Mar 03 2009
The Star Spangled Banner
On this date in 1931 President Herbert Hoover remedied a nearly 155 year old deficiency when he signed into law a bill that designated the “Star-Spangled Banner” as the official national anthem of the United States. Up until seventy-eight years ago, the United States had no national anthem.
Of course Francis Scott Key had written the “Star Spangled Banner” in 1814, but it was merely one patriotic song amongst many until it began to gain popularity in the late 19th Century. The Secretary of Navy pushed the song to the fore in 1889 when he signed General Order #374, making “The Star-Spangled Banner” the official tune to be played at the raising of the flag for all naval units.
President Woodrow Wilson gave more impetus to this song’s prospects of becoming the national anthem when in 1916 he ordered that “The Star-Spangled Banner” be played at all military and other appropriate occasions.
Back in those days Congress would often lag considerably behind public sentiment and public practice. We were using “The Star Spangled Banner’ as our national anthem long before it became official, and that’s OK. There is no law that says we have to wait for the government to act before we, the people, tackle a problem.
In fact that’s the way things are supposed to run.
