This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other marginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing this resource, we have taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain from automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attribution The Google "watermark" you see on each file is essential for informing people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at |http : //books . google . com/
w,
E
s^S
:^
}L^Pi!^{
^'
.5?'
lS?!
*A^
lS^
-^^
fCA!
»Sn6\.'^c>,*J\V)V5?^C'^«;hr^'><^^
y»l
i/^cS<
^^s^-)
;<'tO*
i5>^
>3'
5^;
5^«
•^^^
-^y^.
^'^S
^^
^w^^?-
:)^
Vr
^"^
JU-^..
^ '>l
N^
l^*^*:*^
l'^W*^"
^J
Music Library
3*^
«A d-fs^
^.
OtC'S
t<^'
^m^
Kt
'•^Jfrn
L$^
. '^tj'i
re>^
^A,<
^'
-s:
^>^
^''.^
^'
'>>■
pM%
^^
p^.^^
i»
3*^'
5>*
ir
Digitized by
Google
DEC 1959
MUSIC
Digitized by
Google
.^
\
Digitized by
Google
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
REPORT
ON
"The Star- Spangled Banner"
"Hail Columbia"
"America"
"Yankee Doodle"
COMPILED BY
OSCAR GEORGE THEODORE gONNECK
CHIEF OF THE DIVISON OF MUSIC
WASHINGTON
GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
1909
«o
Digitized by
Google
L.C. card, 9-85010
Digitized by VjOOQ IC :
CONTENTS
Page
Pbbfaob 5
'*Thi5 Stab-Spanglbd Banner." 7-42
"Hail Columbia." 43-72
"America." 73-78
"Yankee Doodle." 79-166
Literature used for this Report 167-164
Appendix: Illustrations 166-248
Index 249-265
3
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
PREFATORY NOTE
In December, 1907, I received iiiBtructions from the Librarian
of Congress to "bring together the various versions both of
text and of music with notes as to the historical evolution"
of "The Star-Spangled Banner," "Hail Columbia," "America,"
and "Yankee Doodle." The report was to be brief and light of
touch, but accurate enough for practical purposes. This task
would have been comparatively easy had the literature on the sub-
ject been reliable. Unfortunately it crumbled under the slightest
critical pressure, and it became imperative to devote more research
and more analytical and synthetic thought to the report than had
seemed advisable at first. This and the fact that the report had to
be compiled without neglect of current duties accounts for the delay
in submitting it.
In form the report is frankly not a history of the subject, such as
one would write for popular consmnption. Rather, in this report
data are collected, eliminated, or verified; popular theories founded
on these data are analyzed, their refutation or acceptance is sug-
gested, and, of course, some theories of my own are offered for critical
consideration. All this is done in such a form that the reader is at
no step supposed to find a locked door between himself and the argu-
ment. He is not supposed to accept a single statement of fact or
argument unless the evidence submitted compels him to do so. This
plein air treatment of a popular theme distinguishes the report some-
what from the bulk of the literature on the subject. In short, though
not intended for popular consumption, it may be used for popular
consumption with reasonable assurance of accuracy.
O. G. SONNEOK
Chief, Music Division
Herbert Putnam
Librarian of Congress
WasJiinffton, D. C, August, 1909
6
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER
Opinions differ widely on the merits of " The Star-Spangled Banner "
as a national song. Some critics fail to see in Francis Scott Key's
inspired lines poetry of more than patriotic value. Some look upon
it merely as a flag song, a military song, but not as a national hymn.
Some criticize the melody for its excessive range, but others 'see no
defects in ''The Star-Spangled Banner'' and feel not less enthusiastic
over its esthetic merits as a national song than over its sincere patri-
otic sentiment. This controversy will be decided, whether rightly or
wrongly, by the American people regardless of critical analysis, leg-
islative acts, or naive efforts to create national songs by prize com-
petition. This report does not concern itself at all with such quasi
esthetic problems, nor is it here the place to trace the political history
of ''The Star-Spangled Banner" beyond what is necessary for the
understanding of its history as a national song.
As has been well known for a long time, the first though brief
account of the origin of "The Star-Spangled Banner" appeared in the
Baltimore American on September 21, 1814, under the heading of:
DEFENCB OF FORT M'hENRT.
The annexed song was composed under the following circumstances: A gentle-
man had left Baltimore, in a flag of truce for the purpose of getting released from
the British fleet a friend of his who had been captured at Marlborough. He went
aa far as the mouth of the Patuxent, and was not permitted to return lest the
intended attack on Baltimore should be disclosed. He was therefore brought
up the Bay to the mouth of the Patapeco, where the flag vessel was kept imder
the guns of a frigate, and he was compelled to witness the bombardment of Fort
M 'Henry, which the Admiral had boasted that he would carry in a few hours, and
that the city must fall. He watched the flag at the fort through the whole day
with an anxiety that can be better felt than described, until the night prevented
him from seeing it. In the night he watched the Bomb SheUs, and at early
dawn his eye was again greeted by the proudly waving flag of his country.
This account is followed by the text of Key's poem without special
title, but with the indication: "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven."
As this account was printed almost immediately after the events
therein described took place, and were in every reader's memory, the
newspaper editor, of course, omitted specific dates, but it is a matter
of history that the gallant defense of Fort McHeniy under Major
Armistead began on the morning of Tuesday, September 13, and
lasted until the early hours of September 14, 1814. The gentleman
7
Digitized by
Google
8 The Star-Spangled Banner.
is, of course, Francis Scott Key, and either his own modesty or an
editorial whim kept his authorship from the public.
The first detailed and authentic account of the origin of ''The Star-
Spangled Banner" practically came from Francis Scott Key himself,
who narrated it shortly after the British designs on Baltimore failed,
to his brother-in-law, Mr. R. B. Taney, subsequently Chief Justice of
our Supreme Court. When in 1856 Mr. Henry V. D. Jones edited
the " Poems of the Late Francis S. Key, Esq. . . ." (New York, 1857),
Chief Justice Taney contributed Key's version from memory, in an
introductory " letter . . . narrating the incidents connected with the
origin of the song 'The Star-Spangled Banner.'" This interesting
narrative has been made the basis of all subsequent accotmts. Its
substance is this: When, after the battle of Bladensburg, the main
body of the British army had passed through the town of Upper
Marlborough, some stragglers, who had left the ranks to plunder or
from some other motive, made their appearance from time to time,
singly or in small squads, and a Doctor Beanes, who had previously
been very hospitable to the British officers "put himself at the head
of a small body of citizens to pursue and make prisoners" of the
stragglers. Information of this proceeding reached the British and
Doctor Beanes was promptly seized. The British "did not seem to
regard him, and certainly did not treat him, as a prisoner of war,
but as one who had deceived and broken his faith to them." Doctor
Beanes was the leading physician of his town and so highly respected
that the news of his imprisonment filled his friends with alarm. They
"hastened to the head-quarters of the English army to solicit his
.release, but it was peremptorily refused," and they were informed
that ho had been carried as a prisoner on board the fleet. Francis
Scott Key happened also to be one of the Doctor's intimate friends,
and as Mr. Key, just then a volunteer in Major Peter's Light Artil-
lery, but a lawyer by profession, was a resident of Georgetown, which
means practically Washington, the other friends requested him —
to obtain the sanction of the government to his going on board the admiral's ship
under a flag of truce and endeavoring to procure the release of Dr. Beanes, before
the fleet sailed.
. . . Mr. Key readily agreed to undertake the mission in his tiivor, and the Presi-
dent [Madison] promptly gave his sanction to it. Orders were inmiediately issued
to the vessel usually employed as a cartel [the Minden] in the communications
with the fleet in the Chesapeake to be made ready without delay; and Mr. John S.
Skinner, who was agent for the government for flags of truce and exchange of pris-
oners, and who was well known as such to the officers of the fleet, was directed to
accompany Mr. Key. And as soon as the arrangements were made, he hastened to
Baltimore, where the vessel was, to embark; . . .
We heard nothing from him until the enemy retreated from Baltimore, which,
as well as I can now recollect, was a week or ten days after he left us; and we were
becoming uneasy about him, when, to our great joy, he made his appearance at my
house, on his way to join his ^onily.
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 9
He told me that he found the British fleet, at the mouth of the Potomac, prepar-
ing for the expedition against Baltimore. He was courteously received by Ad-
miral Cochrane, and the officers of the army, as well as the navy. But when he
made known his business, his application was received so coldly, that he feared he
would fail. General Ross and Admiral Cockbum — who accompanied the expedi-
tion to Washington — ^particularly the latter, spoke of Dr. Beanes, in very harsh
terms, and seemed at first not disposed to release him. It, however, happened,
fort\mately, that Mr. Skinner carried letters from the wounded British officers left
at Bladensburg; and in these letters to their friends on board the fleet, they all
spoke of the humanity and kindness with which they had been treated after they
had fallen into our hands. And after a good deal of conversation, and strong repre-
sentations from Mr. Key, as to the character and standing of Dr. Beanes, and of the
deep interest which the community in which he lived, took in his fate, General
Roes said that Dr. Beanes deserved much more punishment than he had received;
but that he felt himself bound to make a return for the kindness which had been
shown to his wounded officers, whom he had been compelled to leave at Bladens-
burg; and upon that ground, and that only, he would release him. But Mr. Key
was at the same time informed that neither he, nor any one else, would be per-
mitted to leave the fleet for some days; and must be detained until the attack on
Baltimore, which was then about to be made, was over. But he was assured that
they would make him and Mr. Skinner, as comfortable as possible, while they
detained him. Admiral Cochrane, with whom they dined on the day of their
arrival, apologized for not accommodating them on his own ship, saying Hiat it was
crowded already with officers of the army; but that they would be well taken care
of in the frigate Surprise, commanded by his son. Sir Tliomas Cochrane. And to
this frigate, they were accordingly transferred.
Mr. Key had an interview with Dr. Beanes, before General Ross consented to
release him. I do not recollect whether he was on board the admiral's ship, or the
Surprise, but I believe it was the former. He found him in the forward part of the
ship, among the sailors and soldiers ; he had not had a change of clothes from the time
he was seized; was constantly treated with indignity by those around him, and no
officer would speak to him. He was treated as a culprit, and not as a prisoner of war.
And this harsh and humiliating treatment continued until he was placed on board
the cartel . . .
Mr. Key and Mr. Skinner continued on board of the Surprise, where they were
very kindly treated by Sir Thomas Cochrane, until the fleet reached the Patapeco,
and preparations were making for landing the troops. Admiral Cochrane then
shifted his flags to the frigate, in order that he might be able to move further up
the river, and superintend in person, the attack by water, on the fort. And Mr.
Key and Mr. Skinner were then sent on board their own vessel, with a guard of
sailors, or marines, to prevent them from landing. They were permitted to take
Dr. Beanes with them and they thought themselves fortunate in being anchored
in a position which enabled them to see distinctly the flag of Fort M'Henry from
the deck of the vessel. He proceeded then with much animation to describe the
scene on the night of the bombardment. He and Mr. Skinner remained on deck
during the night, watching every shell, from the moment it was fired, until it fell,
listening with breathless interest to hear if an explosion followed . While the bom-
bardment continued , it was sufficient proof that the fort had not surrendered . But
it suddenly ceased some time before day; and as they had no communication with
any of the enemy's ships, they did not know whether the fort had surrendered, or
the attack upon it been abandoned. They paced the deck for the residue of the
night in painful suspense, watching with intense anxiety for the return of day, and
looking every few minutes at their watches, to see how long they must wait for it;
and as soon as it dawned, and before it was light enough to see objects at a distance.
Digitized by
Google
10 The Star-Spangled Banner.
their glasses were turned to the fort, uncertain whether they should see there the
stars and stripes, or the flag of the enemy. At length the light came, and they saw
that *' our flag was still there/' And as the day advanced, they discovered, from
the movements of the boats between the shore and the fleet, that the troops had
been roughly handled, and that many wounded men were cairied to the ships. At
length he was informed that the attack on Baltimore had failed, and the British
army was re-embarking, and that he and Mr. Skinner, and Dr. Beanee would be
permitted to leave them, and go where they pleased, as soon as the troops were on
board, and the fleet ready to sail.
He then told me that, under the excitement of the time, he had written a
song, and handed me a printed copy of "The Star Spangled Banner." When I
had read it, and expressed my admiration, I asked him how he found time, in
the scenes he had been passing through, to compose such a song? He said he
commenced it on the deck of their vessel, in the fervor of the moment, when he
saw the enemy hastily retreating to their ships, and looked at the flag he had
watched for so anxiously as the morning opened; that he had written some lines,
or brief notes, that would aid him in calling them to mind, upon the back of a
letter which he happened to have in his pocket; and for some of the lines, as he
proceeded, he was obliged to rely altogether on his memory; and that he finished
it in the boat on his way to the shore, and wrote it out as it now stands, at the hotel,
on the night he reached Baltimore, and immediately after he arrived. He said
that on the next morning, he took it to Judge Nicholson, to ask him what he
thought of it, that he was so much pleased with it, that he immediately sent it
to a printer, and directed copies to be struck off in hand-bill form; and that he,
Mr. Key, believed it to have been favorably received by the Baltimore public.
More than forty years had elapsed since Chief Justice Taney had
heard this story for the first time from Francis Scott Key, and
though it probably was modified or embellished in course of time, yet
in substance it has the earmarks of authenticity. Exactly for this
reason, if for no other. Chief Justice Taney's accoimt furnished the
foundation for all further accounts, but it should be noticed that the
Chief Justice does not tell us anything beyond how the words came
to be written, imtil struck oflF in handbill form. We do not leam
when and imder what circumstances the broadside was printed,
how the poem was wedded to its music, or when and by whom the
song was first read or sung. If certain writers do include such state-
ments in their quotations from Taney's account, they certainly did
not read Taney's introductory letter, but most probably copied
their quotations from Admiral Preble, who indeed but carelessly
attributes such statements to the Chief Justice. The data not con-
tained in Taney's account had to be supplied by others, and it is
very curious that instantly this part of the history of ''The Star-Span-
gled Banner" became confused, whereas Chief Justice Taney's
accoimt remained imchallenged except in unimportant points, as
for instance, the reasons for Doctor Beanes's arrest. Under this
head Chief Justice Taney was rather vague; not so Mrs. Anna H.
Dorsey, who in the Washington Sunday Morning Chronicle added
some ''lesser facts," which were reprinted in Dawson's Historical
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner^. 11
Magazine, 1861, Yoluine 6, pages 282-283. According to Mrs. Dor-
eej, Dr. William Beanes, the uncle of her mother, was celebrating
with copious libations a rumored British defeat at Washington when
"three foot-sore, dusty, and weary soldiers made their appearance
on the scene in quest of water/' Somewhat under the influence of
the excellent punch. Doctor Beanes and his friends made them pris-
oners of war, and very naturally, the British resented this, to say the
least, indiscreet act. The Beanes-Dorsey family tradition is given
here for all it is worth, but if correct, then it would be a singular
coincidence that an English drinking song called '^To Anacreon in
Heaven" furnished the melody for a poem which had its root in
an event inspired by Bacchus. Indeed Doctor Beanes and his friends
might have been voicing their sentiments "To Anacreon in Heaven."
Different is the account written by Mr. F. S. Key Smith for the
Bepublic Magazine, 1908, April, pages 10-20, on "Fort McHenry
and 'The Star-Spangled Banner.' " According to Mr. Smith, a party
of marauding stragglers came into the Doctor's garden and intruded
themselves upon him and his little company. "Elated over their
supposed victory of the day previous, of which the Doctor and his
friends had heard nothing," says Mr. Smith, "they were boisterous,
disorderly, and insolent, and upon being ordered to leave the prem-
ises became threatening. Whereupon, at the instance of Doctor
Beanes and his friends, they were arrested by the town authorities and
lodged in the Marlborough jail."
This version, too, is quoted here for all it is worth; but it should
be noted that' throughout this article, dealing elaborately only with
the political history of Key's poem, Mr. Smith is conspicuously silent
about his authorities, thus preventing critical readers from accepting
his statements without skepticism. A case in point is his continua-
tion of Chief Justice Taney's narrative:
He [Judge Nicholaon, also Key's brother-in-law] took it [the draft of the song]
to the printing office of Captain Benjamin Edes on North Street near the comer
of Baltimore street, but the Captain not having returned from duty with the
Twenty-Sixth Maryland Regiment, his office was closed, and Judge Nicholson
proceeded to the newspaper office of the Baltimore American and Commercial
Daily Advertiser, where the words were set in type by Samuel Sands, an appren-
tice at the time. . . . Copies of the song were struck off in handbill form, and
promiscuously distributed on the street. Catching with popular favor like
prairie fire it spread in every direction, was read and discussed, until, in less
than an hour, the news was sdl over the dty. Picked up by a crowd assembled
about Captain McCauley's tavern, next to the HoUday Street Theater, where
two brothers Charles and Ferdinand Durang, musicians and actors, were stop-
ping, the latter mounted a chair, and rendered it in fine style to a large assemblage.
On the evening of the same day that Mr. Charles [!!] Diirang first sang "The
Star Spangled Banner," it was again rendered upon the stage of the HoUiday
Street Theater by an actress, and the theater is said to have gained thereby a
national reputation. In less than a week it had reached New Orleans [1] . . .
Digitized by
Google
12 The Star-Spangled Banner.
This is merely the hastily concocted and uncritically diluted essence
of previous articles, including that by Taney. It will be more profit-
able to turn to the very few original accounts than to dissect or even
pay much attention to the second-hand compilations from these
original sources, no matter how spirited or otherwise attractive
they may be.
One C. D., in the Historical Magazine of 1864, volume 8, pages 347-
348, has this to say:
One of your correepondents inquires in what form the song of the Star Spangled
Banner was first printed? I think that in the History of the Philadelphia Stage
you will find that subject clearly explained. The song was fijrst printed and put
upon the press by Captain Edes, of Baltimore, who belonged to Colonel Long's
Twenty-Seventh Regiment of militia. He kept his printing office at the comer
of Baltimore and Gay Streets. It was given him by the author, Mr. Key, of
Washington, in its amended form, after the battle of North Point, about the
latter end of September 1814. The original draft, with its interlineations and
amendatory erasures, etc. was purchased by the late €ren. George Eeim, of
Beading, and I suppose his heirs have it now. It was printed on a small piece
of paper in the style of our old ballads that were wont to be hawked about the
streets in days of yore. It was first sung by about twenty volunteer soldiers in
front of the Holliday Street Theater, who used to congregate at the adjoining
tavern to get their early mint juleps. Ben. Edes brought it round to them on
one of those Hbating mornings or matinees. I was one of the group. My brother
sang it. We all formed the chorus. This is its history . . .
The reference to the "History of the Philadelphia Stage" and to
"My brother" immediately implies the identity of this C. D. with
Charles Durang, brother of Ferdinand Durang (both actors), and
joint author, or, rather, editor of his father John's, "History of the
Philadelphia Stage," published serially in the Philadelphia Sxmday
Dispatch, 1854-55. Consequently we have here the testimony of a
contemporary earwitness. A few years later, in 1867, Col. John L.
Warner read before the Pennsylvania Historical Society a paper on
"The Origin of the American National Anthem called 'The Star-
Spangled Banner,'" and this paper was printed in the Historical
Magazine, 1867, Volume II, pages 279-280. As will be seen from
the following quotation, it does not contradict Charles Durang's
accoimt, but merely supplements it. Says Colonel Warner:
It was first sung when fresh from his [Captain Benjamin Edes'] press, at a small
frame one-story house, occupied as a tavern next to the Holiday Street Theatre.
This tavern had long been kept by the widow Berling, and then by a Colonel
MacConkey, a house where the players '' most did congregate, " with the quid
nuncs of that day, to do honor to, and to prepare for, the daily military drills in
Gay Street, (for every able man was then a soldier;) and here came, also. Captain
Benjamin Edes, of the Twentynseventh Regiment; Captain Long and Captain
Thomas Warner, of the Thirty-ninth Regiment, and Major Frailey. Warner
was a silversmith of good repute in that neighborhood.
It was the latter end of September, I8I4, when a lot of the young volunteer
defenders of the Monumental City was thus assembled. Captain Edes and Cap-
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 18
tain Thomas Warner came early along one morning and forthwith called the
group (quite merry with the British defeat) to order, to listen to a patriotic song
which the former had just struck off at his press. He then read it to all the young
volunteers there assembled, who greeted each verse with hearty shouts. It was
then suggested that it should be sung; but who was able to sing it? Ferdinand
Durang, who was a soldier in the cause and known to be a vocalist, being among
the group, was assigned the task of vocalising this truly inspired patriotic hymn
of the lamented Key. The old air of " Anacreon in Heaven '* had been adapted
to it by the author, and Mr. Edes was desired so to print it on the top of the ballad.
Its solenm melody and impressive notes seem naturally allied to the poetry,
and speak emphatically the musical taste and judgement of Mr. Key. Ferdinand
Duiang mounted an old-fashioned rush-bottomed chair, and sang this admirable
nationsd song for the first time in our Union, the chorus to each verse being re-
echoed by those present with infinite harmony of voices. It was thus sung
several times during the morning. When the theatre was opened by Warren
and Wood, it was simg nightly, after the play, by Paddy McFarland and the
company.
So far the historian woxild have plain sailing, but his troubles begin
with an article written for Harper's Magazine, 1871, volume 43, pages
254-258, by Mrs. Nellie Eyster, as appears from the printed index.
