet and that is who he would lean on, so he did. except for two people, his cabinet positions were all washington insider politicos. remember back then, kitchens sometimes were not even in people's houses. they were in separate buildings or in the basement. it was like the real work of the cabinets were done in fancy drawing rooms, but the kitchen cabinet was these guys from tennessee meeting in the kitchen and drinking corn liquor or whatever they did. of jackson'sember kitchen cabinet. he did legal work for the president. he was appointed u.s. attorney

in 1831 -- 1833, and he stayed in that position for eight years. he still had his legal practice in georgetown. and he prosecuted every kind of case, worked on lots of civil cases, and he was involved in prominent and interesting cases. i can tell you a couple of them. one was he was involved in the prosecution of the man who was the first attempted presidential assassin. lawrence, man named who walked up to andrew jackson in 1835 on the steps of capitol hill, pulled out a pistol at point-blank range, fired, and miss fired. at which point, he pulled out another pistol, and fired, and misfired, at which point jackson started wailing on him with his cane. you know jackson.

it became apparent to key very readily that the house painter was mentally ill. he started saying he was the king of england and was ordered .o do it by god or whatever jackson was andrew jackson. he immediately sought a conspiracy, and he told his u.s. attorney, "prosecute this guy to the full extent of the law." there were hearings on capitol hill about who was he high in this conspiracy and so on. it became so evident that there was no conspiracy, that there was just a deranged man, that he basically prosecuted him, giving the jury the complete option and encouraging them to go for a plea of insanity, which they did . to a man he admired and also represented sam ,ouston, the famous sam houston in another case that made a lot of headlines in washington.

houston had been a member of congress. he was not at the time. he came back to washington, and he was working for an indian, and some congressmen made a speech -- he wrote a letter -- anyway, he disparaged houston, saying he was stealing government money that was supposed to go to the union. sam houston was jacksonian. he went out looking for him and found him and started beating him almost to death with his cane -- these canes come in -- and he wasn hauled before the u.s. house for a trial because it involved a congressmen, and jackson and houston were very close friends. jackson had key defense houston in congress. the trial took a month. it was the number one piece of business for three or four weeks in a row.

his two-our speeches, and sam houston would give speeches, and this was not frank 's finest hour. he tried to kill a guy, had to be pulled off of the guy. he was found in contempt of congress, and then there was a civil trial. key represented houston in the court, and he was convicted, and he was fined $500, but andrew jackson pardoned sam houston, and he never had to serve a day in jail and wound of never paying the $500.$500. houston later wrote that this was one of the best things that .ver happened to him his career was on the way down, and what did he do after that? he went to texas and became sam houston. key was involved in those kind of things. he also -- his legal practice of trusts and real

estate. not the sexiest stuff in the world. he also occasionally represented people in civil suits and in criminal actions. just going to end by telling you about the role of slavery and francis scott key's life because you cannot get away from it. he came from a slaveowning family. he owned slaves. he did free 4 of his slaves, but he owned slaves until the day he died. he willed them to his wife and said she had the option of keeping or freeing them. she did not free them. he was adamantly against slave trafficking. remember, slavery was legal in the states, but slave trafficking had been banned. the way that he and others thought that slavery trafficking could end -- well, one of the ways -- was to send free blacks to africa. they started something called the american colonization society in 1816. he was a founding member of the

american colonization society. he was one of the board managers. made speeches, wrote articles, until the day that he died in 1840 three, and it was a controversial endeavor. they only sent free blacks, not slaves, and the abolitionists were dead against it. they saw it as a way of getting rid of african-americans, and not even sending them back to africa because they were born here. it was a very controversial endeavor that he was front and center on for many decades. he had aher hand, reputation, well deserved, for representing free blacks and slaves in the courts in washington for free, which he did. would slaves get in courts in washington? a slave would be brought here from a slave state to washington, d.c., which had maryland laws, by the way, back

then, and maryland had a law that if a slave was brought here they couldor a year, be free, and who did they go to? they went to frank t -- frank key, and he represented. he had a mixed record. the other thing is his brother-in-law was roger b. tawn y, who later issued the infamous dred scott decision, which said that african-americans had no rights whatsoever. you cannot get away from this, but you also cannot get away from the fact that is one night, when the bombs were bursting in , this challenged poet came up with the words that have become etched into the fabric of date, 2014.o this so thank you very much. [applause]

>> we do have some time for questions, and we would like you to go to the microphones on that we can be recorded. we are at the national archives. we are being archived here for posterity. no pressure. >> my question was -- is there any evidence he wrote an earlier tog to that tune "star-spangled flag" and what was the name of the uncle he lived with in annapolis? >> dr. upton scott, and actually, i forgot to say that, but you are right. there was a shindig that they inew for stephen decatur georgetown, the hero of the truck collagen war, and they asked this prominent citizen of georgetown to write a poem/song ,or the occasion, and he did

and guess what? it contained the words " star-spangled banner" and it was sung to the tune of the "anacreon in heaven." that is what are the pieces of evidence people .2 in the poll him versus -- people point to in the poem versus song debate. are we done? by the way, the book just came three days ago, so you might be able to smell the ink. i would be happy to sign a copy for you. thank you very much. [applause] americane watching history tv all weekend every weekend on c-span3. to join the conversation, like us on facebook.

>> next on american history tv, an interview from a 2014 organization of american historians annual meeting. we sat down with several historians to discuss their work and find out what motivates their research. this year's conference was held in atlanta. about 2000 historians attended. >> alice echols, who is a professor at the university of southern california, and david farber of temple university, thank you for being with us. as we talk about pop culture and history, you have done a lot of history on a counterculture movement. what was that? >> it is hard to say exactly what it was, but in general, when i nearly site is those people in the 1960's and 1970's who thought themselves as rebels, who thought themselves as reinventing american culture and fighting the establishment as they see it. >> these kids were the children of the greatest generation, the minute women who sought world war ii, only to see their children to grow up as the counterculture movement.

>> absolutely. i think that is one of the great ironies is that the parents imagine that by moving very often from cities to suburbs, where they would be safe, you know, it would be the best possible environment because these are people, their parents who, as he said, lived through world war ii, live through the depression, and then their children moved into the inner cities, often in unsafe neighborhoods, and reject the kind of comfort of their parents, and so you have for instance gemstar plan saying hey, man, i want to live super hyper now. the last thing i want to do is basically be like my parents and sit and die in front of the television set. so they are really pushing back against a kind of safety and security comfort.