The Squelched Stanzas
It is a wonder what the so-called “tolerant” groups would do if we started singing the truly stirring but forgotten stanzas from the more essential songs associated with our country?
Our Constitution is the product of the best reasoning known to man, then and now. We should refocus our efforts back to the core principles and the original meanings concerning Natural Law. The Constitution has provided our citizens with more protection of individual rights than any other system on earth. Through individual rights, the people can be self-reliant and motivated. Unfortunately, because of excessive legislation and judicial activism, we now find the citizenry becoming less self-sufficient. It has become a detestable collectivist woke cult-like cauldron controlled by the puppet strings of the Reincarnated Illuminati.
Fred Smith - Natural Law, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution
Introduction
Entities such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and People for the American Way get tizzy whenever there is any perceived breach in their beloved and Worshiped Wall of Separation. It is a wonder what these and other so-called “tolerant” groups would do if we started singing the truly stirring but forgotten stanzas from the more essential songs associated with our country? Enter the Squelched Stanzas.
The Star-Spangled Banner
British forces attacked the guardian of Baltimore’s harbor, Fort McHenry, on September 13-14, 1814. This event inspired 35-year-old poet Francis Scott Key (1780-1843) to write The Star-Spangled Banner. Originally, Key wrote it as a poem to match the beat of the English song, “To Anacreon in Heaven.”
In 1931 Congress enacted legislation that declared The Star-Spangled Banner the official national anthem. Here is the forgotten fourth stanza (note the motto “In God is our trust”):
America The Beautiful
The original lyrics to America the Beautiful were written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929), an instructor at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. Her poem first appeared in print in “The Congregationalist,” a weekly journal, on July 4, 1895. Ms. Bates revised the lyrics in 1904 and again in 1911. In addition to the word changes, it is notable that the poem was not always sung to “Materna,” composed by Samuel A. Ward in 1882, nearly a decade before Bates wrote the poem. Many different popular or folk tunes fit the lyrics for the first two years, with “Auld Lang Syne” being the most notable.
First published with “Materna” in 1910, but the tune to be used was in contention, and in 1926 the National Federation of Music Clubs held a contest to put the poem to new, reportedly “less somber,” music. No other entry came out ahead. Bates never indicated publicly which music she liked best, but it now appears likely that America the Beautiful will forever be associated with “Materna.” The second stanza includes the phrase “God mend thine every flaw,” the third “May God thy gold refine,” and the first and fourth, “God shed his grace on thee.” Now for the beautiful squelched fourth stanza:
At the age of 33 in 1893, Bates was an English professor at Wellesley College. She took a train trip to Colorado Springs to teach at Colorado College. The sights along the journey inspired Bates’ writings of the poem. They include:
World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, the “White City” with its promise of the future contained within its gleaming white buildings;
Wheatfields of America’s heartland Kansas, through which her train was riding on July 16; and
Majestic view of the Great Plains from high atop Pikes Peak.
A particular website makes a phony claim that “Thy whiter jubilee” in the original version’s final words plus “and crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea” are an appeal for social justice (collectivism).
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
The Battle Hymn of The Republic originated as the camp-meeting hymn, “Oh brothers, will you meet us on Canaan’s happy shore?” It evolved into “John Brown’s Body,” and then in 1861, Julia Ward Howe (1819-1910), wife of a government official, wrote a poem for Atlantic Monthly for five dollars.
The magazine called it Battle Hymn of the Republic. The music may be by William Steffe. Here is the stirring fifth stanza that we rarely hear:
Afterword
The above songs and many others are proof of our Christian heritage and culture. Despite the myth that we are a totally secular nation, our laws reflect Christian principles and the tenants of the Ten Commandments. Does this mean we should be a theocracy? Not at all! It means that people of any faith are welcome to live free under the protection of Natural Law. So, my secular friends, why do we not hear about Sharia Law breaching your Worshiped Wall of Separation?
Cogent author and publisher, Frederick R. Smith
The Squelched Stanzas
Francis Scott Key is canceled
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/francis-scott-key-is-canceled/ar-AA1kPiuf
The sentiments of those lost stanzas are definitely found in anywhere God's grace to man is referenced, whether it be a hymnal or the Constitution.