Under the title of '"The Star-Spangled Banner:' An hour with an
octogenarian," she reports an interview held on November 20, 1870,
with Mr. Hendon, of Frederick, Md., who knew Francis Scott Key
personally as a boy and who moved in 1809 to Lancaster, Pa., whence
both the Durangs hailed. Together with Charles and Ferdinand
Durang he belonged to the Pexmsylvania Volimteer Militia, which on
August 1, 1814, left Harrisburg in defense of Baltimore, but, remem-
bers Mr. Hendon, they "marched to the seat of war three days after
the battle had been won," and with special reference to the defense of
Fort McHenry he *' was chafing like a caged tiger because [he] was not
in it." He further says that "they remained upon Gallows Hill, near
Baltimore, for three months, daily waiting for an enemy that never
came. Then, for the first time since leaving York [Pa.], [they] took
breathing time and looked about for amusement." Follows what
Admiral George Henry Preble called a more fanciful version than
Warner's accoimt when he copied Mr. Hendon's words for a foot-
note (p. 494) in the chapter on "Our National Songs" (pp. 490-511)
in the first edition (Albany, 1872) of his industrious and popular
compilation, "Our Flag:"
**Have you heard FranciB Key's poem?" said one of our men, coming in one
evening, as we lay scattered over the green hill near the captain's marquee. It
was a rude copy, and written in a scrawl which Horace Greeley might have mis-
taken for his own. He read it aloud, once, twice, three times, until the entire
division seemed electrified by its pathetic eloquence.
An idea seized Ferd. Durang. Hunting up a volume of flute music, which
was in somebody's tent, he impatiently whistled snatches of tune after time,
just as they caught his quick eye. One, called ** Anacreon in Heaven ", (I have
played it often for it was in my book that he found it), struck his fancy and
Digitized by
Google
14 The Star-Spangled Banner.
rivetted his attention. Note after note fell from his puckered lips until, with a
' leap and shout, he exclaimed ''Boys, I've hit it!" and fitting the tune to the
words, they sang out for the first time the song of the Star Spangled Banner.
How the men shouted and clapx>ed, for never was there a wedding of poetry to
music made under such inspiring influences! Getting a brief furlough, the
brothers [!!.] sang it in public soon after . . .
In the second edition of his work (1880), then called "History of
the Flag of the United States of America," Admiral Preble reprinted
this fanciful story, together with the Charies Durang and Colonel
Warner account, but again without the slightest attempt at critical
comparison and apparently without noticing that we do not have to
deal here with more or less fanciful differences, but with reminiscent
accounts that exclude each other. What subsequent writers con-
tributed in this vein to the literature on "The Star-Spangled Ban-
ner" may be disregarded since they merely paraphrased with more
or less accuracy what they found in Preble or in his sources, as for
instance, when one writer in the American Historical Record, 1873,
volume 2, pages 24-25, carelessly mentions Charles instead of Ferdi-
nand Durang as the first singer of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
However, a belated version with fanciful variations of the main
theme should be noticed, as it was printed sometime in 1897 in the
Philadelphia Ledger and from there reprinted in substance in the
Iowa Historical Record, July, 1897, page 144. According to this,
"the second day after the words were written, Ferdinand Durang
was rummaging in his trunk in a tavern in Baltimore, where he had
his baggage, for music to suit the words, and finally selected that of
'Anacreon in Heaven.' By the time he had simg the third verse, in
trying the music to the words, the little tavern was full of people,
who spontaneously joined in the chorus. The company was soon
joined by the author of the words, Francis Scott Key, to whom the
tune was submitted for approval, who also took up the refrain of the
chorus, thus indorsing the music. A few nights afterward ' The Star-
Spangled Banner' being called for by the audience at the Holliday
Street Theater, in Baltimore, Ferdinand Durang sang it from the
stage. Durang died in New York in 1832. Durang had a brother,
Charles, also a soldier in the 'Blues,' who was likewise an actor, who
died in Philadelphia in 1875. . . ."
Finally an account deserves to be reprinted here in part, because
it mentioned the person who set Key's poem in type, though otherwise
the lines quoted are not overly accurate, as the reader of the Taney
letter will notice. It appeared in the Baltimore American on Sep-
tember 12, 1872, together with a facsimile of the article, etc., of
September 21, 1814, and reads in part:
We have placed at the head of this article this now immortal national song
just as it first saw the light in print fifty-eight years ago . . . This song, as the
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 15
fotm in which it is given shows, was published anonymously. The poet, Fran-
cis Scott Key, was too modest to announce himself, and it was some time after its
appearance that he became known as its author . . . Mr. Skinner chanced to
meet Mr. Key on the flag-of-truce boat, obtained from him a copy of his song, and
he furnished the manuscript to *'The American " after the fight was over. It was
at once put in type and published. It was also printed in slips and extensively
circulated. The ''printer's boy,"- then employed in the office of ''The Ameri-
can," who put this song in type, survives in full vigor, our respected friend, the
editor and publisher of the "American Fanner,'' Samuel Sands, Esq.
That to Ferdinand Durang belongs the honor of having first sung
Key's poem is unanimously asserted (except by those who confuse
him with his brother Charles) , but it remains an open question when
and where he might so have done. On this point, the two earwit-
nesseSy Charles Durang and Mr. Hendon, disagree. According to the
reminiscences of the latter, the event must have happened at least
three months after September 14 in camp on OaUows Hill near Balti-
more. NoW; it has ahready been mentioned that the brief account of
the circumstances leading to the writing of Key's poem printed in
the Baltimore American on September 21, preceded the full text of
the poem under the heading ''Defence of Fort M'Heniy" with the
remark "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven." It may be that Mr. Hendon
heard Ferdinand Durang sing the hymn in camp after September 21,
but it stands to reason that at least as early as September 21 other
vocally inclined readers of the Baltimore American enjoyed the com-
bination of Key's ''Defence of Fort M'Heniy," and the tune "To
Anacreon in Heaven." If we possessed no other contemporary
evidence, Ferdinand Durang's claims would rest upon veiy shaky
grounds indeed, nor is the rest of Mr. Hendon's story at all of a nature
as to inspire reliance upon his memory. Mr. Elson in his "National
Music of America" (p. 202) bluntly expressed his suspicion to the effect
that "never was a bolder or more fantastical claim set up in musical
history," and every musician will agree with him that the "puckered
lips" and the frantic hunt for a suitable tune in a volume of flute
music is sheer journalistic nonsense, which verdict applies also to the
Philadelphia Ledger account. And his hunt for a melody happened
three months after the tune, to which the words were to keep com-
pany, had been publicly announced!
Tlie suspicious character of Mr. Hendon's long-distance reminis-
cences leaves those of Charles Durang to stand on their own merits,
but unfortunately they do not help us in fixing the exact date of the
first performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Charles Durang
merely remembered having been one of the chorus when his brother
Ferdinand and about twenty volunteer soldiers who used to con-
gregate at the adjoining tavern in the morning first sang the song
after Ben. Edes brought it round to them on one of those libating
Digitized by
Google
16 The Star-Spangled Banner.
mornings. This may have been the morning of September 15, when
Samuel Sands, the apprentice, is popularly supposed to have set
the poem as a broadside, or any other morning, including a morning
after September 21, when the poem had appeared with indication of
the tune in the Baltimore American. Nor is Colonel Warner's account,
who perhaps was a descendant of Capt. Thomas Warner, which pos-
sibility would give his account the strength of a family tradition,
more explicit on this point. At this tavern, it being a southern Sep-
tember morning, may mean practically the same as in Charles
Durang's version, in front of the adjoining Holliday Street Theater.
There Captain Edes, in company of Capt. Thomas Warner, is said to
have called the attention of the group of volunteers ''to a patriotic
song which [he] had just struck off at his press." Consequently,
neither Durang nor Warner substantiate the popular version that
Ferdinand Durang sang ''The Star-spangled Banner" for the first
time on September 15, 1814. Nor do they even substantiate the
universally accepted theory that the broadside was struck off Edes's
press on September 15! Indeed, not even Key-Taney's report:
"Judge Nicholson . . . immediately sent it [the manuscript] to a
printer, and directed copies to be struck off in hand-bill form,"
necessarily implies the conclusion that they were struck off on the
morning of September 16. At any rate, the story that Key's poem
was taken to a printer, set as a broadside, distributed about town,
read, discussed, sung with great gusto, etc., and all this on the morning
of September 15, 1814, belongs to the realm of unwholesome fiction!
On the evening of September 15 "The Star-Spangled Banner,"
says Mr. F. S. Key Smith, was "rendered upon the stage of the
Holliday Street Theater by an actress." Also Ferdinand Durang is
mentioned in this connection by some writers, and others proffer other
names. What are the facts ? In the first place, the suspicions of the
historians should have been aroused by the observation that the actor-
manager, Wood, in his autobiography does not mention any theatrical
performances at Baltimore in September, 1814. In the second place,
if they had consulted the Baltimore papers of that period, such as
the Federal Gazette, Baltimore Patriot, Baltimore American — none of
which was published, by the way, by Benjiamin Edes! — they would
have found no theatrical performances announced in September, 1814,
at all, but they would have found a notice in the Federal Gazette,
September 20, to the effect that "about 600 Pennsylvania troops
arrived yesterday," among them a Lancaster company, apparently
the very mihtia troops to which Ferdinand Durang belonged. Not
only this, the historians would further have found from the same
source that the theater was not operied untU October 12, I8I4, No
reference to "The Star-Spangled Banner" appears in the announce-
ments of this evening or of the benefit performance on October 14
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 17
"to aid the fund for the defence of the city," unless hidden away on
the benefit program as "a patriotic epilogue by Mrs. Mason." On
this evening Ferdinand Durang did appear — dancing a " military horn-
pipe." With a little patience the historians at last would have found
in the announcement of the historical play "Count Benyowski" for
Wednesday evening, October 19, 1814 (in the Baltimore American
appears October 15 as a misprint), the following lines, which at last
shed the light of fact on the whole matter:
After the play, Mr. Harding [the Federal Gazette spells the name Hardinge]
will sing a much admired New Song, written by a gentleman of Maryland, in
commemoration of the gallant Dbfbncb of Fobt M'Hbnby, called, Thb Stab
Spangled Banneb. . . .
The rather immaterial question of whether or not and when and
where Ferdinand Durang possibly sang ' 'The Star-Spangled Baimer"
for the first time leads up to the much more important question:
How came the tune of " To Anacreon in Heaven/' and no other, to be
wedded to Key's poem? Chief Justice Taney, as anybody can see
and as all should have seen before rushing into print with their
stories, is absolutely silent on this point. So is Charles Durang.
Colonel Warner says:
The old air of Anacreon in Heaven had been adapted to it by the authoTy and
Mr. Edee was desired so to print it on to the top of the ballad.
The most reUable reports, therefore, do not mention Ferdinand
Durang at all in this coimection. He figures as musical godfather
to "The Star-Spangled Banner" in the joumahstic reports only and
under rather suspicious circmnstances. However, there exists another
and di£Perent version. Mrs. Rebecca Lloyd Shippen, of Baltimore, a
granddaughter of Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson and a greatniece
of Francis Scott Key, contributed to the Pennsylvania Magazine of
History and Biography, 1901-2, volume 26, pages 427-428, an article
on "The Original Manuscript of 'The Star-Spangled Baimer,' " of
which more will have to be said further on. In this article we read:
Judge Nicholson wrote a little piece that appears at the heading of the lines,
above which he also wrote the name of the time " Anacreon in Heaven '* — a time
which Mrs. Charles Howard, the daughter of Francb Scott Key, told me was a
conmion one at that day — and Judge Nicholson, being a musician among his other
accomplishments and something of a poet, no doubt took but a few minutes to see
that the lines given him by Francis Scott Key could be sung to that tune, and,
in all haste to give the lines as a song to the public, he thus marked it. I possess
this rare original manuscript, kept carefully folded by his wife, Rebecca Lloyd
Nicholson, and taken from her private papers by myself [Mrs. Shippen] and
framed.
Judge Nicholson's part in the history of "The StaivSpangled Ban-
ner" was narrated in substantially the same manner in editorial foot-
notes to an article on "The Star-Spangled Banner," copied largely
from Chief Justice Taney by Mrs. Shippen, for the Pennsylvania
86480-09 2
Digitized by
Google
18 The Star-Spangled Banner.
Magazine of History and Biography, 1898-99, volume 22, pages
321-325. It follows that the editor was either inspired by Mrs.
Shippen or Mrs. Shippen by the editor. Careful reading of this par-
ticular part of the article implies that we have to deal here with a
personal opinion, not with contemporary evidence, or even with a
family tradition. Waiving aside for the present some doubts as to
the accuracy of the story as quoted above, the main contention
appears to be that Judge Nicholson supplied the tune. light is shed
on the whole matter if the history of the tune ''To Anacreon in
Heaven'' in England and America is briefly summarized.
For a long time the tune of "To Anacreon in Heaven" was attrib-
uted, if attributed to any composer at all, to Dr. Samuel Arnold
(1740-1802). Of this opinion were J. C. (in Baltimore Clipper, 1841),
Nason (1869), Salisbury (1872), and others. The general inability to
substantiate this rumor finally led to one of the most grotesquely
absurd articles in musical literature, namely that in the American
Art Journal, 1896 (v. 68, pp. 194-195), by J. Fairfax McLaughlin,
under the title "The Star-Spangled Banner! Who Composed the
Music for It. It is American, not English." The Musical Times, of
London, 1896 (pp. 516-519), immediately challenged Mr. McLaugh-
lin's statements and elaborately buried his patriotic aspirations,
though this service could have been rendered him just as neatly by a
reference to Mr. WiUiam Qiappell's article "The Star-Spangled Ban-
ner and To Anacreon in Heaven" in Notes and Queries, 1873, fourth
series, volume 11, pages 50-51, or to the footnote on page 6 of Mr.
Stephen SaUsbury's "Essay on The Star-Spangled Banner," 1873,
where the contents of a pertinent letter from Mr. William CJhappell
were made public.
In the following pages a combination is attempted of the data,
so far as I could verify them in the articles by Chappell and X in the
Musical Times with the data in Grove's Dictionary and elsewhere,
adding to or deducting from this information the results of a corre-
spondence with such esteemed British authors as Mr. Frank Kidson,
Mr. William Barclay Squire, and Mr. W. H. Grattan Flood.
In his "Musical Memoirs" (1830, Vol. I, pp. 80-84) W. T. Parke
entered under the year 1786 these entertaining lines:
This season I became an honorary member of the Anacreontic Society, and at
the first meeting played a concerto on the oboe, as did Cramer on the violin. The
assemblage of subscribers was sa usual very numerous, amongst whom were sev-
eral noblemen and gentlemen of the first distinction. Sir Richard Hankey
(the banker) was the chairman. This kshionable society consisted of a limited
number of members, each of whom had the privilege of introducing a friend, for
which he paid in his subscription accordingly. The meetings were held in the
great ball-room of the Grown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand, once a fortnight
during the season, and the entertainments of the evening consisted of a grand
concert, in which all the flower of the musical profession assisted as honorary
members. After the concert an elegant supper was served up; and when the
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 19
cloth was removed, the const! tutiooal song, begiiming, ''To Anacreon in Heaven/'
was sung by the chairman or his deputy. This was followed by songs in all the
varied styles, by theatrical singers and the members, and catches and glees were
given by some of the first vocalists in the kingdom. The late chairman, Mr.
Mulso, possessed a good tenor voice, and sang the song alluded to with great
effect . . .
This society, to become members of which noblemen and gentlemen would
wait a year for a vacancy, was by an act of gallantry brought to a premature dis-
solution. The Duchess of Devonshire, the great leader of the haul toUf having
heard the Anacreontic highly extolled, expressed a particular wish to some of
its members to be permitted to be privately present to hear the concert, dc,
which being made known to the directors, they caused the elevated orchestra
occupied by the musicians at balls to be fitted up, with a lattice affixed to the
front of it, for the accommodation of her grace and party, so that they could see,
without being seen; but, some of the comic songs, not being exactly calculated
for the entertainment of ladies, the singers were restrained; which displeasing
many of the members, they resigned one after another; and a general meeting being
called, the society was dissolved.
Misreading slightly Mr. Parke's reminiscences, C. M. in Grove's
Dictionary claimed that Parke wrote of the dissolution of the club
in 1786, which he, of course, did not do. Nor would the year 1786
be tenable, since Pohl in his scholarly book on "Mozart and Haydn
in London," 1867 (v. 2, p. 107), gleaned from the Gazetteer of Jan-
uary 14, 1791, that Haydn was the guest of honor at the society's
concert on January 12. Nor is Mr. Grattan Flood correct if he, in
some "Notes on the Origin of 'To Anacreon in Heaven,' " sent me
in June, 1908, dates the dissolution of the society 1796. (While fully
appreciating the courtesy of Mr. W. H. Grattan Flood in transmitting
these notes, I regret the inadvisability of using them, except in con-
nection with other sources, because these notes are singularly at
variance with the contents of several letters sent me by Mr. Grattan
Flood on the same subject, and because these notes contain certain
positive statements without reference to source which it would be
unmethodical to accept unreservedly.) The "Musical Directory for
the Year 1794" in the "List of various musical societies" states dis-
tinctly: "The Anacreontic Society which met at the Crown and
Anchor Tavern, in the Strand, the festivities of which were heightened
by a very Select Band." Consequently the society no longer existed
in 1794. This is not at all contradicted by the entry under Dr.
Samuel Arnold "Conductor at Acad[emy of Ancient Music], Ana-
[creontic Society]," because the title-page distinctly reads "musical
societies of which they [the professors of music] are or Tuive been,
members." (To avoid confusion it may be here added that "To
Anacreon in Heaven" is not contained in the "Anacreontic Songs for
1, 2, 3, & 4 voices composed and selected by Dr. Arnold and dedi-
cated by permission to the Anacreontic Society," London, J. Bland,
1785.)
Digitized by
Google
20 The Star-Spangled Banner.
If it is now clear that the Anacreontic Society must have been dis-
solved between 1791 and 1794^ the year of its foundation is not
equally clear, and therefore it is a somewhat open question since
when ''To Anacreon in Heaven" can have been simg as the ''consti-
tutional'' song of this society. Mr. Grattan Flood writes in his
"Notes" mentioned above:
The words and music of "To Anacreon" were published by Longman and
Broderip in 177^1780, and were reprinted by Anne Lee of Dublin (?1780) in 1781.
Dr. Cummings says that he saw a copy printed by Henry Fought— at least it is
made up with single sheet songs printed by Fought — ^but iJiis is scarcely likely, aa
Fought did not print after 1770, and the song and music were not in existence till
1770-71 . . .
Mr. William Barclay Squire in a letter dated September 21, 1908,
refers to the dates of these two publications, which contain both the
words and the music, in the guarded sentence, "Both are about 1780,
but it is quite impossible to tell the exact dates.'' The Longman &
Broderip edition is the one the title of which Mr. William Chappell
transcribed for Notes and Queries, 1873:
The Anacreontic Song, as sung at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in the Strand,
the words by Ralph Tomlinson, Esq. late President of that Society. Printed by
Longman and Broderip, No. 26 Cheapside, and No. 13 Heymarket.
With reference to Dr. William Cummings's statement that he saw
a copy printed by Fought, I have not found any such statement by
Doctor Cummings in print. Apparently Mr. Orattan Flood reported
part of a conversation with the distinguished English scholar, but in
reply to a pertinent inquiry Doctor Cummings sent, under date of
November 7, 1908, this brief note:
I had a copy of Smith's ''To Anacreon " pub.[lifihed] in 1771. I showed it at a
public lecture, but cannot now find it. I have two copies of a little later date.
The first named was a single sheet song.
Doctor Cummings evidently was not willing to commit his memory
under the circumstances on the point of imprint, nor does he make it
clear whether or no Smith's name appeared on the sheet song as that
of the composer. Assuming that Doctor Cummings had every solid
reason to date this, the earliest known issue, of ''To Anacreon," 1771,
it follows that words and music must have been written at the latest
in 1771 and at the earliest in the year of foundation of the ''Anacreon-
tic Society," which is unfortunately unknown.
In 1786, according to Parke, the chairman of the society was Sir
Richard Hankey, whose immediate predecessor seems to have been
Mr. Mulso. About 1780 Ralph Tomlinson, esq., appears in the Long-
man & Broderip edition, as the "late President of the Society/' and
no other gentleman has yet been found to have preceded him in the
chair. However, such biographical data are irrelevant for the present
purpose, and attention might now profitably be called to "The Vocal
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 21
Magazine; or, British Songster's Miscellany'' (London, 1778), in
which are published on pages 147-148 as Song 566, without indicar
tion of the tune, as is the case with all the songs in the collection, the
words of,
ANAGRBONTIO SOOIBTT. c^^^c^^^^^ ^^^'^
Wilttai by Ralph TMnUmon, Esq. ^ Tj ///
To Anacreon, in Heav'n, where he sat in full glee,
A few eons of harmony sent a petition, , /
That he their inspirer and patron would be; ^'''^ '^-
When this answer arriv'd from the jolly old Grecian — ,
Voice, fiddle, and flute, '*''•' *^
No longer be mutej
1*11 lend ye my name, and inspire ye to boot: ^^ '^
And, besides, I'll instruct ye, like me, to intwine y • • - Y '^ "
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
The news through Olympus immediately flew;
When old Tnun<fer pretended to give himself airs —
If these mortals are suffered their scheme to pursue,
The devil a gmidess will stay above stairs.
Markl already they cry,
In transi)orts of joy. / ,/ /^ / <^«^ ^^"^ '"^
A fig for PamassusI to Rowley's we'll fly; at^^V 'f ^^*^ "^^^ / ty^ //
And there, my good fellows, we'll learn to intwine . /. . *^ ^*^ //
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine. ' *" "^ ^-^ i/cfci f*^^A</trh/^,
The yellow-hair'd god, and his nine fusty maids, . . . _^ /.._
To the hill of old Lud will incontinent flee, 7« ^ — /"^^^ ^-- > ^#u^^ ^' "^ ^-^"^ Zvl<.
Idalia will boast but of tenantless shades, / u^
And the biforked hill a mere desert will be. <.<o<*at^
My thunder, no fear on't, ^ . . ,
WiU soon do its errand, "^^^^ •"'""
And, dam'mel I'll swinge the ringleaders, I warrant.
I'll trim the young dogs, for thus daring to twine
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
Apollo rose up; and said. Pr'ythee ne'er quarrel.
Good king of the goas, with my vot'nes below I
Your thunder is useless — then, shewing his laurel,
Gry'd, iSic eviUihiUfulmen^ vou know!
Then over eacn head
My laurels I'll spread;
So my sons from your crackers no mischief shall dread,
Whilst snug in their club-room, they jovially twine
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
Next Momus got up, with his risible phiz.
