American Victory Quotes
The poem’s words later became the words to The Star’s Spangled Banner which was adopted as our national anthem. There are some who have objected to this inclusion in this collection on the grounds that Key, as the Washington District Attorney, very harshly suppressed the anti-slavery movement that was
Napoleon’s defeat and abdication took place at the same time and that was the major foreign policy news that effected Englishmen at the time. The War with America was strategically a side show. At the same time, the Americans ships had bested the English almost every time they fought (the biggest and best armed ships were needed for the European War with Napoleon so the English fought with second rate ships in the Atlantic). And although the English had the better of most of the land conflicts, the final Battle of New Orleans was such a humiliating, and one sided, rout of His Majesty’s army, that there was nothing politically to be gained by publicizing the facts of the war. The British government just wanted to negotiate a treaty ending the conflict with America and get on with the activity in Europe. The result is that the English people have never known very much about the War of 1812.
