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CHAPTER VII.
" The Star-spangled Banner " — Its English Origin — Originally a Drinking-song — Doubts Regarding Composer
— Its English Uses — A Masonic Ode — Its First American Setting — " Adams and Liberty " — Robert Treat Paine — Its Great Setting by Francis Scott Key
— A Doubtful Story Regarding Its First Union with the Music.
We now come to the national melody which is dearest to the American heart, and, as usual, we find many statements that will not bear the test of investigation, and the customary doubt as to who the composer may have been. Richard Grant White's statement that it is an old French tune has not been substantiated. The earliest form in which we find the melody of " The Star-spangled Banner " is in the guise of an English drinking-song, entitled " To Anacreon in
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