And swore witn Apollo he'd cheturfully join —
The full tide of harmony still shall be his,
But the song, and tne catch, and the laugh shall be mine:
Then, Jove, be not j<ealous
Of these honest fellows.
Cry'd Jove, We relent, since the truth you now tell us;
And swear, by Old Styx, that they long d^l intwine
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
Ye sons of Anacreon, then, join hand in hand;
Preserve unanimity, friendship, and love.
'Tis your's to support what's so happily plan'd;
You've the sanction of gods, and the fiat of Jove.
While thus we agree,
Our toast let it be.
May our club flourish happy, united^ and freel
And long may the sons of Anacreon intwine
The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine.
Digitized by
Google
22 The Star-Spangled Banner.
About two years later, as has been stated above, Longman &
Broderip, of London, and Anne Lee, of Dublin, published " To Anacreon
in Heaven" as sheet song with music. It further appeared as Song
CLXVII on pages 336-337 of "The Vocal Enchantress," London,
J. Fielding [1783], and this being the earliest version of Tomlinson's
words with their music in the Library of Congress, it is here reproduced in
photographic facsimile. (See Appendix, Plate I.) The song received
increased publicity as Song IV (p. 4) in "Calliope; or, the Musical
Miscellany," London (C. Elliot and T. Kay), 1788, as Song I (pp. 1-4)
"Sung by Mr. Bannister at the Anacreontic Society" in the "Edin-
burgh Musical Miscellany," 1792, and as Song LXXXWI in the
first volume of Stewart's "Vocal Magazine," Edinburgh, 1797. In
1796 (Grattan Flood; Mr. Kidson prefers ca. 179B) SmoUet Holden,
of Dublin, made a curious use of the tune by including a "Masonic
Ode, song and chorus, written by Mr. Connel, on behalf of the Masonic
Orphan School," to the Anacreontic tune in his A Selection of Masonic
Songs. A second edition bears the imprint "Dublin, A. L. 5802"
(A. D. 1802), and Mr. Elson inserted a photographic facsimile of this
Masonic Ode (first words: "To old Hiram, in Heav'n where he sat in
full glee") from his copy of the second edition in his book on The
National Music of America.
The inference to be drawn from the insertion of "To Anacreon in
Heaven" in the quoted collections, not to mention many later col-
lections, is plain. As those collections were among the most impor-
tant and most popular of the time, "To Anacreon in Heaven" must
have been familiar to all convivial souls in the British Isles toward
1800. Now it is a fact that with the possible exception of that mys-
terious sheet song of 1771, not one of these publications alludes to
the composer of the tune. It was not the rule to do so in miscel-
laneous collections, yet it is a curious fact that, while contrary to
custom, Stewart's Vocal Magazine, 1797, mentions in a separate index
the composers of many of the airs, it leaves "To Anacreon in Heaven"
without a composer. Possibly the editor doubted the now generally
accepted authorship of John Stafford Smith, or he was still \maware
of the peculiar form of entry (mentioned by Wm. Chappell as early
as 1873!) of "To Anacreon in Heaven" in:
The fifth book of canzonets, catches, canons & glees, sprightly and plaintive
with a part for the piano-forte subjoined where necessary to melodize the score;
dedicated by permission to Viscoimt Dudley and Ward, by John Stafford Smith,
Gent, of His Majesty's Chapels Royal, author of the favorite glees, Blest pair of
Syrens, Hark the hollow woods, etc. The Anacreontic, and other popular songs.
Printed for the author. . . .
This collection was published between 1780 and 1790, the exact
date being unknown. "To Anacreon in Heaven" appears on page
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 23
33, as reproduced here in f acsiinile. (Appendix, Plate II.) The words
'' harmonized by the author" may of course mean harmonized by
the author of the collection and do not necessarily mean harmonized
by the author of the air, but these words, together with the fact that
the collection contains none but Smith's own glees, etc., and the
wording of the title renders it probable that Smith refers to himself
as the composer of the music. But why the words '* harmonized by
the author?" If one looks at the song in its garb as a glee, the bass
starting out full of confidence, and the other voices continuing the
melody and juggling with it, one is almost apt to see in this peculiar
cooperation of the high and low male voices a plausible explanation
of the notoriously wide range of "The Star-Spangled Banner," if
sung by one voice. This explanation is possible only if the form of
''To Anacreon in Heaven" in Smith's Fifth Book was the original
form. That we do not know, yet the word "harmonized" renders
it improbable. Furthermore, if that was the original form of the
piece, then some very radical melodic changes must have taken
place in the melody shortly afterwards, as a comparison of the two
facsimiles will show. Probably Smith composed it, if he really did
compose the tune, as a song for one voice, and in "harmonizing" it
for several and different voices he felt obliged to wander away from
the original. Of course, if the supposed 1771 sheet song was a sheet
song for one voice, and if it contained Smith's name as composer,
then all doubt as to original form and to the composer vanishes. We
would still have a very simple explanation for the extensive range
of the tune. Such a wide range was then (and still is, for that mat-
ter) considered the sine qua non of effective drinking songs. Two
fine examples "Anacreon a poet of excellent skill" and "Ye mortals
whom trouble & sorrow attend" may be found in the "Anacreontic
Songs" of the very conductor of the Anacreontic Society, namely.
Doctor Arnold, and after all, it should not be forgotten that John
Stafford Smith could not possibly foresee that his anacreontic master-
piece would some day have to be simg by old and young of an entire
nation.*
a John Stafford Smith was bom 1750 at Gloucester and he died at London September
3» 1836. His principal teacher was Doctor Boyce. He became an ''able organist, an
efficient tenor singer, an excellent composer, and an accomplished antiquary. ' ' From
1773 on he won many prices of the Catch Club for catches, glees, etc., and his five books
of glees contain, in the words of Grove, " compositions which place him in the foremost
rank of English composers." His famous ''Musica Antiqua'' appeared in 1812, con-
taining a selection of music ''from the 12th to the beginning of the 18th century,"
for which simple reason it would be futile to look for "To Anacreon in Heaven" in
Musica Antiqua.
Digitized by
Google
24 The Star-^Spangled Banner.
Tracing the American history of the air, or rather the history of its
use in America, one runs across these statements in Mr. Salisbury's
"Essay on 'The Star-Spangled Banner/" 1873, page 7:
I do not discover that it was a favorite when Robert Treat Paine, Jr. used its
measure in his spirited song entitled ''Adams and Liberty" [1798]
p. 9:
After sixteen years, in which the tune of the Anacreontic song was seldom
heard in this country or in Europe, it was applied to the pathetic verses of Mr.
Key.
The second of these statements is nonsensical, the first at least
improbable, because it is now known that the musical intercourse
between England and America was too hvely in those days to have
permitted such a well-known air as "To Anacreon in Heaven," pub-
lished in the most popular collections, to have remained barred from
our shores. The chances are entirely in favor of the possibihty that
the song had its votaries here in the seventies, the more so as Parke
states Sir Richard Hankey, later on president of the Anacreontic
Society, to have served in the British army during our war for inde-
pendence. Nor would it be at all reasonable to assume that the
"Columbian Anfiw^reontic Society" foimded in imitation of the Lon-
don Society in 1795 at New York, the moving spirit of which was for
years the great actor-vocalist and bon-vivant John Hodgkinson,
should not have helped to spread a familiarity with "To Anacreon in
Heaven. " Indeed, at least one performance of it in pnbhc is reason-
ably certain, namely, when the "Anacreontic Song" was simg by Mr.
J. West at a concert at Savannali, Ga., August 19, 1796. However,
Mr. Salisbury himself assists in undermining his theory that "To
Anacreon in Heaven" was little known in America before it was
applied to Key's "pathetic verses." On page 5 of his essay he writes
of having seen it in his copy of "The Vocal Companion, published in
Philadelphia, by Matthew Carey in 1796." It matters little that no
copy of such a collection is preserved at the Library of Congress, Bos-
ton Public, New York Public, Brown University, Philadelphia
Library Company, Pennsylvania Historical Society, Princeton Uni-
versity, American Antiquarian Society, Worcester; Mr. Salisbury
must have seen it in a copy of some collection in his possession. Then
he mentions Robert Treat (scil. Thomas) Paine's spirited "Adams
and Liberty" ("Ye Sons of Columbia who bravely have fought")
written for and sung to the time of "To Anacreon in Heaven" at the
anniversary of the Massachusetts Charitable Fire Society in Boston
on June 1, 1798. A photographic facsimile of this famous song is
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 25
given here as it was published in the very popular '^ American Musical
Miscellany" of 1798. (Appendix, Plate III.) Mr. Salisbury further
mentions Paine's song ''Spain'' set to the same tune for a Boston fes-
tival in honor of the Spanish patriots, January 24, 1809. He also
mentions (in footnote, p. 10) a "patriotic offshot" of the Anacreontic
song, "perhaps as good as any other commonly known before 1814" [!}
which appeared in The New York Remembrancer, Albany, 1802, with
the first line "To the Gods who preside o'er the nation below,"
attributed by the Boston Daily Advertiser, May 1, 1873, to Jonathan
Mitchell Sewall, of Portsmouth, N. H.
To these four instances of the use of "To Anacreon in Heaven"
may be added these in the following collections:
1797. Columbian Songster, New York, p. 136. Song: For the glorious Four-
teenth of July. (** The Genius of France from his star begem 'd throne. ")
1799. Columbian Songster, Wrentham, Mass. Song. 32: Union of the gods.
1799. A Collection of Songs selected from the works of Mr. Charles Dibdin, to
which are added the newest and most &vorite American Patriotic
Songs, Philadelphia,
p. 315. Boston Patriotic Song [Adams and Liberty],
p. 326. Our Country's efficiency ('* Ye sons of Columbia, determined
to keep").
1800. American Songster, Baltimore:
p. 9. "To Columbia, who gladly reclin'd at her ease . . .
p. 13. "Ye Sons of Columbia, imite in the cause.*'
No tunes are indicated for these two, but the metre plainly suggests
"To Anacreon in Heav'n."
p. 233. To Anacreon in Heav'n.
1802. Vocal companion, Boston. Song XVI. By J. F. Stanfield, Sunderland.
(" Not the fictions of Greece, nor the dreams of old Rome.")
1803. The American Republican Harmonist:
p. 4. " New Song sung at the celebration of the 4th of July, at Sara-
toga and Waterford, N. Y. By William Foster" (Brave
sons of Columbia, yoiu: triumph behold).
p. 30. Jefferson and Liberty. ("Ye sons of Columbia, who cherish
the prize. " Text merely altered from Adams and Liberty).
p. 105. Song [for the fourth of July, 1803] (" In years which are past,
when America fought).
p. 111. Song. Sung on the 4th of March, at an entertainment given
by the American Consul at London. ("Well met, fellow
free men! lets cheerfully greet.")
p. 126. Song for the anniversary festival of the Tammany Society,
May 12, 1803. Written by Brother D. E.
1804. 'Nightingale,' selected by Samuel Larkin, Portsmouth.
p. 69. Adams and Liberty,
p. 188. To Anacreon in Heaven.
Digitized by
Google
26 The Star-Spangled Banner.
1804. Baltimore Musical Miscellany.
V. 1, p. 26. Anacreon in Heaven (given in Appendix in lEacsimile,
PI. IV).
p. 29. "When Bibo went down to the regions below."
p. 121. Sons of Columbia [Adams and Liberty].
V. 2, p. 158. The Social Club.
1811. Musical Repository, Augusta.
p. 22. Young Bibo. ("For worms when old Bibo prov'd delicate
fun.")
p. 140. Adams and Liberty [without indication of the time],
p. 207. Union of the Gods. (" To Columbia, who gladly clined at
her ease.")
1813. James J. Wilson, National Song Book, Trenton.
p. 43. " For the Fourth of July" (" Columbians arise! let the cannon
resound.")
p. 66. "Embargo and Peace" ("When our sky was illuminated by
freedom's bright dawn.")
p. 68. "Union and Liberty." ("Hark! The Trumpet of war from
the East sounds alarm.'')
p. 70. " Freedom. " ("Of the victory won over tyrany 's power. ' ')
p. 87. "The Fourth of July." ("O'er the forest crowned hills, the
rich vallies and streams.")
p. 88. "Jefferson's Election." Sung by the Americans in London,
March 4, 1802. "Well met, fellow freemen! Let's cheer-
fully greet. ")
This is not intended as an exhaustive attempt to trace the tune
"To Anacreon in Heaven" in early American song collections, but
merely to prove and to corroborate by facts that "the tune was a
common one at that day," as Key's own daughter, Mrs. Howard,
told Mrs. Shippen.
We have some further contemporary evidence in this communica-
tion sent by Mr. Charles V. Hagner to the American Historical Record,
1873, volume 2, page 129:
At the time it was written by Mr. Key, during the attack on Fort McHenry,
Sept., 1814, there was a very popular and fashionable new song in vogue, viz:
''To Anacreon in Heaven," every one who could sing seemed to be singing it.
The writer of this was at the time, (Sept. 1814) one of some three to four thou-
sand men composing the advance Light Brigade, chiefly volunteers from Phila-
delphia, under the command of General John Cadwalader, then encamped in
the state of Delaware. In the evenings before tattoo, many of the men would
assemble in ^squads and sing this song, hundreds joining in the chorus. Mr.
Key must have caught the infection and adapted his words to the same air.
Francis Scott Key simply can not have escaped ^'To Anacreon in
Heaven'' ! Indeed so common was the tune that, after Thomas Paine
had set the example with his * 'Adams and Liberty/' the music and the
rather involved form and meter of '*To Anacreon in Heaven" were
adopted as standards by poetically inclined patriots. This historical
fact applies with all its force to Francis Scott Key. The form and
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 27
meter of "To Anacreon in Heaven," "Adams and Liberty," and
"The Star-Spangled Banner" are practically the same, as the juxta-
position of the first stanza will prove, if such proof be necessary.
TO ANACREON IN HEAVEN.
To Anacreon in heaven, where he eat in full glee,
A few sons of Harmony sent a petition,
That he their inspirer and patron would be,
When this answer arrived from the iolly old Grecian:
"Voice, fiddle, and flute,
"No longer be mute,
"I'll lend ye mv name, and inspire ye to boot:
"And besiaes, TU instruct you, like me^ to entwine
"The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine."
THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER.
O say, can you see by the dawn's early light.
What so proudly we hailed at the twuieht's last eleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fi^ht.
O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming!
And the rocket s red glare.
The bombs bursting in air
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
say, does uat star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?
It is absurd to think that any poetically inclined patriot of those
days like Key could have on the spur of the moment set himself to
writing a poem of such involved meter and peculiar form as his is
without using consciously or imconsciously a model. It is equally
absurd imder the circimistances to beheve any story, tradition, or
anecdote from whatever source to the effect that others, with more or
less difficulty, supphed a time which fits the words almost more
smoothly than does John Stafford Smith's air the Anacreontic text
of Ralph Tomlinson. Internal evidence proves that Francis Scott
Key, when his imagination took fire from the bombardment of Fort
McHenry, had either the meter and form of the words or words and
air of ''To Anacreon in Heaven" or one of its American offshoots in
mind as a scaffold. If this be now taken for granted, two possibilities
offer themselves: First, Key wrote his inspired lines as a poem with-
out anticipating its musical use. When shortly afterwards a desire
was felt to sing his poem, the identity of poetic meter and form of
both poems necessarily, and, as it were, automatically, suggested to
Key himself or any other person of culture the air of "To Anacreon
in Heaven." The second possibihty is that Key did anticipate the
musical possibihties of his poem and intended it as a song to be simg.
In that case the fact, as will be seen, that neither his so-called original
manuscript nor the broadside contain any indication of the time
Digitized by
Google
28 The Star-Spangled Banner.
may be explained by a«8iiTning that Key, very much like the editor
of the Americaa Songster, Baltimore (1800), considered it unneces-
sary to mention what was self-eyident to him sa the author. The
first possibihty is really more plausible, but at any rate Colonel
Warner's statement that ''The old air of 'Anacreon in Heaven' had
been adapted to it [the poem] by the author" seems to come nearest
the truth, though if a very fine distinction were to be made we should
rather say that the poem was adapted by the author to the air, or at
least to its poetic mate.
One of the popular legends is that Key's poem with its music
spread like wildfire beyond Baltimore, and in a short time became
a national song. The popular mind seems to consider it a blemish, a
reflection on the intrinsic merits of a song (or any other work of art)
if it does not obtain inmiediate popularity, and writers who cater
to the tastes and prejudices of the multitude do not hesitate to
amputate the facts accordingly. "The Star-Spangled Banner"
rather gains than loses in merit if the silly anecdotes of its wildfire
progress are not heeded, and if we adhere to what is stiU common
knowledge among the older generations, namely, that ''The Star^
Spangled Banner" was not rushed to the front of our national songs
until the civil war. Before that time its progress as a national song
had been steady, but comparatively slow, as anybody may see who
follows its career through the American song collections. This
statement in nowise interferes with the fact that Francis Scott Key
put it too modestly if he "believed it to have been favorably received
by the Baltimore public." It would be quite possible to trace with
infinite patience the progress of "The Star-Spangled Banner"
through the American song collections, but this report hardly calls
for such a laborious imdertaking. However, to illustrate the point
raised above, one would find that "The Star-Spangled Banner"
appears in such songsters as "The American Songster, New York,"
n. d.; "New American Songster, Philadelphia, 1817;" "Bird of
Birds, New York, 1818;" "The Star-Spangled Banner, Wilmington,
1816;" "The Songster's Magazine, New York, 1820;" "American
Naval and Patriotic Songster, Baltimore, 1831;" but not in such as
"The Songster's Companion, Brattleborough, Vt., 1815;" "The
Songster's Miscellany, Philadelphia, 1817;" "The Songster's Museum,
Hartford, 1826." Li other words, twenty years after its conception
Key's "Star-Spangled Banner" was not yet so generally accepted as
a national song as to necessitate insertion in every songster.
Key's poem was accessible to the public as a broadside possibly as
early as September 15, 1814. Here must be quoted what Admiral
Preble said on page 725 of the second edition of his "Histoiy of our
Flag:"
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 29
The Song on this broadside was enclosed in an elliptical border composed of
the common type ornament of the day. Around that border, and a little distance
from it, on a line of the same are the words, ''Bombardment of Fort McHenry.''
The letters of these words are wide apart, and each one surrounded by a circle
of stars. Below the song and within the ellipsis, are the words ''Written by
Francis S. Key, of Geoigetown, D. C."
This description applies to the '^Fac-simile of broadside as the
song first appeared in print/' contained in L. H. Dieknan's pamphlet
"The Seventh Star," published at Baltimore by the board of public
works for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, 1904. However, it
may be pointed out by way of correction that merely the initial "F"
and not the full name of Francis is printed, that we read M'Henry,
not McHenry, that a rather pretty and effective ornamental outer
border follows the shape of the broadside, and that the four comers
contain additional ornamental designs. What arouses the curiosity
of the historian most is that Key's authorship is not withheld, that
Admiral Preble does not mention this fact at all, that the title of the
poem here is " The Star-Spangled Banner" and that no tune is indicated.
If Preble's description tallies with a broadside as facsimiled by
Dielman, it absolutely differs from '' ons of those first printed handbills'^
which, so Mrs. Shippen stated in her article, first was in possession of
her grandfather, Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson, then of his wife,
after that in Mrs. Shippen's possession, and recently was acquired
together with a Star-Spangled Banner autograph by Mr. Henry
Walters, of Baltimore. The latter courteously granted permission to
examine these treasures, and I found that his broadside (about 6^
by 5} inches) is without any ornamental design whatsoever, does not
mention Key's name at all, and does not bear any title except ''De-
fence of Fort M'Henry." This is followed by the same historical
note as appeared in the Baltimore American of September 21, 1814,
then by the indication "Tune: Anacreon in Heaven," and lastly by
practically the same text of the poem as it appears in the Judge
Nicholson-Widow Nicholson-Mrs. Shippen-Mr. Walters autograph.
The only differences, apart from the differences in interpunctuation,
etc., are these:
(1) In the first stanza was printed the "Bombs" instead of the
bomb.
(2) In the second stanza the misprint "reflected new shines"
instead of "reflected now shines."
(3) In the broadside capital letters frequently appear where they
are not foimd in the autograph, f. i. "The Rocket's," "Land of the
Free," "Home of the Brave." On the other hand, the autograph
has "Country" whereas this broadside has "country."
Here then are two broadsides, both of which are claimed to have
belonged to that edition set up on the morning of September 15,
Digitized by
Google
30 The Star-Spangled Banner.
1814. We are not permitted to accept Mrs. Shippen's claims for her
broadside oflfhand, since her account is clearly a mixture of family
tradition, personal opinion, and sediment from reading on the subject.
The broadsides, to be authentic, must stand the test of analytical
criticism, and if one, by this process, is eliminated then all reason-
able scepticism will vanish from the other.
The three observations called forth by the broadside championed
by Preble and Dielman are curious indeed in view of the fact that the
Baltimore American, when publishing Key's poem on September 21,
1814, preceded by a brief historical note, did not print the title "The
Star-Spangled Banner," but instead "Defence of Fort McHenry,"
did not mention Key by name at all, but added: "Tune: Anacreon
in Heaven." Key's poem — and this is a fact hitherto rarely, if ever,
pointed out — made its first appearance in an American songster in
the very rare "National Songster, or, a collection of the most admired
patriotic songs, on the brilliant victories achieved by the naval and
military-heroes . . . First Hagerstown edition," Hagerstown [Md.],
John Gruber and Daniel May, I8I4 on p. 30-31 under the title of
<' DEFENCE OF FORT M'HENRY.
Tune: Anacreon in Heaven.
Wrote by an American Gentleman [!], who was compelled to witness the bom-
bardment of Fort M' Henry, onboard of a flag vessel at the mouth of the Patapeco."
Evidently the compiler of the National Songster clipped Key's poem
from the Baltimore American and did not use a copy of this broadside.
If, as Mrs. Shippen insists (Pa. Mag. of Hist., 1901-2, pp. 427-428)
her grandfather's broadside was "One of those first printed hand-
bills,'' why was Key's name suppressed in the Baltimore American's
accoimt after Judge Nicholson had permitted it to go on the handbill
which he himself had ordered at the printing office? One might
suspect that in view of the vindicative nature of the British it was
deemed safer for Mr. Key to suppress the name of the author of " Their
foul footsteps' pollution" in a paper of fairly healthy circulation, but
this explanation is not plausible, because the historical note in the
Baltimore American could have left no doubt of the offender's
identity in the minds of British officers should they have been in a
position to catch Key. Possibly Key's modesty would not permit
disclosure of his authorship, but what could his modesty avail him,
if the broadside with his name had already been favorably received
by the public of Baltimore? And not merely this, we have the words
of Mrs. Shippen:
Judge Nicholson wrote a little piece that appears at the heading of the lines,
above which he also wrote the ''name of the tune Anacreon in Heaven/'
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 31
Obviously this action of Judge Nicholson can not apply to the
broadside which contains ''no little piece'' nor indication of the tune,
but it does apply to the account in the Baltimore American. Hence it
would hare been Judge Nicholson himself who withheld Key's name
from the newspapers after he had given it to the public in a broadside.
Furthermore, the Baltimore American account was bodily reprinted
in the National Intelligencer September 27, 1814, imder the same
title " Defence of Fort M'Henry," and at the bottom of the anonymous
poem appears the editorial note: "Whoever is the author of those lines
they do equal honor to his principles and his talent!" Consequently,
not even the editor of a paper printed at Washington, D. C, prac-
tically Key's home, knew of his authorship as late as September 27.
Indeed, the anonymous "gentleman" figures in the Baltimore
American at least as late as October 19, 1814. There is another
suspicious circumstance. It should have aroused surprise ere this
that Samuel Sands, the apprentice, set up at a moment's notice such
an elaborate ornamental handbill as described by Preble and fac-
similed by Dielman. The boy must have had remarkably precocious
artistic instincts indeed, and very rapid hands and eyes. But why
did he refuse to follow copy; why are there several differences between
his broadside and the so-called original manuscript? Thus one
becomes convinced that this broadside is not and can not have been a
copy of the one struck off before the publication in the Baltimore
American, but a copy of a broadside published considerably after that
date, when Key's authorship was no longer kept a secret, when his
poem had changed — at least in print, the earliest manuscript extant
has none — its title from "Defence of Fort McHenry" to "The Star-
Spangled Banner," and when verbal differences in the text had com-
menced to be quite frequent. The Preble-Dielman broadside thus
being eliminated, only the Nicholson-Shippen-Walters broadside
remains for serious consideration, and as far as I can see, it contains
absolutely nothing to arouse our suspicion. In absence of proof to
the contrary, it may indeed be called a copy, perhaps a unique copy,
of the original broadside edition.
We turn our attention to the whereabouts of the original manu-
script of Key's poem.
Mrs. Shippen writes in the article already quoted:
Having heard several times of late that there are in existence several original
copies, of the lines written on the night of September 12 [sicQi 1814 ... by
Francis Scott Key . . . and as I am the fortunate possessor of the only document
that could exist of these lines — the original manuscript — I will explain how it
seems possible that there could be more than one . . . [follows a partly inaccu-
rate account based on Taney] ... It is the hack of that old letter, unsigrud, that
Francis Scott Key (my great-uncle) gave to Judge Joseph Hopper Nicholson
Digitized by
Google
82 The Star-Spangled Banner.
(my grand&ther) that I possess, together with one of those ^( prinUd handbiUs
. . . Judge Nicholson [seeing] that the lines given him by Francis Scott Key
could be sung to that tune [to Anacreon in Heaven] and in all haste to give the
lines as a song to the public, he thus marked it. I possess this rare original manu-
script, kept carefully folded by his wife, Rebecca Lloyd Nicholson and taken
from her private papers by myself and framed. . . .
This is a clear-cut claim of possession of the original manuscript,
and yet Mrs. Shippen herself undermines the claim by closing her
interesting article thus:
. . . The first piece of paper on which the lines he composed were written on
the night of his arrival in Baltimore I have in my possession; the same that Mr.
Key himself gave to Judge Nicholson.
These statements slightly contradict each other, as a careful read-
ing of Chief Justice Taney's account, on which Mrs. Shippen partly
bases her claim, will prove. According to Taney, Francis Scott Key
told him that —
(1) He commenced it [the poem] on the deck of their vessel • • .
that he had written some lines or hrief notes that would aid him in
calling them to mind, upon the back of a letter which he happened
to have in his pocket; and for some of the lines, as he proceeded,
he was obliged to rely altogether on his memory.
(2) He finished it in the boat on his way to the shore.
(3) He wrote it out as it tww stands, at the hotel, on the night he
reached Baltimore and immediately after he arrived.
(4) On the next morning he took it to Judge Nicholson.
Consequently, a distinction is here made between the autograph
slcetch of the poem commenced on the cartel vessel and finished on
the back of a letter in the boat before reaching Baltimore, and a
written out autograph copy of the sketch. It is the latter which he
took to Judge Nicholson for his critical opinion, and, of course, not
the sketch on the back of the letter. In the first quotation from her
article Mrs. Shippen describes this sketch; in the second quotation,
the manuscript as written out after Key's arrival at Baltimore.
These two different manuscripts she confuses, not realizing the dis-
tinction implied in Chief Justice Taney's narrative. Hence she
considered herself Judge Nicholson's heir to the original manuscript
of "The Star-Spangled Banner," whereas site really possessed, and
Mr. Henry Walters, of Baltimore, now possesses, not the original
manuscript, hut Key's first dean copy of the original manuscript,
sketched and finished under such peculiar circumstances. What
became of this sketch we do not know. The probabilities are that
Key destroyed it after he had neatly written out his poem at the hotel.
The Library of Congress is not in a position to inclose here for purpose
of comparison and analysis a photographic facsimile of Key's manu-
script, as now possessed by Mr. Walters, but fortunately a facsimile
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 33
may be found in the Centuiy Magazine, 1894, page 362, and in Diel-
man's pamphlet "Maryland, the Seventh Star." Nobody looking
at these facsimiles or the original can concede that the latter has the
appearance of a filled-in sketch. It is too neatly written for that,
the lines are too symmetrically spaced and the whole manuscript
contains practically only two corrections: In the first stanza Key
wrote and then crossed out '' through'* instead of "fty the dawn's early
light," and in the third, " They have waaVd out" instead of *' TTieir
hlood has washed out" The manuscript contains no signature, no
title, nor indication of tune. This is mentioned particularly because
Mrs. Shippen's article might convey the impression that the manu-
script is "thus marked." The visible ^ects of folding do not point
at all to the "old letter" in Key's pocket, since Mrs. Shippen's
manuscript had been "kept carefully folded" by Judge Nicholson's
wife.
Unquestionably, the manuscript now at the Walters Gallery is the
earliest extant of "The Star-Spangled Banner." In after years Key
presented signed autograph copies to friends and others, but just
how many such copies he made is not known. At any rate, it is not
surprising that the existence of several autograph copies led to con-
fusion as to the earhest, the incorrectly so-called original, copy. An
attempt shall now be made to separate inteUigently such copies as
have come to my notice principally by way of Admiral Preble's
several contradictory contributions to the subject.
Charles Durang, in the Historical Magazine, 1864, pages 347-348,
claimed that "the original draft, with its interUnations and amend-
atory erasures, etc. was purchased by the late Gen. George Keim,
of Reading, and I suppose his heirs have it now."
Without the slightest hesitation Preble used this statement in his
book "Our Flag" (1st ed., 1872, p. 496). In 1874 Preble wrote in
his essay "Three Historical Flags" (New Engl. Hist, and Gen. Reg.,
pp. 39-40), that this particidar copy was
Presented by Mr. Key in 1842 to Gen. Geoige Keim and is now in poeseesion
of his son Henry May Keim, Esq. of Reading, Penn. ... I have a photo-
graphic copy of the authograph in the poBsession of Mr. Keim.
Retracting his former statement about the original draft, with its
erasures, in a footnote on the same page, Preble states that his pho-
tograph shows it to be "a fair copy, written out by Mr. Key, and I
learn from Gen. Keim's son that the autograph was presented to
his father by Mr. Key.''
A facsimile of this was made for the Baltimore Sanitary Fair in
1864, so Mr. Keim informed Admiral Preble January 8, 1874 (see
New Engl. Hist, and Gen. Reg., 1877, pp. 29), but, if made, it cer-
tainly was not included by Kennedy and Bliss in their "Autograph
85480-~09 ^3
Digitized by
Google _
34 The Star-Spangled Banner.
Leaves," as the Library of Congress copy of this work proves. Pre-
ble gave the text of the Keim copy, though not in facsimile, in his
essay, "Three Historic Flags" (1874). In the second edition of his
"History of Our Flag" (1880) he then informed his readers that
Gen. George Keim's copy had "since [been] presented to the Penn-
sylvania Historical Society by his son." This statement is somewhat
puzzling, because the text of the Keim copy quoted by Preble, 1874,
the dedication "To Gen. Keim," and the imdated signature "F. S.
Key" are identical with those of a supposed "Star-Spangled Banner"
autograph in possession of Mr. Robert A. Dobbin, of Baltimore, Md.
When generously loaning this to the Library of Congress for exhi-
bition purposes and granting us the privilege to reproduce it in fac-
simile (see Appendix, Plate VII). Mr. Dobbin, imder date of March
24, 1909, wrote:
Mr. Key was an intimate friend of Gen. Keim of Peimsylvania. On account
of this intimacy and as a mark of the friendship which existed between them,
Mr. Key gave this copy, which I have loaned you, to General Keim. You will
note that Gen. Keim's name is in Mr. Key's handwriting.
Mr. Charles W. Keim, a son of General Keim, came into possession of this
copy after the death of his father, and a few years before his own death presented
it to my late wife, who was a granddaughter of Mr. Francis Scott Key.
Mr. Dobbin apparently was not aware of the fact that he possessed
a photograph, not an original autograph, the photograph even show-
ing the marks of thumb tacks. Consequently, not he but the Penn-
sylvania Historical Society is in the possession of the Keim copy,
which, with its approximate date, 1842, is, of course, as far removed
from the original draft with its erasures as is possible. It is here
reproduced by permission of the society (see Appendix, Plate V).
Benson John Lossing wrote in footnote (p. 966), in his Pictorial
Fieldbook of the War of 1812, first edition, 1868:
The fac-simile of the original manuscript of the first stanza of the "Star
Spangled Banner," given on the opposite page, was first published, by permission
of its owner (Mrs. Howard) daughter of the author [Key], in "Autograph Leaves
of our Country's Authors, " a volume edited by John P. Kennedy and Alexander
Bliss for the Baltimore Sanitary Fair, 1864.
Accepting Lossing's statement, Preble in his essay, "Three Historic
Hags," 1874, credited Mrs. Charles Howard, of Baltimore, with the
possession of this autograph. As the facsimile in the "Autograph
Leaves" shows, it bears the title "The Star-Spangled Banner" and
the signature "F. S. Key," but no dedication and no date. The
handwriting has not the firmness of youth, and it stands to reason
that Key wrote this manuscript in late life. Admiral Preble had
occasion in his essay, "The Star-Spangled Banner," New England
Historical and Genealogical Register, 1877, pages 28-31, to correct
Lossing's statement of ownership, since Mrs. Howard wrote him under
dateof April 26, 1874:
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 85
I do not think I ever had an autograph of The Star-Spangled Banner. My
&ther [F. S. Key] gave his children from the time they could epeak, the habit of
committing poetry to memory, and in that way only has the song been preserved
to me. Except in one or two words, Mr. Keim's version, as you have it, is the
one I have ever remembered.
Though, therefore, Mrs. Howard disclaimed ownership of this par-
ticular autograph, yet it must have existed and is, to judge by the.
facsimile, genuine.
Another autograph of "The Star-Spangled Banner" was thua
described by Preble in his book, "Our Flag," 1872:
A copy of the poem in Key's own handwriting, a copy prepared many yeare
after its composition, and evidently in the exact language intended by its author
(as it was presented by him to James Mahar, who for thirty years was the gardener
of the executive mansion), was a few years since, exhibited in the window of
Messrs. Phillip & Solomons, on Pennsylvania avenue, Washington. The identity
of the handwriting was certified to by Judge Dunlop, Nicholas Gallen, Esq.,
Peter Force and others, all of whom were intimately acquainted with Mr. Key
and perfectly familiftr with his style of penmanship. In fact his style was so
peculiar and uniform, that it would be almost impossible for anyone who had ever
noticed it with ordinary care to be mistaken.
This report Preble evidently took from a copy of the National
Intelligencer, from which he further quoted "verbatim" the text of
the Mahar autograph which evidently bore the title: "The Star-
Spangled Baxmer" and the signature "For Mr. Jas. Mahar, of Wash-
ington city, Washington, June 7, 1842. From F. S. Key."
In his essay, "Three Historic Flags," Preble merely added that the
Mahar copy was exhibited at Washington "in 1843, after Mr. Key's
death." The present whereabouts of the Mahar copy is imknown
to me.
Finally, in his essay, "The Star-Spangled Banner," 1877 (already
quoted above), Preble remarked of a copy, dated October 21, 1840:
It was firat published in fac-simile in the American Historical and Literary Curi-
osities (PL LV) by John Jay Smith [Sec. Ser. N. Y. 1860, pi. 55] who stated the
original was in the possession of Louis J. Gist.
Preble enlivened his narrative by adding a reduced facsimile of this
1840 copy, and he again used it in the second edition of his ''History
of Our Flag," 1880. From there it was reproduced by Miss Mary L. D.
Ferris in the New England Magazine, 1890, for her article on "Our
national songs " (pp. 483-504) . Another facsimile is in the possession
of the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, as Mr. E. M. Barton,
the librarian, informed me. The American Antiquarian Society re-
ceived it on October 21, 1876, from Maj. Albert H. Hoyt, then editor
of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register. The orig-
inal seems to have disappeared until offered for sale as No. 273 in Stan.
V. HenkePs catalogue of the Rogers collection of autograph letters,
etc., 1896. The added facsimile shows absolute identity in date,
Digitized by
Google
86 The Star-Spangled Banner.
signature, orthography, appearance, and every other detail with the
facsimile at Worcester.
To sum up, it appears that, not coimting the original draft, at least
five copies of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Francis Scott Key's
handwriting exist, or at least existed:
(1) The Judge Nicholson-Mn. Shippen-Walten copy, 1814. (Walten.)
(2) The Louis J. CiBt copy, 1840. (Gist, present whereabouts unknown.)
(3) The supposed Howard copy, ca. 1840. (Howard.)
(4) The Gen. Eeim-Pennsylvania Historical Soc. copy. (Fkt. Hist. See.)
(5) The Mahar copy, 1842. (Mahar.)
There may be other copies, but these five are sufficient for the pur-
pose of showing the chauges Francis Scott Key himself made in his
poem. The different versions would, as often happens in such cases,
be used by different compilers. In course of time verbal inaccuracies
would creep from one song book into the other. Also the compilers
themselves have sometimes felt justified in improving Key's text.
The result of all this has been, of course, that gradually Key's text
became unsettled. As early as 1872 Preble marked the verbal differ-
ences between certain different versions, and since then surely the
confusion has not decreased. Hence, very properly, the cry for an
authoritative text has been raised. What should constitute such a
text, whether one of Key's own version, or a combination of them, or
any later "improved" version, it is not for me to say, though I may
be permitted to remark that in my opinion there is no reason for going
outside of Key's own intentions. At any rate, I do not consider it my
duty to wade through endless song books in order to trace all the
verbal inaccuracies and alterations of the text of ''The Star-Spangled
Banner. "** The comparison will be extensive enough for all practical
purposes if it be limited to Key's own five versions, to the earliest
printed versions, and to the one in his collected poems. They will be
distinguished from each other, where necessary, by the words written
in parenthesis. These printed texts here compared with the earliest
manuscript extant are:
a In this connection part of the memorandum of Dr. A. R. Spofford, November 19,
1907, ifl very instructive. He wrote:
''A coUation of this authentic copy [i. e., the Cist copy], with several widely cir-
culated collections of songs, shows numerous variations and omissions: Following is
a statement of a few of these, with the number of discrepancies found in each:
''Nason (E). A Monogram [I] on our National Songs. Albany, 1869. (11 varia-
tions from original, and one stanza omitted.)
''Higgins (Edwin). The Star-Spangled Banner. Baltimore, 1898. (7 variations.)
"Sousa (J. P.). National and Patriotic Airs of All Lands. Philadelphia, 1890.
(14 variations, with a fifth stanza added, which was not written by Key.)
"Bryant (W. C). Library of Poetry and Song. New York, 1880. (8 variatioiiB.)
"Dana (C. D.). Household Poetry. New York, 1859. (7 variations.)
"Coates (H. T.). Fireside Encyclopcedia of Poetry. Philadelphia, 1870. (9
variatioiis.)
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 37
(6) The Walters Broadside. (Broadside I.)
(7) The Preble-Dielman Broadside. (Broadside II.)
(8) Baltimore American, 1814. (Baltimore American.)
(9) The '' National Songster.'' (National Songster.)
(10) Key's Poems, publ. 1857. (Poems.)
The comparison is based on the Walters text, without esthetic com-
ment and taking the title of *'The Star-Spangled Banner" for granted.
The words that differ are italicized. Differences in spelling and
interpunctuation are disregarded.
O say can you see by the dawn's early li^ht
What so proudly we hail'd at the twilieht's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes & bright stars through tne perilous fight
O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the hovM) burstmg in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there
O say does that star spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free & the home of the brave?
On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, Aa2/conceab, AoZ/ discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam
In fuU glory reflected now shines in the stream
'Tis the star-spanffled banner — O long may it wave
O'er the land of the free & the home of the bravel
And where is that band who so vauntingly swore.
That the havoc of war & the battle's confusion
A home & a Country should leave us no more?
Their blood has wash'd out their foul footstep's pollution
No refuge could save the hireling & slave
From the terror of flight or the eloom of the grave.
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free & the home of the brave.
thus be it ever when /r^em^n shall stand
Between their lov'd home & the war*8 desolation I
Blest with vict'ry & peace may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the power that hath made & preserv'd us a nation I
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just.
And this be our motto — "In God is our Trust,"
And the star-sjMtngled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free & the home of the brave.
"Stedman (E. C). American Anthology. Boston, 1900. (5 variations.)
''While some of these alterations from the author's manuscript may seem unim-
portant, others actually change the meaning of the lines, as in the second stanza,
where Key wrote —
" 'What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep
"As it fitfuUy blows, half conceals, half discloses? '
'"Die second line is perverted into —
** 'As it fitfuUy blows, now conceals, now discloses?'
"In all except three of the reprints before noted this change occurs.
"It is for the worse, for two reasons:
"(1) It destroys the fine image of the wind flapping the flag so as to show and con-
ceal alternately parts of the stars and stripes; while the substitution makes the breeze
sometimes conceal the whole star-spangled banner.
"(2) The substitution is bad literary form, since it twice uses the word *now,'
which the author has applied twice in the two lines immediately following."
Digitized by
Google
38 The Star-Spangled Banner.
DIFFERBNGB8.
Ye: Cist.
By: Cist. Bright stars A broad stripes: Cist.
Clouds of the: Cist; Pa. Hist. Soc.; Howard; Mahar.
Bombs: Broadside I and II; Baltimore Am.; Poems.
From: Broadside II.
That' Cist; Pa. Hist. Soc.; Howard: Poems; Now-now: Poems.
On: Cist; Mahar.
Are the foes that: Pa. Hist. Soc.; Howard.
Are (hejoes who: Poems.
That Host that: Cist.
The foe that: Mahar.
Sweepingly: Mahar.
This: Mahar.
His: Mahar.
And: Broadside II.
Foemen: Mahar.
Homes: Baltimore Am.; Cist; Pa. Hist. Soc.; Howard; Mahar.
War's: Mahar.
long may it: Broadside II.
like other patriotic songs, *'The Star-Spangled Banner*' has had
its share of additional stanzas; that is, of verses suggested by the
changing times, the changing spirit of the times, and sectional an-
tagonism. On the other hand, at least one stanza often came to be
omitted. It is the third, undoubtedly expressive of bitter sentiment
against the English, as was natural and logical in 1814, but rather
unnatural and illogical after we were again the friends of England.
This apparent defect of Key's text for a national hynm, which should
stand above party feeling and chauvinism, led to the composition of
one of the two additional stanzas, which shall here be briefly con-
sidered. Its origin was narrated to Preble in 1876 by Benjamin Rush
in the following words printed by the Admiral in his essay on "The
Star-Spangled Banner" (New Eng. Hist, and Gen. Reg., 1877, p. 31):
The circumstances under which these additional stanzas to the Star-Spangled
Banner first came to my hand were briefly adverted to in the Preface to my
edition of my father's book, entitled ''Recollections of the English and French
Courts," published in London in 1871, where I then was. The stanzas were also
published; but that need not interfere in the least with your desire to insert them
in the second edition of your History of the Flag, wherein I should say they
would appropriately come in. The name of the author by whom they were com-
posed, was George Spowers, Esq., and this has never been published. I think
it eminently due to him now that his name should be given to the public, con-
sidering not only the beauty but the admirable sentiments of the stanzas. He
had seen in my hands a manuscript copy of the original song, and asked me to
lend it to him, which I did. A day or two afterwards he returned it to me with
these stanzas. I was quite a boy at the time, at school with my two brothers at
Hampstead, near London, while my father was residing in London as minister of
the United States. It must have been about the year 1824.
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner. 39
Mr. Spowers's well-meant but objectionable stanza, because it, too,
drags our national hymn into foreign politics, reads:
But huflh'd be that strain I They our Foes are no longer;
Lo Britain the right hand of Friendship extends,
And Albion's &ir Isle we behold with affection
The land of our Fathers— the land of our Friends!
Long, long may we flourish^ Columbia and Britain,
In amity still may yoin: children be found.
And the Star>Spangled Banner and Red Gross together
Wave free and triumphant the wide world around!
The best known of the additional stanzas is the one written by
Oliver Wendell Hobnes, as he informed Admiral Preble, April 14, 1872,
at the request of a lady during our civil war, there being no verse
alluding to treasonable attempt against the flag. According to
Preble the stanza was first published in the Boston Evening Tran-
script. Preble received a corrected and amended autograph of the
stanza from Holmes, and this he reproduced in facsimile in the
second edition of his famous work (p. 730). It reads:
When oiu: land is illumined with liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile
Tne flag of the stars, and the page of her story I
By the millions unchained
Who their birth-right have sained,
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave.
While the lana of the free is the home of the brave.
It has been noticed ere this that not only the text of The Star-
Spangled Banner but its music is simg and played with noticeable
differences. These occur both in the harmonization of the melody
and in the melody itself. To trace the discrepancies in the harmoni-
zation would hardly be profitable, since the harmonization of any
melody will always be to a certain degree a matter of individual taste.
Often many ways are possible, several equally good — i. e., equally
appropriate — andseldom one the only proper one. The harmonization
depends, of course, largely on the bass, and since the harmonization of
a national song should be simple and easily grasped by the popular
mind, there can not be much variance of opinion as to the bass.
However, historical considerations will hardly be helpful in this
direction. An authoritative harmonization is less a problem of
history than of musical grammar, and authoritative it can be only for
those who accept the harmonization recommended by a jury of
musicians as the authoritative one for the persons under their own
musical jurisdiction. It is somewhat different with the melody.
True, neither an act of Congress nor the recommendation of a board
of musicians will stop the process of polishing and modification (either
for better or worse) which takes place with all folk, traditional, and
patriotic songs. Yet it is obviously imperative for musical and other
Digitized by
Google
40
The Star-Spangled Banner.
reasons that at least the melody of a national hymn have as much
stability and uniformity as can be forced through official channels on
the popular mind. The most suitable form of the melody will again
be a matter of decision by a jury of musicians, yet it may be interest-
ing and instructive to contrast ''To Anacreon in Heaven/' as used
and modified; partly for verbal reasons, about 1800, with the common
versions of its oflfshoot "The Star-Spangled Banner" of to-day, which
from the beginning must have slightly diflPered from "To Anacreon in
Heaven" by dint of the peculiarities of Key's poem. First, the
melody as it appears in the Vocal Enchantress, 1783, the earliest
version in the Library of Congress, will be compared bar for bar with
^' Adams and Liberty" in the American Musical Miscellany, 1798
(A. M. M.), and with the version in the Baltimore Musical Miscellany,
1804 (B. M, M,). The facsimile of the "harmonized" version in
Smith's "Fifth Book" shows it to be too garbled for purposes of
melodic comparison.
VOCAIi ENCHAirTRESS, 1783.
2 8
^
u
^ 15 ,
4r J J J .^
T-rr ^^--^
r Cjr^;v_^
tr 17 Chobus.
Digitized by
Google
The Star-Spangled Banner.
41
DiFvnaxKCBs
8 4
ifflj n ^^-j^iH^-^-94 : ;iir l , . U j / ii
<^« Aft* Jft* Jd« Aft* Aft* JLa fit* Sft*
<^* Aft« aS^m JL« lft« U«
6 /r.
r^T-^. j-ij j^^hi i f- .rjj J j i icc^ilriif ^ 1
B« IS* K*
J H^ J' lj^xi ^ll r r J J jHHK ^^JJ^ l i r r r_rj|
▲*M*M.
JD* 1ft* Ifta
JL» Aft* Aft* Jd* Aft* Aft*
▲.M.M*;
B.M*M.
A.M.M.
B.M.M.
le, 20 17, 21
r rJ-f-J' i if' c r i i r r r
■f-tfj'^=F~r^
^L< Aft* U*
B* Aft* Aft*
JL» Aft* Aft*
B.M*M.
Thus the s(M)alled polishing process had begun within one genera^
tion after the ''Sons of Harmony" had adopted ''To Anacreon in
Heaven" as their constitutional song* How is their club melody
sung to the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Americans
young and old at the beginning of the twentieth century? For the
purpose of comparison I have selected at random 12 recent song
books and John Philip Sousa's "National, patriotic, typical airs of
all lands" (1890), compiled "by authority" for use in the United
States Navy. (Sousa*) If these few dijffer so widely in single bars,
what discrepancies could be revealed if all the song books used in
our country were similarly compared!
1. W* H. Aiken, Part songB for mixed voices for high schools, 1908.
2. C. A. Boyle. School praise and song, 1903* (B)
3. C. H. Famsworth, Songs for schools, 1906. (F)
4* A. J. Gantvoort. School music reader, 1907 (G)
5. B. Jepson's New Standard Music Readers, Seventh year, 1904 (J)
6. McLaughlin-Gilchrist, Fifth Music Reader, 1906. (M)
7. Ripley-Tapper, Harmonic Fifth Reader, 1904. (R)
8. E. Smith, Music Course, Book Four, 1908. (Sm)
9. J. B* Shirley, Part songs for girl's voices, 1908 (Sh.)
10. H* O* Siefert, Choice songs, 1902 (Si)
11. C* E* Whiting, The New public school music course. Third reader, 1909 (W)
12. E* J* A. Zeiner, The High school song book, 1908. (Z)
Digitized by
Google
42
The Star-Spangled Banner.
21
22
28
21
26
26 27
i-J^-J^
^F^
|J. J' J 1
y^-^t=i^
^^^
f=l!^^:^-i-M
28
81
BiFFXBBKCBS
0^'"
8,11 ,
, 6,13
\l . f 11/, ,Mif^-aig llr;V' g cilc^r' r/ s lu Ln
Bi F;J;Bl;S]n; Sh;W;Z G; Sh;W. M.
6 7,16 9,17
Z Sh; W.
18 1» _
F;G;J; M; Sh; Z. Sh;W.
81; W.
B; G; J, Bm. B;F;G;J',M;
Si; Sm;W;Z.
Digitized by
Google
HAIL COLUMBIA.^
''Hail Columbia" was written in 1798 by Joseph Hopkinson
(1770-1842), whose prominence as jurist^ combined with his author-
ship of ''Hail Columbia," has won him a place in biographical
encyclopsBdias. The poet himself has described the circumstances
which led to the composition of his poem in a letter written August
24, 1840, to Rev. Rufus W. Oriswold and printed in The Wyoming
Bard, Wilkesbarre, Pa.:
''Hail Columbia'' was written in the mimmer of 1798, when war with France
was thought to be inevitable. €k>ngre8B was then in session in Philadelphia,
debating upon that important subject, and acts of hostility had actually taken
place. The contest between England and France was raging, and the people
of the United States were divided into parties for the one side or the other, some
thinking that policy and duty required us to espouse the cause of "republican
France," as she was called, while others were for connecting ourselves with Eng-
land, im.der the belief that she was the great preservative power of good principles
and safe government.- The violation of our rights by both belligerents was forcing
us from the just and wise policy of President Washington, which was to do equal
justice to both but to part with neither, and to preserve an honest and strict
neutrality between them. The prospect of a rupture with France was exceed-
ingly offensive to the portion of the people who espoused her cause, and the
violence of the spirit of party has never risen higher, I think not so high, in our
country, as it did at that time upon that question. The theatre was ^en open
in our city. A young man belonging to it, whose talent was high as a singer, was
about to take a benefit. I had known him when he was at school. On this ac-
quaintance he called on me one Saturday afternoon, his benefit being announced
for the following Monday. His prospects were very disheartening; but he said
that if he could get a patriotic song adapted to "the President's March " he did
not doubt of a full house; that the poets of the theatrical corps had been trying
to accomplish it, but had not succeeded. I told him I would try what I could
do for him. He came the next afternoon, and the song, such as it is, was ready
for him. The object of the author was to get up an American spirit which should
be independent of, and above the interests, passion and policy of both belliger-
ents, and look and feel exclusively for our honour and rights. No allusion is
made to France or England, or the quarrel between them, or to the question which
was most in fault in their treatment of us. Of course the song found favour with
both parties, for both were American, at least neither could disown the sentiments
and feelings it indicated. Such is the history of this song, which has endured
infinitely beyond the expectation of the author, as it is beyond any merit it can
boast of except that of being truly and exclusively patriotic in its sentiment and
spirit.
a Revised and enlaiged from my essay "Critical notes on the origin of 'Hail Colum-
bia,' *' in the Sammelb&nde d. I. M. G., 1901, volume 3, p. 139-166.
43
Digitized by
Google
44 Hail Columbia.
The young man who was about to take a benefit was Gilbert Fox,
to the talents of whom Charles Durang, the historian of the Phila-
delphia stage, does not pay a very high tribute. If we believe
Durang, it was the misfortune of Fox to have ''created Hail Colum-
bia.'' His friends and admirers became so nimierous that his health,
and accordingly his career, were ruined by the excessive demands of
conviviality.
The benefit with which the tragedy of his life began, but which
made his name famous ever since, was thus advertised in the Porcu-
pine Gazette, April 24, 1798:
Mr. Fox's Night. On Wednesday Evening, April 25. By Desire will be pre-
sented (for the second time in America) a Play, interspersed with Songs, in three
Acts, called The Italian Monk .... after which an entire New Sang (written
by a Citizen of Philadelphia) to the tune of the ''President's March " will be sung
by Mr. Fox; accompanied by the Full Band and the following Grand Chorua:
Firm united let us be
Rallying around our Liberty
As a band of brothers join* a
Peace and Safety we shall find I
It was a clever bit of advertising to have inserted the words of the
"grand chorus/' Containing no party allusions they aroused the
public curiosity as to the tendency of the song, and consequently
Mr. Fox reaped a golden harvest. The song met with inunediate
success. It was redemanded nearly a dozen times on that memorable
evening and had to be simg by Mr. Fox "for the second time by
particular desire" on Friday, the next play night, and again on Satur-
day under the name of a "New Federal Song." On Monday a Mr.
Sully begged "leave to acquaint his friends and the public that the
'New Federal Song' to the time of the President's March" would be
given "among the Variety of Entertainments performed at Rickett's
Circus this Evening for his Benefit."
The newspapers and magazines helped to spread the popularity
of the song. It appeared, for instance, in the Porcupine Gazette
for Saturday, April 28, as a "song," in the April number of the
Philadelphia Magazine as a "patriotic song," and as early as May 7
in the Connecticut Courant as "song."
But it seemed at first as if "Hail Columbia," notwithstanding its
neutral spirit, would become more a political than a national song,
for Cobbett's Porcupine Gazette entered on its behalf into a passion-
ate controversy with Bache and Callender's Aurora and General
Advertiser. Thus Cobbett violently attacked his political antagonists
on Friday, April 27, under the heading "Bache and Callender:"
It is not often that I disgust my readers with extracts from the vile paper these
fellows print, but that of this morning contains several things that merit to be
recorded.
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 45
The Theatre. For some days {Must, the Anglo-Monarchical party have appeared
at the theatre in full triumph — and the President's march and other aristocratic
tunes have been loudly vociferated for, and vehemently applauded. On Wednes-
day evening the admirers of British tyranny assembled in consequence of the
managers having announced in the bills of the day that there would be given a
patriotic song to the tune of the President's March, all the British Merchants,
British Agents, and many of our Congress tories, attended to do honour to the
occasion. When the wished for song came, which contained, amidst the most
ridiculous bombast, the vilest adulation to the anglo-monarchical party, and the
two Presidents, the extacy of the party knew no bounds, they encored, they
shouted, they became Mad as the Priestress of the Delphic God.
Cobbett adds:
This circumstance relative to the theatre, must have given a rude shock to the
brain of the few remaining Democrats. It is a lie to say that the song is an eulo-
gium on England or on Monarchy. It shall have a place in this Gazette to-morrow
and in the meantime, to satisfy my distant readers that the charge of its being in
praise of the English is false, I need only to observe, that it abounds in Eulogiums
on the men, who planned and affected the American Revolution I
The public took Cobbett's side, and the song gained rapidly in
favor. It was sung and whistled on the streets, and soon no public
entertainment was considered as satisfactory without it. To quote
from McKoy's reminiscences in Poulson's American Daily Adver-
tiser for January 13, 1829: "Such was the popularity of this song
that very frequently has Mr. Gillingham, leader of the band, been
forced to come to a full stop in the foreign music he had arranged
for the evening by the deafening calls for this march, or song to this
march."
Hardly a week had passed since Mr. Fox's night, when another
Thespian introduced the song in New York. But already the rather
vague title of ''New Federal Song" had been changed into that of
"Hail Columbia."
Cobbett writes on Thursday, May 3 :
The following is part of an advertisement of the Entertainment for the last
Evening at the theatre New York.
End of the Play, Mr. Williamson will sing a new Patriotic Song, called ^'Hail
Columbia: " Death or Liberty. Received in Philadelphia with more reiterated
Plaudits than were perhaps ever witnessed in a theatre.
When Mr. Williamson again sang "Hail Columbia" "at the End
of the Play'' on May 18*** « "Death or Liberty" was dropped, and
ever since the song has been known as "Hail Columbia."
Mr. Williamson seems to have been much in vogue as a singer of
patriotic songs. When assisting Mr. Chalmers in his "Readings and
Recitations" at Oeller's Room in Philadelphia on June 15*** ^, he
entertained the audience with "The Boston Patriotic Song: Adams
a Advertisement in the New York Gazette May 15.
ft Advertisement in Porcupine Gazette June 13.
Digitized by
Google
46 Hail Columbia.
and Liberty," the '*New York Federal Song: Washington and the
Constitution/' and again ''Hail Columbia." YThen engaged for the
"Grand Concert" at Ranelagh Garden in New York for July 4*** he
sang the same three songs, and, we doubt not, much to the delight
of a patriotic audience.
Indeed the success of "Hail Columbia" was "immediate and
emphatic" (Elson). Far beyond the most sanguine expectations of
Joseph Hopkinson! Including his song in a letter directed to Greorge
Washington under date of May 9, 1798, he wrote: *
As to the song it was a hasty composition, and can pretend to very little ex-
trinsic merit — yet I believe its public reception has at least equalled any thing
of the kind. The theatres here [Phila.] and at New York have resounded with
it night after night; and men and boys in the streets sing it as they go.
Evidently not much to the deUght of some reporter who calls it
(in the Centinel of Freedom, Newark, N. J., July 9, 1799) the ''old
threadwom song of Hail Columbia."
As might be expected, the words of "Hail Columbia," together
with the music of the President's March, were published shortly after
the first pubUc performance of the song. In fact only two days had
elapsed when Benjamin Carr inserted the following advertisement: ^
On Monday Afternoon will be published at Gair's Musical Repository, the very
favourite New Federal Song, Written to the tune of the President's March, By
J. Hopkinson, Esq. And sung by Mr. Fox, at the New Theatre with great
applause, ornamented with a very elegant Portrait of the President [soil. John
Adams].
No copy of this original edition of ''Hail Columbia'' has come to
light. If Carr published it at all with Adams's portrait, he probably,
according to his custom, added his imprint. This leads me to now
believe, contrary to my remarks on former occasions, that the edition
which is in Mr. Louis C. Elson's possession and which he reproduced
in facsintiile in his books ''The National Music of America" (1900) and
"History of American Music" (1904) is not identical with Carr's
original edition, but of a trifle later date. Mr. Elson's unique copy
shows the American eagle instead of Adams's portrait and it bears no
imprint. These differences are, of course, not conclusive, since Carr
may have been unable to secure a suitable picture, yet this difference,
together with the fact that he must have had an edition in the press and
that he was not in the habit of suppressing his imprint, compels us to
assume Carr's edition and the one in Mr. Elson's possession not to
have been identical until the identity is proven. The title of Mr.
Elson's copy reads:
''The Favorite New Federal Song [American eagle] Adopted to the Presidents
llarch. Sung by Mr. Fox- Written by J. Hopkinson Esqr."
aOomp. William S. Baker's ''Washington after the Revolution," 1898.
b Gomp. Porcupine Gazette for Friday 27.
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 47
Filling two unpaged inside pages of a musical sheet, it was arranged
in C major *'for the voice, pianoforte, gnittar and clarinett" and this
arrangement was followed, as wa^ customary, by an arrangement (in
D major) for the flute or violin. Among ''new music. Just pub-
lished" the Federal Gazette, Baltimore, on June 25, 1798, advertised
"The President's March," "Hail Columbia, happy land." This may
have been a special Baltimore edition by Joseph Carr, or it may sim-
ply have referred to Benjamin Carr's Philadelphia edition, or to the
one in Mr. Elson's possession, or to:
The President's March, a new Federal Song. Published by G. Willig, Marketstreet,
No. 185. Phila.
A copy of this is contained in a miscellaneous volume of "Battles
and marches" at the Ridgway branch of the Library Company of
Philadelphia, and is here reproduced in facsimile by permission. (See
Appendix, Plates VII-VIII.) Willig published at the above address,
as we know from the city directories, between 1798 and 1803, but the
adjective new in the title surely suggests the year 1798. Under the
title of "Hail Columbia" the song was first advertised in August,
1798, among "patriotic and other favorite songs" as "just published
and for sale at Wm. Howe's wholesale and retail warehouse, 320 Pearl
street, " New York, but as Howe is merely known as dealer in music,
not as a music printer or music publisher, it stands to reason that he
merely advertised for sale one or more of the editions so far published.
All these early editions contained the words and the music. The
text without music (8** 6 p.), of which a copy is in New York Public
Library, was published at Philadelphia under the title of —
Song adapted to the President's march sung at the Theatre by Mr. Fox, at his benefit.
Composed by Joseph Hopkinson, Esq. Printed by J. Ormrod, 41, Chestnut
street.
Thus "Hail Columbia" rapidly became a national song regardless
of its bombastic and prosaic metaphors. Patriotic songs had been
written in America showing this prevailing fault of the times to a lesser
degree, and better songs followed — among the latter, however, cer-
tainly not the "New Hail Columbia," which begins —
Lot I quit my native skies —
To arms I my patriot sons arise
(see p. 45 of James J. Wilson's National Song Book, Trenton, 1813),
but none, except Key's ''Star -Spangled Banner" and Reverend
Smith's "America" were destined to rival the popularity of "Hail
Columbia" for almost a century. But as "America" was written to
the tune of "God Save the King" and the "Star-Spangled Baimer"
to the drinking song "To Anacreon in Heaven," at least " Hail Colum-
bia" may claim the distinction in the history of our early national
songs of being in poetry and music a product of our soil.
Digitized by
Google
48 Hail Columbia.
W. T. R, Saffell in his book ''Hail Columbia, the Flag, and Yankee
Doodle Dandy," Baltimore, 1864, when describing the allegorical-
poUtical musical entertainment of The Temple of Minerva, which was
performed at Philadelphia in 1781, points out the two lines: ''Hail
Columbia's godlike son" and "Fill the golden trump of fame." He
adds : " Do not ' Hail Columbia,' the ' trump of fame,' and the measure
of the chorus, appear to carry Fayles back from 1789 to 1781, for his
music, and Hopkinson from 1798 to the same scene and the same year
for his words? Who can say but our immortal 'Hail Columbia' had
its real origin in 'The Temple of Minerva,' or in the surrender of Com-
wallis, when 'Magog among the nations' arose from his lair at York-
town and shook, in the fury of his power, the insurgent world beneath
him ? May not Fayles have touched a key in the ' Temple of Minerva '
in 1781, and revived the sound in 1789? May not the eye of Hopkin-
son in 1798 have fallen upon the 'Columbian Pamassiad' of 1787,
when the 'Temple of Minerva' first entered the great highway of
history? But none the less glory for Mr. Hopkinson." The eye of
Joseph Hopkinson might indeed have fallen upon the Columbian
Pamassiad in the Columbian Magazine (Philadelphia) for April, 1787,
where the "Temple of Minerva" was printed, but "Fayles" certainly
did not "touch a key" in this little play. And this for the very
simple reason that the "Oratorio" (sic) "was composed and set to
Music by a gentleman" who signed himself H. With a little critical
thought Mr. Saffell might have suspected Francis Hopkinson to have
been the author and composer of "The Temple of Minerva," and so
he was indeed, as my monograph on "Francis Hopkinson and James
Lyon" (1905) has established beyond doubt. Consequently Mr. Saf-
fell's effort to trace the "President's March" back to 1781, by way of
"The Temple of Minerva," if I understand his florid fantasies at all,
is demolished by plain historical facts. It is different with his sug-
gestion that the author of "Hail Columbia" may have been influenced
by "The Temple of Minerva." Joseph Hopkinson of course knew
the poetry of his father and probably shared the admiration of many
contemporaries for it. Hence it was quite natural for him to remem-
ber the two lines quoted above and to unconsciously borrow from
them for his own poem. This process was quite probable in his own
peculiar case, yet we should be careful not to apply too zealously com-
parative philological text-criticism to the patriotic songs of those days
in order to trace the influence exercised by one poet upon the other.
Such apostrophes as "Hail Columbia" were frequently used by the
poet-politicians and indeed their patriotic effusions have many stock
phrases in common. Similar sentiments were then continually
expressed in similar methaphors just as they are to-day. Here, for
instance, is the first stanza of a poem which Joseph Hopkinson might
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 49
also have read in his youth and parts of which might have lingered in
his memory. It was printed in the Federal Gazette, June 23, 1789,
and reads:
A FEDERAL SONO
For the Anniversary of American Independence
To the tune of " Rule Britannia "
Ye Friends to this aufipicioufi day I
Come join the fed'ral, festive band
And aU Golumbiar— homage pay
To him who freed my happy land.
Hail Columbia! Columbial Genius haxU
Freedom ever shall prevail.
National songs are meant to be simg. The best and most heart-
stirring patriotic poems will soon be forgotten if not supported by a
melody which catches the pubUc ear. It might be said that Hopkin-
son's ''Hail Columbia" would have conquered the nation with any of
the popular tunes of the time, but the fact remains that its immediate
and lasting success was actually obtained with the aid of the ''Pres-
ident's March." Not all the honor, therefore, is due to Joseph Hop-
kinson. We musicians are entitled to claim some of the laurels for
the composer of the time which, no matter how little its musical
value may be, has become immortal together with the words of "Hail
Columbia."
Until recently the musical origin of "Hail Columbia" was as
obscure as its Uterary history was clear. Not that the composer had
been treated unkindly by the historians. They tried to lift the veil
which covered his name, but their accoimts were so contradictory
that one claim stood in the way of the other. A methodical analysis
of the contradictory accoimts left the problem open, and it became
probable that merely an accidental find would enable us to solve it.
The reader will have noticed that Hopkinson mentions the "Presi-
dent's March" in his letter without any aUusion to its composer.
The same applies to Durang in his "History of the Philadelphia
Stage" (1864-65) to Dunlap's "History of the American Theatre"
(1823), to Wilson's "National Song Book" (1813), to McCarty's
"Songs, Odes and other Poems on National Subjects" (1842), and to
A. G. Emerick's "Songs for the People" (1848).
The critical investigations began 1859, with an anonymous article
in Dawson's "Historical Magazine" (Vol. Ill, p. 23):
The President's March was composed by a Profeflsor Pfyle, and was played at
Trentonbridge when Washington passed over on his way to New York to his
inauguration. This information I obtained from one of the performers, confirmed
afterwards by a son of said Pfyle. The song '^Hail Columbia'' was written to
the music during the elder Adam's administration, by Judge Hopkinson, and
86480-09 i
Digitized by
Google
50 Hail Columbia.
was first sung by Mr. Fox, a popular singer of the day. I well remember being
present at the first introduction of it at the Holiday street theatze, amid the clap- -
ping of hands and hissings of the antagonistic parties. Black cockades were
worn in those days.
I have also reason to believe that the "Washington March" generally known
by that title — I mean the one in key of G major, was composed by the Hon.
iSranciB Hopkinson, senior, having seen it in a manuscript book of his, in his
own handwriting among others of his known compositions.
J. C.
The above was published in the ''Baltimore Clipper'' in 1841, by a person who
well understood the subject.
Evidently this person was J. C, whose account was simply reprinted
from the Baltimore Clipper.
A somewhat different version appears on page 368 of the '^ Recol-
lections and Private Memoirs of Washington/' by his adopted son
Geoi^e Washington Parke Custis, edited by Benson J. Lossing in
1860.
In New York the play bill was headed ''By particular Desire" when it was
announced that the president would attend. On those nights the house would
be crowded from top to bottom, as many to see the hero as the play. Upon the
president's entering the stage box with his family, the orchestra would strike up
''The President's March" (now Hail Ck)lumbia) composed by a German named
Feyles, in '89, in contradistinction, to the march of the Revolution, called "Wash-
ington's March".
The audience applauded on the entrance of the president, but the pit and gal-
lery were so truly despotic in the early days of the republic, that so soon as "Hail
Columbia" had ceased, "Washington's March" was called for by the deafening
din of a hundred voices at once, and upon its being played, three hearty cheers
would rock the building to its base.
In the following year, 1861, the "Historical Magazine,*' which
took a vivid interest in the history of our national songs, brought
out an article totally contradicting the two already quoted. The
article — in Volume V, 280, page 281 — ^is headed ''Origin of Hail
Columbia" and reads:
In 1829, William Mc Eoy of Philadelphia, under the signature ''Lang Syne",
published in Poulson's Daily Advertiser an account of the origin of the song
"Hail Columbia", which was set to the music of ''The President's March "...
lilr. Mc Key's reminiscences have not, we believe, been reprinted since they were
originally published. The article is as follows:
The seat of the Federal Government of the thirteen United States being
removed to Philadelphia, and in honour of the new president, Washington,
then residing at No. 190 High street, the march, ever since known as "the
President's March", was composed by a German teacher of music, in this city,
named Roth, or Roat, designated familiarly by those who knew him as "Old
Boat". He taught those of his pupils who preferred the flute, to give to that
instrument the additional sound of a drone, while playing in imitation of a
bagpipe. His residence was at one time in that row of houses standing back
from Fifth, above Race street, at the time known as "The Fourteen Chimneys",
some of which are still visible in the rear ground, north eastward of Mayer's
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 51
church. In his peraon he was of the middle size and height. His face was truly
German in expression, dark grey eyes, and bushy eyebrows, round, pointed
nose, prominent lips, and parted chin. He took snuff immoderately, having
hia vest and ruffles usually well sprinkled with grains of rappee. He was con-
sidered as excentric, and a kind of droll. He was well known traditionally,
at the Samson and lion, in Crown street, where it seems his company, in the
olden time, was always a welcome to the pewter-pint customers, gathered there
at their pipes and beer, while listening to his facetious tales and anecdotes,
without number, of high-life about town, and of the players — Nick Hammond,
Miss Tuke, Hodgkinson, Mrs. Pownall, and Jack Martin, of the old theatre in
Southwark. This said ''President's March'' by Roat, the popular songs of
Markoe, the "city poet," in particular the one called "The Tailor Done over"
and the beautiful air of "Dans Votre Lit" which had been rendered popular
by its being exquisitely sung at the time, by Wools, of the Old American Com-
pany, were sung and whistled by every one who felt freedom (of mind) to whistle
and to sing . . .
Public opinion having . . . released itself suddenly from a passion for
French Revolutionary music and song, experienced a vacuum in that parti-
cular, which was immediately supplied by the new national American song
of "Hail Columbia happy Land" written in '98 by Joseph Hopkinson, Esq.
of this city, and the measure adapted by him, very judiciously, to the almost
forgotten " President's March". Ever since 1798, the song of "Hail Columbia"
by Joseph Hopkinson, and the "President's March" by Johannes Roat, being
indiscriminately called for, have become, in a manner, synonymous to the
public ear and understanding when they are actually and totally distinct in
their origin, as above mentioned.
Following the clue given in this reprint, I found the original article
in Poulson's American Daily Advertiser for Tuesday, January 13, 1829,
under the heading ''President's March." Though this article ap-
pears anonymous, there can be no doubt of Mr. McKoy having been
the author, for we know from "Watson's Annals of Philadelphia"
that it was he who wrote the series of articles on olden times in
Philadelphia, published in said paper during the years 1828 and 1829
and mostly signed "Auld Lang Syne."
In the same year that this gentleman's account was reprinted in the
Historical Magazine, Richard Grant White's "National Hymns, How
They Are Written and How They Are Not Written," left the press.
What this author has to say on the origin of the "President's March"
is contained in a footnote on page 22:
. . . The air to which Hopkinson wrote ''Hail Columbia" was a march written
by a German band master on occasion of a visit of Washington, when President,
to the old John Street Theatre in New York.
A similar view as to the musical origin of the song is held by W. T. R,
Saffell in his book ''Hail Columbia, the Flag, and Yankee Doodle
Dandy, Baltimore, 1864." He says, on page 53:
A piece of music set for the harpsichord, entitled the ''President's March" was
composed in 1789, by a German named Fayles, on the occasion of Washington's
first visit to a theatre in New York.
Digitized by
Google
52 Hail Columbia.
Rev. Eiias Nason, on page 33 of his monograph, ''A Monogramm on
Our National Song . . . 1869/' is equally meager, equally omniscient,
and equally opposed to giving authorities when he writes:
... on Washington's first attendance at the theatre in New York, 1789, a
German by the name of Fyles composed a tune to take place of "Waiihington'B
March," christening it with the name of "Bresident's March."
Some years later, in 1872, Benson J. Lossing reprinted in Volume
I (pp. 550-554) of his ''American Historical Record" a paper on
''The Star-Spangled Banner and National Airs," which the Hon.
Stephan Salisbury had read before the American Antiquarian Society,
October 21, 1872. In regard to "Hail Columbia" this author says:
Poulson's Advertiser of 1829 mentions that this song was set to the music of
''the President's March'' by Johannes Roth, a German music teacher in that
city. And the Historical Magazine, vol. 3, page 23, quotes from the Baltimore
Clipper of 1841 that the ''President's March" was composed by Professor Phyla
of Philadelphia, and was played at Trenton in 1789, when Washington jMMsed over
to New York to be inaugurated, as it was stated by a son of Professor Phyla, who
was one of the performers.
Rear-Admiral George Henry Preble, in his "History of the Flag of
the United States; Boston, 1880," wrote:
The "President's March" was a popular air, and the adaptation easy. It was
composed in honour of President Washington, then residing at No. 190 High Street
Philadelphia, by a teacher of music, named Roth, a or Roat, familiarly known
as "Old Roat." He was considered as an excentric, and kind of a droll, and
took snuff immoderately. Philip Roth, teacher of music, described as living at
25 Crown Street, whose name appears in all the Philadelphia directories from
1791 to 1799, inclusive, was probably the author of the march.
According to his son, who asserted he was one of the performers, the march was
composed by Professor Phyla, of Philadelphia, and was played at Trenton, in
1789, when Washington passed over to New York to be inaugurated. &
o PoulBon's Advertiser 1829.
b Historical Magazine, Volume III, 23.
Baltimore Clipper, 1841.
American Historical Record Volume I, 53. Hon. S. Salisbury's paper before
the American Antiquarian Society 1872.
John Bach McMaster, the celebrated author of *'A History of the
People of the United States; New York/' has something to say on
the subject in Volume I, on pages 564-565:
At the John street theatre in New York, ' ' in a box adorned with fitting emblems,
the President was to be seen much oftener than many of the citizens approved.
On such occasions the 'President's March' was always played. It had been
composed by Phyles, the leader of the few violins and drums that passed for the
orchestra, and played for the first time on Trenton Bridge as Washington rode
over on his way to be inaugurated. The air had a martial ring that caught the
ear of the multitude, soon became popular as Washington's March, and when
Adams was President, in a moment of great party excitement Judge Hopkinson
wrote and adapted to it the &unous lines beginning 'Hail Columbia.' "
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 53
Mary L, D. Ferris, in a clever but superficial causerie on **Our
National Songs'' in the New England Magazine, new series, July,
1890 (pp. 483-504), expresses her opinion briefly, thus:
The muflic of Hail Columbia was composed in 1789, one hundred years ago,
by Professor Phylo of Philadelphia, and played at Trenton, when Washington
was en route to New York to be inaugurated. The tune was originally called
the President's March.
In the same year (1890) appeared John Phihp Sousa's semiofficial
work, "National, Patriotic, and Typical Airs of All Lands with Copious
Notes, compiled by order and for use of the Navy Department." Of
the "President's March" Sousa remarks:
On the occasion of Gen. Washington's attendance at the John St. Theatre in
New York, in 1789, a German named Fyles, who was leader of the orchestra,
composed a piece in compliment of him and called it the " President's March,"
which soon became a popular favorite.
In the first of a series of articles on our national songs, published
1897, April 29, in the Independent, E. Irenaeus Stevenson maintains
that ''Hail Columbia" is rather a "personal'' than a national song,
having been, as he imagines, written in honor of George Washington.
But this is not his only blunder, for he not even knew that the "Wash-
ington's March" and the "President's March" were two entirely
different pieces.
The very air to the words confirms one in wishing that " Hail Columbia " would
remain solely an artless souvenir belonging to Washington. For the tune was not
written to Judge Hopkinson's words. It was a little instrumental march, called
"Washington's March,'' of vast vogue circa 1797, a march composed in honour
of the first President by a German musician named Phazles, Phylz, Phyla, or
Pfalz, of New York. Phazles looked after musical matters in the old theatre on
John Street; and apparently he really wrote, not imported, the tune. Judge
Hopkinson fitted to it the address to Washington, in 1798.
When Qeoi^e Washington, on Sunday, May 27, 1798, acknowledged
the receipt of ''Hail Columbia" sent to him by Joseph Hopkinson
on May 9, he '' offered an absence for more than eight days from home
as an apology f or . . . not giving ... an earlier acknowledg-
ment." The poUte note has been reprinted by William S. Baker in
his work already quoted. Baker adds the following editorial foot-
note:
The song referred to in the above quoted letter was the national air, " Hail
Columbia,'' the words of which were written by Joseph Hopkinson and adapted
to the music of the " President's March" composed in 1789 by a German named
Feyles, who at the time was the leader of the orchestra at the John Street Theatre
in New York.
A similar version appears in S. J. Adair FitzGerald's Stoiiea of
Famous Songs. London, 1897, on page 100:
The music was taken from a piece, called "The President's March," which
had seen the light ten years previously. It was composed by a German named
Fyles on some special visit of Washington's to the John Street Theatre, New York.
Digitized by
Google
54 Hail Columbia.
Col. Nicholas Smith in his "Stories of Great National Songs,"
Milwaukee, 1899, becomes inrolimtarily humorous, when saying (on
p. 41):
The " P^resident's March" was compoaed in 1789 by a Gennaii profesBor in
Philadelphia, named Fhylo, alias Feyles, alias Thyla, alias Phyla, alias Both,
and was first played at lYenton when Washington was on his way to New York
to be inaugurated president.
The few lines which Howard Futhey Brinton says to the subject in
his "Patriotic Songs of the American People," New Haven, 1900,
may also find a place here:
Of the then current tunes none caught the popular &ncy more than the *' Presi-
dent's March," which had been composed in 1789 by a German named Feyles,
in honour of General Washington.
Louis C. Elson is the last writer whom I have to quote. In his
widespread work ''The National Music of America and its Sources^
Boston, 1900," we read (on pp. 167-169) a very much more elaborate
account than the last ones mentioned:
... it is definitely known that the composition was written in 1789, and that
it was caUed "The President's March.'' Regarding its first performance and
its composer there is some doubt. William Mc. Koy in "Poulson's Advertiser"
for 1829 states that the march was composed by a German musician in Phila-
delphia, named Johannes Roth. He is also called "Roat" and "Old Roat" in
some accounts. That there was a Philip Roth living in Philadelphia at about
this time may be easily proved, for his name is found in the city directories from
1791 to 1799.a He appears as "Roth, Phflip, teacher of music, 25 Crown St."
Washington at this time was a fellow citizen of this musician for he lived at 190
High Street, Philadelphia.
But there is another claimant to the work. There was also in Philadelphia
at this time a German musician, whose name is spelled in many different ways
by the commentators. He is called " Phyla", " Philo", " Pthylo " and " Pfyles "
by various authors. None of these seems like a German name, but it is possible
that the actual name may have been Pfeil.^ This gentleman of doubtful cog-
nomen claims the authorship of the march in question, or rather his son has
claimed it for him. The march is also claimed by this son to have been first
played on Trenton Bridge as Washington rode over, on his way to the New York
inauguration. Richard Grant White, however, states, on what authority we
know not, that the work was first played on the occasion of a visit of Washington
to the old John Street Theatre in New York.
It is evident that all these different accounts are based directly or
indirectly upon the three contradictory versions of William McKoy
in Poulson's Advertiser, 1829, of J. C. in the Baltimore Clipper, 1841,
and of Greorge Washington Parke Custis, 1860. Later accounts con-
a History of the Flag of the United States, by Bear Admiral Geo. Henry Preble,
p. 719.
& Through the courtesy of John W. Jordui, Esq., librarian of the Historical Society
of Pennsylvania, we learn that the first Philadelphia ** City Directory '' was published
in 1785, the second in 1791. In neither of these does the name of any musician bear-
ing any ressemblance to the ones given above appear.
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 66
tain nothing substantially new except when confusing the problem
by incorrect and uncritical quotations from unmentioned sources,
as in the case of Rev. Elias Nason who inaccurately copied R. Grant
White's superficial footnote.
If our problem can be solved, it will be possible only by critically
investigating pro et contra the data given in the reports of 1829| 1841,
and 1860.
These data are:
1. The march ever since known as the ^'President's March'' was
composed by a German teacher of music in Philadelphia, named
Johannes Roat or Roth, ''the seat of the Federal Government of the
thirteen United States being removed to Philadelphia and in honour
of the new President Washington, then residing at No. 190 High
street" (Mc. Koy).
2) The President's March was composed by Professor Pfyle and
was played at Trentonbridge when Washington passed over on his
way to New York to his inauguration. (Information obtained by
J. C. from "one of the performers" confirmed afterwards by a son
of said Pfyle.)
3) The President's March was composed by a German, named
Feyles in 1789 and was played upon President Geoi^e Washington's
entrance into the stage box with his family. (Recollections by
Geoi^e Washington Parke Custis.)
To begin with the first version: Who was this German teacher of
music, by the name of Roth?
Even the most careful research in the old newspapers, magazines,
directories, and in books relating to the early theatrical and musical
life of the United States will add but very little to the following few
items: I find Roth first mentioned in the year 1771. On December
5 a concert advertised in the Pennsylvania Gazette for November 28,
by "Mr. John M'Lean (Instructor of the German Flute)" in Phila-
delphia, was to "conclude with an overture^ composed (for the occa-
sion) by Philip RoiJi, master of the band belonging to his Majesty's
Royal Regiment of British Fusiliers."
Not imtil 1785 have I again found his name mentioned. But in
this year we read his name in the first City Directory of Philadelphia,
published by White. He appears there as '^ Boots, Philip, music
maker, Sixth between Arch and Race streets." We next read his
name in an advertisement in the Pennsylvania Journal (Phila.) for
September 10, 1788.
''Mr. Roth, Music Master in Pennington AUey, running from Race to Vine
Streets, between Foiuili and Fifth Streets, teacher all kinds of Instrumental
Music in the shortest manner, viz. Harpsichord or Piano Forte, Guitar, Flute,
Hautboy, Clarinet, Bassoon, French Horn, Harp and Thorough Bass, which is
the Ground of Music.''
Digitized by
Google
56 Hail Columbia.
The third item which I was able to trace shows Roth again as a
composer.
The 'Columbian Magazine" (Phila.) brought out in the April
number of 1790 '*A Hunting Song. Set to Music by Mr. Roth, of
Philadelphia." It is written in E flat major and in the intentionally
simple style of the German Volkslieder of that period, to the words:
"Te sluggards who murder your lifetime in bed, etc." Needless to
say that the song is of little musical value.
The first directory for Philadelphia had been published in 1785.
The second was issued in 1791, the third in 1793; after that the
directory was issued annually. In all these, till 1805, we run across
the ''musician" or "teacher of music" or ''music master" Philip
Roth, his name being spelled from 1803-1805 "Rothe," He lived
from 1791 to 1794 in 25 Crownst; from 1799-1803 in 33 Crownst,
whereas for the years 1795-1798 his residence is given without a
house number as in ''Crownst." We find in the directory for 1806
"Rote, widow of Philip, music master, 94 N. Seventh." This would
suggest 1805 as date of his death, but Mr. Drummond of the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania informed me that the city records show Roth
to have died in 1804.
That Philip Roth, besides teaching " all kinds of instrumental music
in the shortest manner," played in the concert and opera orchestras of
Philadelphia is highly probable, but he never appears as a soloist or as
a composer in the many concerts given there till 1800, the programmes
of which I have copied as far as I was able to trace them in the
newspapers.
Of course, the last remark interferes in no way with the possibil-
ity of his having composed the "President's March." Mr. McKoy's
claims must be considered as not contrary to chronology and cir-
cumstances in regard to Roth's person, and his misspelling the
name and calling him Johannes instead of Philip matters very little.
But otherwise his claims are suspicious, though he seems to have
known Roth well.
The reader will have noticed that McKoy does not mention the
year in which the "President's March" was composed. This is
of importance, as his narrative excludes the years 1774-1788, during
which we had fifteen presidents of the Continental Congress, and
also the year 1789, when George Washington became President of
the United States. The seat of government was not removed
to Philadelphia until the fall of 1790. It had been, from 1789 to
the date of removal, in New York and not in Philadelphia. If,
therefore, McKoy's statement is correct the march was composed
in 1790. In this case however the remark "in honour of the new
President" loses its sense.
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 57
But the lines might represent an excusable slip of memory, and'
the march might have been written by Roth and played in honor of
the President when passing through Philadelphia on his way to
New York in 1789.
Washington left Moxmt Vernon on the 16th of April; reached
Philadelphia on the 20th and continued his voyage the following
day.* The Pennsylvania Journal (W., April 22), the Pennsyl-
vania Mercury (T., April 21), the Independent Gazetteer (T., April
21), the Pennsylvania Packet (T., April 21), the Freeman's Journal
(W., April 22), and the Pennsylvania Gazette (W., April 22) all give
an account of the President's reception at Philadelphia, but none
of these papers, except the Pennsylvania Gazette, refer to any
music having been played at the entertainment and this paper only
in a vague way:
"Philadelphia, April 22.
Monday last His Excellency Geoige Washington, Esq., the Pi!e8ident Elect
of the United States, airived in this city, about one o'clock, accompanied by
the President of the State . . . troops . . . and a numerous concouise of citizens
on horseback and foot.
His Excellency rode in front of the procession, on horseback . . . The bells
were rung thro' the day and night, and a feu de joy was fired as he moved down
Market and Second Street to the City Tavern ... At three o'clock His Excel-
lency sat down to an elegant Entertainment of 250 covers at the City Tavern,
prepared for him by the citizens of Philadelphia. A band of music played
during the entertainment and a discharge of artillery took place at every toast
among which was, the State of Viiginia.''
This meager notice and the silence of the other papers in regard to
music are significant. Had the band played a march composed in
honor of the illustrious guest, the papers would have mentioned the
fact, as it was their habit of doing on similar occasions. This state-
ment can be proved over and over and will be supported by all who
have had occasion to study our early newspapers and their habits.
For the same reasons, Mr. McKoy's claims, even if taken literally,
which would imply that the President's March was written in 1790
when the seat of government was actually removed to Philadelphia,
contain no evidential strength.
During the President's short stay in Philadelphia:
... an elegant Fdte Ghampdtre was given to this illustrous personage, his
amiable consort and family . . . [Sept. 4.] on the banks of the Schuylkill, in
the highly improved grounds of the meesrs. Gray, by a number of respectable
citizens. . . A band of music played during the repast, and at the close of the
repast several excellent songs were sung, and toasts were given.
Neither this account which appeared in the Pennsylvania Packet
for Wednesday, September 8, 1790, nor any other, mentions a piece
oGomp. McMaster, I, 538 or Baker.
Digitized by
Google
58 Hail Columbia.
ot music compofied "for the occasion.'' It would have been quite
contrary to the practice of our early newspapers to have omitted
reference to a piece written and played in honor of the new president.
Consequently McKoy's version; in spite of the fact that he was a
contemporary and fellow-citizen of Philip Roth; becomes very-
doubtful. Had he attributed the ''President's March" to this
musician without going into details; his case would have been much
stronger. We then might have admitted the probability that he
knew the history of the march either from Roth himself or from
others conversant with the matter.
In its actual form, however, McKoy's statement not only contains
a eoTitradictio in adjecto, but it is contradicted moreover by two of his
contemporaries, one of whom claimed to have been among the
original performers of the march and the other to have been a son
of the composer. If the claims made for Roth had been known to
either of these two gentlemen, they emphatically would have denied
their correctness, and at least a short reference to this protest would
have slipped into J. C.'s accoimt. Evidently Philip Roth was not
generally considered outside of Philadelphia as author of the march,
nay, not even in Philadelphia itself, for we shall see that ''Professor
Pfyle," too, resided for years in Philadelphia. Certainly his son
would have heard of Roth's claims if such were made, and he
would not have failed, in his conversation with J. C, to prove the
fallacy of claims which unjustly robbed his father of the glory of
having written the air to one of our national songs.
On what grounds Mr. McKoy attributes the piece to Roth we have
no way of ascertaining. We have to content ourselves with the fact
that chronology and circumstances command weight against his
theory. Unless an early copy of the President's March is discovered,
printed or in manuscript, bearing Roth's name as author, it would be
uncritical to accept his authorship as a historical fact.
But who was "Professor Pfyle," alias Fayles, alias Feyles, alias
Fyles, alias Pfalz, alias Pfazles, alias Pfeil, alias Pfyles, alias Philo,
alias Phyla, alias Phyles, alias Phylo, alias Phylz, alias Thyla?
J. C.'s spelling seems to corroborate Elson's idea that the actual
name was the German "Pfeil," anglicized later on into Ffyle. But
the numerous instances in which the name of this "gentleman of
doubtful cognomen" appears in newspaper advertisements, etc., leave
no doubt that in America he spelled his name Phile. Only once is
the name given with a different spelling. This name of Phile was
not so uncommon after all in America, as I find five different "Phile's"
in the two first Philadelphia city directories.
On Saturday, March 6, 1784, a concert was advertised at Philadel-
phia, in the Pennsylvania Packet, "For the Benefit of Mr. Phile," in
which he and a Mi. Brown "for that night only" were to play "A
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 59
Double Concerto for the Violin and Flute." This concert was post-
poned from March 18 to the following Tuesday, March 23. Previous
to 1784 I have not found Phile mentioned.
He must have been an able violinist, for when the Old American
Company of Comedians returned in 1785 to the Continent from the
West Indies, where they had sought refuge in the fall of 1774, he was
made leader of the orchestra. To quote Charles Durang, who in his
rare and interesting '^History of the Philadelphia Stage'' (Ch. IX)
throws '^ professional side lights" on the different performers in 1785:
The orchestia was compoeed of the following musicians; Mr. Philo, leader;
Mr. Bentley, harpsichord; Mr. Woolf, principal clarionet; Trinmer, Hecker, and
son, violoncello, violins etc. Some six or seven other names, now not remem-
bered, constituted the musical force. The latter were all Germans.
On July 18, 1786, was to be performed in New York,« imder the
direction of Mr. Reinagle, the "vocal parts by Miss Maria Storer,''
"A Grand Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music.'' The fiist
part of the concert was to consist "chiefly of Handel's Sacred Music,
as performed in Westminster Abbey. "The Second Part miscellane-
ous." Phile was engaged as soloist in the first part, his name appear-
ing thus in the program: "Concerto Violin . . . Mr. Phile," and
Mr. Reinagle and Mr. Phile were to play a "Duett for Violin and
Violoncello" in the second part.
We next find him at Philadelphia in 1787 ^ and again in coxmection
with a concert. It was the one for Monday, January 15, at the
Southwark Theater. The concert was interspersed with "Lectures
Moral and Entertaining," and concluded with the "Grand Panto-
mimical Finale. In two Acts called Robinson Crusoe." We read in
the "First Act": "Rondeau— Mr. Phile."
He can not have remained very long in Philadelphia, because we
fibad him a month after his concert engagement in Philadelphia
at New York and offering his services as music teacher. The adver-
tisement reads :<'
Music. Philip Phile, most respectfully offeiB his service to Lovera of Instru-
mental Musick, in Teaching the Violin and German Flute methodically. Attend-
ance will be given at his Lodgings No. 82 Chatham Bow, near Vande Waters. He
will also wait on such Gentlemen, as would wish to take Lessons, at their own
Houses.
N. B. Musick copied at the above mentioned place. Feb. 20.
Not quite two months after this advertisement was inserted Phile
reappeared in public in Philadelphia, and it seems as if he was ex-
pressly called from New York. The "Syllabus" of the magnificent
'Tirst Uranian Concert/' which was performed at the German
«N. Y. Packet 1786, July 13.
&Pa. Packet, Jan. 13, 1787.
cN. Y. Daily Advertiser, Feb. 21, 1787.
Digitized by
Google
60 Hail Columbia.
Reformed Church on April 12,. 1787, under the direction of the amU-
tious Andrew Adgate,<* contains his name among the ^'Authora" in
the following manner: *'IV . . . Concerto Violino By Mr. Phile of
New York."
In the following year "Mr. Rehine's Concert of Vocal and Instru-
mental Music/' which was to have taken place on November 26 at the
City Tavern in Philadelphia, was "postponed on account of the bad-
ness of the weather Hill Friday Evening the 29th.' " In this concert
the restless Mr. Phile was to play " Solo Violino" in the first act. ^
An entire "Amateurs Concert" was given "For the Benefit of
Philip Phile" on January 29, 1789, "at the house of Henry Epple in
Racestreet." The orchestral numbers were three "Grand Over-
tures" by Vanhall, Haydn, and Martini. As soloists we notice
Reinagle with a pianoforte sonata. Wolf with a "Concerto Clarinetto,"
and Phile. The latter played in the first act a "Concerto Violino"
and in the second a "Solo Violino."
It really seems as if Phile was the fashionable violin virtuoso of the
day, constanly "on the road'* between New York and Philadelphia,
for again a "Violin Concerto by Phile'* was to be performed at "A
Concert of Sacred Music" which the recently founded "Musical
Society of New York" gave on Thursday, June 18, 1789, at the
Lutheran Church in order to cover the expenses resulting h*om the
purchase of an oigan by the Society.''
It may be that during all these years Phile remained the leader of
the orchestra of the Old American Company, but it is by no means
certain, as the fact is nowhere mentioned. We only know (from
Durang) that he held this position about 1785. If some of the
writers whom I have quoted claim that he was the leader of the
orchestra in the John Street Theater at New York in 1789, they foigot
to refer to their source of information, and therefore can not be con-
sidered as historically trustworthy.
Phile became tired of his erratic life and he decided to "continue
his residence " in Philadelphia. Of this decision he gave public notice
in the Pennsylvania Packet for December 16, 1789:
Mr. Phile most respectfully infonuB the citizenfl of Philadelphia, particularly those
Gentlemen he had the honour to instruct formeriy, that the unavoidable necessity
which occasioned his abscence has now ceased, and that he is determined to continue
his residence in this city.
He hopes from the many proofs he has afforded of his abilities as a Teacher of dif-
ferent Instruments of Music, to meet with the Patronage of a generous Public. He
proposes to instruct Gentlemen on the Violin, Flute, Clarinet and Bassoon. Mr. Phile
is willing to render every satisfaction; this, with a particular attention to those Gen-
tlemen who may please to encourage him, will, he trusts, establish the Reputation
he is desirous to merit.
a Pa. Packet, April 9.
h Federal Gazette, Nov. 26, 1.788.
c N. Y. DaUy Adv. and N. Y. DaUy Gaz, for June 12, 1789.
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 61
Directians tcTMr. Fhile, living in Bace street between Front and Second street, will
be punctually attended to. N. B. Music copied. Philadelphia, Dec. 14.
Undoubtedly Phile resided at Philadelphia during the year 1790,
as on March 18, 1790, '' AConcert of Vocal and Instrumental Music for
the Benefit of Mr. Phile " was to be giyen,^ and as half a year later, on
Saturday, October 16, he performed a ''Flute Concert" at Messrs.
Gray's Gardens, the entertainment concluding with ''Harmony
Music by Mr. Phile."*
These concerts at Gray's fashionable gardens were held regularly
during the summer months and were by no means of the ' ' roof garden "
order. The best performers of Philadelphia were engaged for the
instrumental and vocal solos, and music only of composers then con-
sidered as the best was played. The concert mentioned, for instance,
comprised grand overtures by Haydn, Schmitt, Martini, and sym-
phonies by Stamitz and Abel.
For the years 1791 and 1792 I have not been able to trace Phile's
name, but I find him as "Phile Philip, music master, 207 Sassafrasst"
in the Philadelphia directory for 1793. . Then he disappears, and it is
very likely that he died a victim of the yellow fever epidemic raging
so terribly at Philadelphia during 1793, for we notice a "Phile,
Susanna, widow, Washer, 86 No. Fourth st." in the directory for 1794.
This is a curriculum vUm of Philip Phile, as far as I could glean
it from newspapers and other sources. Not once is he mentioned as
author of the "President's March." However, as he evidently was a
composer besides being a violin virtuoso, so far neither chronology
nor circumstances seriously weaken J. C.'s or Custis's claims in favor
of Phile.
George Washington Parke Custis claimed that the march was
composed by a German named Fyles in 1789, in contradistinction to
[Francis Hopkinson'st] Washington's March, and that it was struck
up when the President entered the stage box with his family. He
does not state when the march was first played, far less does he claim
that the march was composed for the occasion of Washington's first
visit to the John Street Theater in New York. We have to examine
his account as it stands and are not justified in embellishing it, as
Saffell, Nason, and others have done.
I feel inclined to trust Custis's version neither as a solid basis for
air castles, nor as a reflex of direct and authentic information bearing
upon the subject, nor as a supplementary evidence in favor of J. C.'s
Phile tradition.
It might be objected that Custis, having become a member of
Washington's family a few months after his birth, ought to be con-
sidered a reliable witness and out of reach of historical skepticism.
Certainly, if it were evident that he visited the theater with the
president on May 11, June 5, November 24 and 30, 1789, the only
o Pa. Packet, T. March 16, 1790. 6 Federal Gazette, Fr. Oct. 15, 1790.
Digitized by
Google
62 Hail Columbia.
four times, according to Baker's "Washington after the Revolution,"
and Paul Leicester Ford's charming book, ''Washington and the
theater,"^ that the president attended theatrical performances in
New York. This, however, is not the case, and we have no means
of ascertaining whether or not Custis himself heard the President's
March played on these occasions. In the second place, are the rec-
ollections of a boy of 8 years reliable? Certainly not; but this argu-
ment applies to Custis, who was bom in 1781, on the 30th of April.*
Furthermore, the "Recollections" were written during a period of
thirty years, and their preface is dated by the author "Arlington
House Near Alexandria, Ya. 1856." Is it not most likely that
Custis, when "recollecting" the events of the year 1789, was forced
to supplement his or his family's reminiscences with information
gained from other sources, in particular from tradition and the study
of books)
When a boy of 8 years George Washington Parke Custis probably
was not very much interested in the name of the composer of a march.
Even if he was, such early recollections can not be considered a safe
basis for critical history. If he learned the name later on, especially
after twenty or thirty years had elapsed, then his accoimt has merely
the strength of hearsay. Neither the diary which Washington kept in
1789, nor the old newspapers, nor other contemporary sources mention
a performance of the President's March at the New York theater in
1789, nor have such lovers of historical minuti» discovered any ref-
erence to that effect. Possibly the "President's March" was played
in 1789 on one or several occasions when George Washington visited
the theater, but we are not obliged nor even justified in admitting it,
and with the admission of this possibility as a fact we would still be
very distant from positive proof of the authenticity of Custis's state-
ment that the "President's March" was composed hy PhUe in 1789,
"The President's March," said J. C, "was composed by a Professor
Pfyle, and was played at Trenton bridge when Washington passed
over on his way to New York to his inauguration."
It seems not to have entered the mind of any of the historians quoted,
except William S. Baker, to search for the contemporary accounts of
this occasion. The research would not have caused them very much
trouble, as quite a number of newspapers printed reports of the
"respectful ceremonies" at Trenton, among them the Pennsylvania
Mercury for Saturday, May 2, 1789; the Pennsylvania Packet for
M., April 27, and the New York Journal for April 30. By neglecting
the newspapers the writers missed a most important clue, as will
readily be seen from the report printed in the Pennsylvania Packet:
« Published in 1899 as No. 8 of the New Series of the Dunlap Society Publications.
bComp. Appleton or the ''Memoir of Geoige Washington Parke Custis" prefixed I
by his daughter to the ' ' Recollections.' ' I
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 68
A Sonata Sung by a Number of young Girls, dressed in white and decked with
Wreaths and Chaplets of Flowers, holding Baskets of Flowers in their Hands, as
General Washington passed under the triumphal Arch, raised on the Bridge at
Trenton, April 21, 1789.
Welcome, mighty chief I once more.
Welcome to this grateful shore
Now no mercenary foe
Aims again the fatal blow
Aims at thee the tuXal blow.
Virgins fair and Matrons grave
Those thy conquering arms did save —
Build for thee triumphal bowers I
Strew, ye fair, his way with flowers —
Strew your Hero's way with flowers.
As they sung these Lines they strewed the Flowers before the General, who
halted until the Sonata was finished. The General being presented with a Copy
of the Sonata, was pleased to address the following Card to the Ladies.
To the Ladies of Trenton . . .
(General Washington cannot leave this Place without expressing his Acknowl-
edgments to the Biatrons and Young Ladies who received him in so novel and
graceful a Manner at the Triumphal Arch in Trenton, for the exquisite Sensations
he experienced in that affecting moment.
The astonishing Contrast between his former and actual Situation at the same
spot, the elegant Taste with which it was adorned for the present occasion — ^and
the innocent Appearance of the White Robed Choir who met him with the gratu-
latory Song— have made such an impression on his Remembrance, as, he assures
them, will never be effaced.
Trenton, April 21, 1789.
The other papers referred to brought siniilar reports, all printing
sonata instead of cantata, with this important addition, however:
"Sonata, composed * and set to music for the occasion." Of other
music performed at Trenton bridge on this day, and especially of
music composed for the occasion, not a syllable in any of the reports.
One is almost led to suppose that this ''Sonata" was the piece
alluded to by J. C. and attributed by one of the performers, and later
by Phile's son, to Philip Phile as the "President's March."
At last the problem appears to approach solution. J. C.'s state-
ment seems to be corroborated to the degree of circumstantial evi-
dence by this account, and Philip Phile, indeed, seems to have been,
beyond reasonable doubt, the author of the much-disputed march.
Our joy is premature.
New Music. Just published (Price 3 S. 9) and to be Sold by Rice & Go. Book-
sellers; South side Market near Second Street.
A chorus, sung before Ctoneral Washington, as he passed under the triumphal
Arch raised on the Bridge at Trenton, April 21st. 1789; composed and dedicated
by permission, to Mis. Washington By A. Reinagle.
This advertisement was published in the Pennsylyania Packet,
Tuesday, December 29, 1789. Therewith we have a third and for-
midable claimant in the person of one of the foremost musicians in the
a Mr. Baker attributes the words to Maj. Richard Howell, later on governor of New
Jersey.
Digitized by
Google
64
Hail Columbia.
country, the composer of numerous operas, sonatas, songs, marches,
in particular of the "Federal March," written for and performed at
Philadelphia on July 4, 1788, in the grand procession in honor of the
Constitution, the only known copy of which is now in the Library of
Congress. If the music of the chorus sung on the bridge at Trenton
was identical with that of the President's March, then, of course,
Alexander Reinagle's music was wedded to "Hail Columbia,'^ and
not Philip Phile's. Fortunately a copy of the "Chorus" is still extant
to throw light on the puzzling situation. In their pamphlet on
"Washington's reception by the ladies of Trenton," the Society of
Iconophiles published in 1903 a reduced facsimile in copper photo-
gravure of the piece as once in possession of Maj. Richard Howell,
supposed author of the poem in question. The extremely rare piece
bears this title:
Chorus Bung before Gen. Washington as he passed under the Triumphal arch
raised on the bridge at Trenton, April 2lBt, 1789. Set to music and dedicated by
permission to Mrs. Washington by A. Reinagle. Price i dollar. Philadelphia.
Printed for the author, and sold by H. Rice, Market Street.
The instrumental introductioi^ and the first bars of the chorus may
follow here to prove conclusively that Reinagle's chorus and the Presi-
dent's March are not identical.
Vivace.
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 65
Here, then, is a puzzling situation. Phile's son claimed that a
march known as the President's March and composed by his father
was played on the bridge at Trenton, and that he was one of the per-
formers. On the other hand, there exists a composition by Reinagle,
the title of which would seem to leave no doubt that it was played
and sung on the same occasion to the words ''Welcome, mighty chief I
once more." If we were permitted to assume that both compositions
figured on the programme of the festivities at Trenton, that would
clear the situation somewhat, but no contemporary accoimt mentions
any music but the so-called ''Sonata." Had the "President's March"
been composed for the occasion the fact surely would have been men-
tioned in the newspapers. Even if "The President's March" was
already so popular as to be played as a matter of course in the presence
of the President, the probabilities are that the march would have
been reported by name or at least that the contemporary reports
would have alluded to the performance of other music besides the
"Sonata." Such, however, is not the case, and the issue can not be
avoided. Either Reinagle's chorus was sung or "The President's
March" had been fitted to Major Howell's words. Under the cir-
cumstances it is fortunate that the rendition of Reinagle's chorus on
the bridge at Trenton, all appearances to the contrary notwithstand-
ing, is very doubtful for the following reasons:
(1) The printed title allows to read a distinction between chorus
aung, which would then mean "words sung" and set to music,
(2) They must have been simg before Washington on April 21,
whereas Reinagle's composition was advertised in the Pennsylvania
Packet, Philadelphia, December 29, 1789, as just puMished. An
unusual interval between performance and publication.
(3) Reinagle's piece is engraved for "2 voice. 1 voice. 3 voice"
with pianoforte accompaniment apparently reduced from orchestral
score. The 3. voice stands in the bass clef, and the whole is com-
posed for either a mixed chorus or a 3-part male chorus. But the
Sonata was simg "by a number of young girls," and of a band or
orchestra assisting on the occasion and accompanying the singers no
mention is made.
Any of these three observations alone might carry little weight.
Together they do, and combined with a fourth they appear to bear
out the doubt that Reinagle's chorus was not composed for April 21,
1789. The "Plan" (programme) of the "New York Subscription
Concert" for Tuesday, September 16, 1789, as it appears in the Daily
Advertiser for the same day, reads:
After the first act, will be performed a chonifi, to the words that were sung, as
Gen. WaBhington passed the Bridge at Trenton — ^The Music now composed by
Mr. Reinagle.
8648a--09 5
Digitized by
Google
66 Hail Columbia.
This implies that Reinagle's setting, published in December, was
7U>t the one sung when General Washington passed the bridge. Con-
sequently Reinagle no longer interferes with the Phile tradition. The
claim put forth for Phile's authorship of the President's March is by
no means yet proved, but it remains unshaken. It would be decidedly
strengthened if it could be shown that the '^Music of the Sonata"
actually sung on April 21, 1789, and of the ''President's March" were
identical. As Reinagle did not compose the music for the occasion,
and as Phile is the only other musician mentioned in connection with
said occasion, appearances seem to be in his favor imtil counterbal-
anced by the observation that the claim for Phile is based upon the
reminiscences of one of the original performers confirmed later by
Phile's son. The term performer without the addition vocal generally
applies to a performer on some instrument. To have been a performer
on said occasion would infer that the ''Sonata" was sung with instru-
mental accompaniment. To repeat it, nothing goes to show that such
was the case. But in order not to push arguments too far, the possi-
bility may be admitted either that the performer was a vocal performer^
scUicetf one of the '^yoimg girls," or that the "Sonata" was really
sung with instrumental accompaniment though not so described in
any of the reports. We might even allow the combination of both
possibilities for the simplification of matters. In that case the words
of the "Sonata" were either fitted to the already popular "President's
March," or this march was composed for the occasion and subse-
quently became popular imder the name of " The President's March."
However, all this seems to be impossible, for a very simple reason. In
my opinion the words of the ^'Sonata'' can not have been sung to any of
the versions of ^^ The Presidents March.'' Every attempt to fit the
words of the "Sonata" to this march fails, even after the boldest
surgical operations. Consequently, unless others succeed with such
attempts, the conclusion is inevitable that the '* Sonata*' sung on the
bridge at Trenton and the '^ President's March" were not identical. It
follows that J. C.'s statement of 1841, Uke McKoy's of 1829, contains
a serious flaw. Therefore we are not justified in accepting it as
authentic.
To prove the point just raised, some of the earliest versions of the
"President's March" are here submitted either in facsimile or in
transcript. At the same time these musical quotations will show
the musical genesis and partial transformation of "Hail Columbia"
about the year 1800.
(1) The arrangement for two flutes, on page 3, of the first number
of R. Shaw's and B. Carr's "Gentleman's Amusement," Philadel-
phia, Carr, April, 1794. See facsimile of the copy at the Library of
Congress (Appendix, PI. IX). (This "Gentleman's Amusement" is
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia.
67
identical with the one advertised in the New York Daily Advertiser,
May 8, 1794, as "Philadelphia printed for Shaw & Co.")
(2) "President's March." Philadelphia, G. Willig, Mark[et] street
185, and therefore published between 1798 and 1803. See facsimile
of the copy at the Library of Congress in Appendix, Plate X.
(3)
The Precldent'a March as In Shaw's Flute Preceptor. Philadelphia, 1803.
[ ^ r ■ c i r-j r i i r— ^c ir r r ^ ir-4^^
(4)
The President's March as in
the ** Gompleat Tutor for the Fife," Philadelphia, G. WUlig, ea. 180ft.
Digitized by
Google
68 Hail Columbia.
Now, it is a singular fact that, to my knowledge, "The President's
March" is nowhere mentioned in contemporary sources before the
year 1794. That it was popular about 1794 is clear, as it otherwise
would hardly have been printed in Shaw and Carr's '^ Gentleman's
Amusement." Some months later the Old American Company, then
playing at the Cedar Street Theatre in Philadelphia, advertised in the
American Daily Advertiser, September 22, for the same evening
that —
. . . previous to the tragedy [the Grecian Daughter] the band will play a new
Federal Overture, in which are introduced several popular airs; Marseilles hymn,
Q& ira, O dear what can the matter be, Rose Tree, Carmagnole, *' Presidents'
March,'' Yankee Doodle, etc. Composed by Mr, Carr.
This "Federal Overture,'' by Benjamin Carr, was published 1795
in an arrangement for two flutes in the fifth nimiber of Shaw and
Carr's " Gentleman's Amusement." Had the march been well known
as "The President's March" in 1789 and later, why should A. Rei-
nagle's much less popular "Federal March" and Sicard's "New Con-
stitutional March and Federal Minuet" (both 1788) and other patri-
otic pieces have been published and not "The President's March?"
And if published, advertisements to that effect would have appeared
before 1794 in the newspapers, as was the case with all early American
musical publications, either sacred or secular. We must not forget
that the demand for patriotic music was very eager in those days,
and a march in honor of President Washington would have sold well.
Furthermore, had the air been really popular during the years imme-
diately following 1789, at least one of the innumerable political and
patriotic songs which were to be simg to popular melodies (and
the words with tune indication of most of these songs were printed in
the newspapers or magazines) would show the indication: "Time —
President's March." Such is not the case, but it seems to be a fact
that all songs, which, like "Hail Colimibia," were fitted to this tune,
appeared in print after 1794.
Therefore, while the analysis of traditions, reports, and contem-
porary evidence so far submitted permits us to concentrate our atten-
tion upon Phile more than on Roth as the possible author of the
"President's March," it does not yet permit us, if at all interested in
soimd history, to attribute the "President's March" with something
like certainty to Philip Phile, and most decidedly not to date the origin
of the march 1789.
Here, then, the matter rested when recently the hoped-for accident
helped to clear the situation still further. At the Governor Penny-
packer sale the Library of Congress acquired a lot of miscellaneous
early American musical publications. Among the fragments appears
an umumibered page, evidently torn from an engraved music collec-
tion for the pianoforte, bearing two marches, one,
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia. 69
THE PRESIDENTS MARCH; BY PHEIL,
the other; fortunately; "March, by MoUer." Fortunately, because
the reference to the name of John Christopher Moller proves that the
page can not have been printed before his arrival in Ainerica in 1790,
and that it most probably forms part of one of the publications issued
by Moller and Henri Capron at Philadelphia in 1793. The importance
of this page therefore lies in the fact that "The President's March''
was attributed to Pheil and not to Roth as early as about 1793.
Consequently this probably earliest edition of the march (see Appen-
dix, PI. XI), though it does not assist us in dating and locating the
origin of "The President's March," removes all reasonable doubt from
the tradition that the music of "Hail Columbia" was composed by
PhUip Phile.
A comparison of the "Hail Columbia" texts, as they appear in song
books, is imnecessary, because practically no verbal differences have
crept into Joseph Hopkinson's poem. It may be noticed, however,
that the autograph which was formerly in possession of Mr, C. D. Hil-
debrand, of Philadelphia, and which Admiral Preble reproduced in
facsimile in the second edition of his book on our flag,^ has in the first
stanza "war was done'' instead of "war was gone." The latter ver-
sion not only is the one now customary, but it appears in the two
earliest printed versions of "Hail Colxmibia," described above. For
this reason the HUdebrand autograph probably is not the earliest or
even an early autograph copy. Two other copies in Joseph Hopkin-
son's hand are mentioned by Preble in this manner:
" During the centennial year an autograph copy of ' Hail Coliunbia '
was displayed in the museum at Independence Hall, Philadelphia.
This copy was written from memory Feb. 22, 1828, and presented to
George M. Keim, esq., of Reading, in compliance with a request made
by him. It has marginal notes, one of which informs us that the
passage 'Behold the Chief refers to John Adams, then President of
the United States. Mr. Hopkinson also presented General Washing-
ton with a copy of his poem, and received from hinn a complimentary
letter of thanks, which is now in the possession of his descendants."
An autograph copy signed and dated "Philadelphia, March 24,
1838" (4°, 3 p.) was offered for sale in Henkels's "Catalogue of Auto-
graph Letters," 1895. The added facsimile showed that this 1838
copy has the mai^inal note about John Adams and done instead of
gone in the first stanza, thereby corroborating the claim that the
Hildebrand copy is of a comparatively late date. To whom this 1838
copy was sold, I do not know. Until recently the Pennsylvania
Historical Society possessed two autograph copies of " Hail Columbia,"
«From there facsimiled by Mary L. D. Ferris for her article on "Our National
Songs" in the New England Magazine, 1890, pp. 483-504.
Digitized by
Google
70
Hail Columbia.
one of them coming from the Hopkinson family papers, but tlie
society has since disposed of one of the two. The other is here repro-
duced in facsimile by permission of the society. (See Appendix as
Plates Vllla-VIIIb.)
If a text comparison of "Hail Columbia" is imnecessary, not so a
comparison of the musical settings, or rather arrangements. First, in
order to show the difference between the old and the new way of
singing the "President's March" to the words of "Hail Columbia,"
the edition which Willig printed between 1798 and 1803 will be com-
pared with the probably simultaneous edition of a copy which has
been reproduced in facsimile by Mr. Elson in his books, as mentioned
before. From these early editions I turn immediately to current song
books, selecting for the purpose the same as was done for "The Star-
Spangled Banner" chapter (see p. 41). Also the same principle and
method of comparison will be adopted with this difference, that the
text is added, since it is sometimes placed differently under the notes.
"The President's March. A new Federal song," Philadelphia,
G. Willig, between 1798 and 1803.
m * #
Who fought and bled In freo dom's ; cause, Who fought and bled In
A^ A ^^ I -.__.. w_ ^r r- ^T^
freedom's cause. And when the storm of war was gone, En - joy'd the peace your
val - or won; Let In - de-pen-dence be our boast, £t - ermlnd-ful
what it cost, £v - er grateful for the prize, Let its al - tar reach the skies.
21 22 23 _ -^ y^J4t
Firm, u - nit - ed, let us be, .
. Ral-lylng round our Lib - er - ty,
As a band of brothers ]oin'd. Peace and safe-ty we shall find.
Digitized by
Google
Hail Columbia.
71
9 instead of alia breve: E.
.11, p— « 12
"S. ^ E.
|: B ; F ; 6 ; J ; M ; B ; SI ; W. ( Hall Columbia is not in A.; Sh.; Sm.; Z. )
.2 4
6; J.
F; W. Who G; J. Who M; R. Who 81.
Who
fought and bled in Free-dom'seause.Who fought and bled In Free-dom's caii8e»And
F; G; J; M; R;Bi; W. F;M;B;8l;W. F; G; J; M;R;S1; W. FiM;B;Bl;W.
The grmce note g is discarded In modem editions.
9 ^12
14 ^ ^
And when the storm of Tal - or won; Let J
G; J. F;G;J:M;B;8i;W.G; J.
16
'F;B;8i;W G; J. B; F; G; J; M; B; 8i; W. F;G;J;B. W. M
^^?^' f-j^i^^zt Nif c r r I IS c r ^^
81 Bal - ly - ing round our Bal - lying round our Bal - ly - lug round our
B F; J; M; B;8i; W. G
B:F;H;B: Si; W G; J
F; W
G;J;B1. M; B.
Digitized by
Google
72
Hail Columbia.
SOUBA.
F"* ff —
4
r^-F-
6
6_
^tF?
'^^
■ ^t — ,
8
1 —
who
9
i=i
=^
■ J B
who
ig. r r r 1 iiLJLd r f iir— & . ^ mit-t^
'> r ^ 1
^
^
^
^
^
^
16
16
^J 1 "
r f M
For eight song books^ selected at random^ to thus differ in the
majority of bars of a national song of 28 bars^ is a deplorable state of
affairs. It means that if 8 children, each familiar with one of these
song books, were to sing "Hail Colimibia" together, not one would
sing the melody exactly like any of the other 7 children. One is
ashamed as an American to think of the result, if not 8, but 80 current
song books were similarly examined! The discrepancies between
current versions of "The Star-Spangled Banner" are regrettable
enough, but those between current versions of "Hail Columbia"
evidently are still worse.*
<> This report was in proof sheets when Mr. Otto Hubach, financial editor of the
New Yorker Staats-Zeitnng and from 1876-1883 an officer in the Prussian army in-
formed me of his recollection '^that the march to which the text of 'Hail Columbia'
is simg dates from the time of Frederick the Great and for more than one hundred
years has been officially used in the Prussian army as ^ AUpreuasi9ches Rondo* and
that the infantry manual still in his time mentioned under accredited marches this
rondo.'' I have not yet had occasion to verify this information. That the infantry
manual contains a march at least similar to the ''President 's March' ' I have no reason
to doubt, though the latter is by no means a rondo. Nor do I see how Mr. Hubach's
recollections interfere at all with Philip Phile's authorship. Like many other foreign
marches, his may have fotmd its way to Prussia to be used on special official occasions.
I suspect a slight error somewhere in Mr. Hubach's recollections. At any rate, neither
Thouretnor Kalkbrenner (" Verzeichniss&mtlicher kgl. preussischen Armee-M§,rsche,'^
1896) substantiate Mr. Hubach's recollections so far as they affect place and date of
origin of the "President's March," which may safely be attributed to Philip Phile,
until facts render this impossible.
Digitized by
Google
AMERICA.
Rev. Samuel F. Smith's (1808-1895) "America'' does not call for
elaborate treatment in a report like this. In the first place, words
and time show a praiseworthy miiformity in the song books. The
only difference between the 12 song books selected, which is at all
worth mentioning, is that Aiken, Gantvoort, Jepson, Ripley, Zeiner
have in the forelast bar —
whereas Boyle, Famsworth, McLaughlin, Shirley, Siefert, Smith,
Whiting have —
Let free-dom ring.
No noteworthy discrepancies appear in the texts used in the song
books. This has its simple explanation in the fact that Reverend
Smith himself adhered to his original text whenever he was requested
in later years to write autograph copies of "America."* Indeed, so
numerous were these occasions that Mr. Benjamin in the Collector,
July, 1908, expressed his willingness to supply autograph copies of
"My coimtry, 'tis of thee" at any time for $10. This is probably an
a The Chief Aasistant Librarian, Mr. Griffin, then Chief of the Bibliography Division,
in his memorandum of November 20, 1907, pointed out that in a version " published
by D. Lothrop and company, Boston, 1884, there is an accompanying facsimile auto-
graph copy in which, in the second stanza, there is a comma after the word noble
changing somewhat the significance of the verse.'' Mr. Griffin abo fotmd in F. L.
Enowles' ''Poems of American patriotism" not less than four additional stanzas
printed not to be found in the original. Mr. Kobb6 included in his ** Famous American
Songs" the following stanza, believed to have been added, he says, by the author at
the celebration of the Washington Inauguration Centennial:
Our joyful hearts to-day,
Their grateful tribute pay,
Happy and free.
After our toils and fears.
After our blood and tears.
Strong with our hundred years
God, to thee.
73
Digitized by
Google
74 America.
exaggeration, yet it is certain that more autograph copies exist than
are referred to in the following.
In the clever chat on "Our national songs" in the New England
Magazine (July, 1890, vol. 2, pp. 483-504) Mary L. D. Ferris has a
facsimile of the original draft of ''America" (on the margin of a
printed subscription blank), then still in the possession of Reverend
Sn[iith. The text of this draft, which does not bear the title "America,"
nor any other title, reads :
My country 'tis of thee
Sweet land of liberty;
Of thee I siiu^.
Land where my mthers died
Land of the pilgrims' pride
From every mountain aide
Let freedom ring.
My native country. — ^thee,
Land of the noble tree
Thy name I lovej
I love thy — crocks & nils
Thy woods & templed hills
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song
Let all that breathes pait&ke
Let mortal tongues awake
Let rocks their silence break
The soimd prolong.
Our fathers' God to Thee
Author of liberty
To Thee we sing
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy lieht
Protect us by Thy might
Our Goa our King.
Between the second and fourth verse Reverend Smith sketched,
but then crossed out, the following:
No more shall tyrants here
With haughty steps appear
And soldier bands
No more shall tyrants tread
Above the patriot dead
No more our blood be shed
By alien hands.
In the same article. Miss Ferris gives the facsimile of an autograph,
apparently written for her by Reverend Smith and dated "Feb. 28,
1890/' This has the title "America." In the third stanza the line
"Let mortal tongues awake'' precedes "Let all that breathe," and
in the last line of the whole poem occurs the now current "Great
God" instead of "Our God," but otherwise the texts are identical.
On April 4, 1893, Reverend Smith wrote a copy of his poem for the
Outlook, where a facsimile appeared in 1898, volume 59, page 565.
Digitized by
Google
America. 75
The text is identical with that in the 1890 autograph, and also with
that of a facsimile of an autograph copy sent Admiral Preble by
Reverend Smith under date of "Boston, Mass., Sept. 12, 1872," and
printed by the admiral in the 1880 edition of his book on our flag.
The autograph copy of "America'' was accompanied by notes on
the origin of the poem. Such historical notes the author was con-
stantly, and until his death, requested to send to the admirers of
"America." The version most frequently used by subsequent his-
torians appears to be that in Admiral Preble's book. It reads:
The origin of my hymn, "My Country 'tis of Thee*', is briefly told. In the
year 1831, Mr. William C. Woodbridge returned from Europe, bringing a quantity
of German music-books, which he passed over to Lowell Mason. Mr. Mason,
with whom I was on terms of friendship, one day turned them over to me,
knowing that I was in the habit of reading German works, saying, "Here, I
can't read these, but they contain good music, which I should be glad to use.
Turn over the leaves, and if you find anything particularly good, give me a
translation or imitation of it, or write a wholly original song, — anything, so I can
use it."
Accordingly, one leisure afternoon, I was looking over the books, and feU in
with the tune of "God Save the King'', and at once took up my pen and wrote
the piece in question. It was struck out at a sitting, without the slightest idea
that it would ever attain the popularity it has since enjoyed. I think it was
written in the town of Andover, Mass., in February, 1832. The first time it
was sung publicly was at a children's celebration of American independence,
at the Park Street Church, Boston, I think July 4, 1832. If I had anticipated
the future of it, doubtless I would have taken more pains with it. Such as it
is, I am glad to have contributed this mite to the cause of American freedom.
These notes give substantially the same, though in some details not
quite the full information as the letter Reverend Smith sent Miss
Ferris from Newton Center, Mass., August 12, 1889, for her article
''On our national songs" in the New England Magazine, 1890, and
which is quoted here because it has not attracted the attention it
deserved:
The hymn, "My country,— 'tis of thee, "—was written in February, 1832.
As I was turning over the leaves of several books of music, — chiefly music for
children's schools, — the words being in the German language, — the music, which
I found later to be "God save the King", empressed me very favorably. I
noticed at a glance that the German words were patriotic. But without attempt-
ing to translate or imitate them, I was led on the impulse of the moment to write
the hymn now styled "America", which was the work of a brief period of time
at the close of a dismal winter afternoon. I did not design it for a national
hymn, nor did I think it would gain such notoriety. I dropped the MS., (which
is still in my possession) into my portfolio, and thought no more of it for months.
I had, however, once seen it, after writing it, & given a copy to Mr. Lowell
Mason, with the music from the German pamphlet; and, much to my siuprise,
on the succeeding 4th July, he brought it out on occasion of a Sunday School
celebration in Park St. church, Boston.
Digitized by
Google
76 America.
The stoiy of the origin of ''My country, 'tis of thee/' as narrated
at different times without conflicting variations by Reverend Smith,
is generally accepted as authentic. As far as I can see, dissension of
opinion has arisen only over the really imimportant question where,
when, and by whom "My coimtiy, 'tis of thee," was first sung. In
the Boston Evening Transcript of October 27, 1908, Mr. William
Copley Winslow took Mr. Edwin D. Mead to task for having written
in the same paper on October 19, 1908, that "America" was first
sung on July 4, 1832, at Park Street Church. Mr. Winslow instead
claimed:
This hymn was first simg at the Bowdoin Street Church, of which Rev. Hub>
bard Winslow was then [1832] pastor and Lowell Mason the oiganist and con-
ductor of the choir . . . The hymn with other selections, was simg by the
Sunday school, aided by the choir before a laige audience in the Bowdoin Street
Church. Subsequently, at a combined service of Sunday schools, the hymn
was sung in the Park Street Church . . .
This, if true, would interfere seriously with Edward Everett Hale's
delightful little story, how he on the Fourth of July, 1832, after hav-
ing spent all his holiday money on root beer, ginger snaps, and oysters
at the celebration on Boston Common, on his way home marched
with other children into Park Street Church and "thus by merest
chance,' ' as Mr. Kobb6 retells the story, and because his money had
been expended so rapidly, was present at the first singing of the hymn,
which is national enough to be called "America." Mr. Winslow,
whatever the merits of his claim may be, has not supported his state-
ments with any evidence strong enough to undermine the fact, as
Mr. Mead wrote in his rejoinder on October 27, 1908, that Reverend
Smith "said it again and again in personal conversation, in public
addresses, and in print" how "it was at the Park Street Church that
the famous hymn was first sung" on July 4, 1832. To this the author
adhered until his death without giving to any other account even the
benefit of doubt. For instance, in an article in the New York
World, January 20, 1895, reprinted from there in the Critic, 1895,
he explicitly said:
It was at thia children's Fourth of July celebration that ''America" was first
sung.
"America" is perhaps too hymnlike and devotional in character
for a national anthem, and possibly is pervaded too much by a peculiar
New England flavor. It is also eminently peacefid and indeed so
much so, as was remarked above, that the author deliberately crossed
out the only verse with allusion to war. Yet, these can not really be
considered shortcomings of "My coimtry 'tis of thee" as a national
song and would at all events be outweighed by the great advantage
that ''America" is appropriate for all occasions and professions, for
Digitized by
Google
America. 77
old and young and for both sexes. It does not sound odd from the
mouth of a woman as does, for instance, '^ The Star-Spangled Banner."
However, the main objection raised against ^'America'' has been
the union of the words with that foreign air of cosmopolitan usage
'^God save the King." Yet there is this difference, which should
never be overlooked. If the Danes or the Prussians use ''God save
the King," they have deUberately borrowed it from the British.
Not so with IIS. "God save the King" was, before 1776, as much
our national anthem as that of the motherland. Being a British air
it belonged to the British colonists just as much as it did to the Britons
at home. When we gained national independence, did the Americans
forthwith deprive themselves of the English language, of English
literature, EngUsh tastes, of aU the ties formed by an Enghsh ances-
try? Why should, then, Americans renounce their original part-
ownership of the air of ''God save the King?" Why should it not be
perfectly natural for them, in short, American, to use for their national
anthem an air which, historically considered, they need not even bor-
row? Certain it is that after 1776 the air was not treated with this
comparatively recent chauvinism. Young America sang patriotic
songs like "God save America," "God save George Washington,"
"God save the President," and that "song made by a Dutch lady at
the Hague for the sailors of the five American vessels at Amsterdam,
Jime, 1779," printed in the Pennsylvania Packet and called "God
save the thirteen States," without the slightest misgivings. Thomas
Dawes, jr., used the air for his ode sung at the entertainment given
on Bunker's Hill by the proprietors of Charles River bridge at the
opening of the same in 1786 or 1787. It begins "Now let rich music
sound, " and may be found on pages 133-134 of the American Musical
Miscellany, 1798. Indeed, this once standard collection included
(on pp. 130-132) an "Ode for the Fourth of July," the words of which
"Come all ye sons of song" were sung to the supposedly un-American
air of "God save the King." The most curious use, however, was
made of this air by an early American sufiFragette. In the Phila-
delphia Minerva, October 17, 1796, appeared in the "Comii of Apollo"
a poem under the title "Rights of Woman" by a lady, tune "God
save America," and beginning:
God Bave each Female's right
Show to her raviah'd ai^t
Woman is free.
To contribute to the discussion of the origin of "God save the Bang"
from this side of the ocean would be preposterous. Whether Chap-
pell, Chrysander, Ciunmings, etc., have exhausted the subject or not
would be extremely difficult for any American to investigate. The
literature mentioned in the appendix to this report will enable those
Digitized by
Google
78 America.
interested in the problem to exercise their critical faculties, though
it is very doubtful if they could sum up the whole matter more
admirably than was done by Sir Oeorge Grove and Mr. Frank Eidson
in the new edition of Grove's ''Dictionary of Music & Musicians.''
Yet one remark I feel imable to repress. The efforts unreservedly
to attribute the air of ''God save the King" to Dr. John Bull
(1619), merely because a few notes are similar, remind me of Mr.
Elson's witty observation that with such arguments the main theme
of the last movement of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony would come
very close to being inspired by "Yankee Doodle."
Digitized by
Google
YANKEE DOODLE
'^Yankee Doodle" is sometimes called a national song — ^incor-
rectly so, because, with a now practically obsolete text or texts, it
is hardly ever sung, but merely played as an instrumental piece.
Though no longer a national song, it is still a national air and second
only to "Dixie" in patriotic popularity. For one hundred and
fifty years "Yankee .Doodle" has appealed to our people, and the
tune shows no sign of passing into oblivion. Surely, a tune of such
vitality must have some redeeming features. This remark is directed
against those who have ridiculed the musical merits of ''Yankee
Doodle" or treated it with contempt. That Schubert would not
have composed such an air is obvious enough, and it is equally
obvious that as a national air "Yankee Doodle" does not direct
itself to our sense of majesty, solemnity, dignity. It frankly appeals
to our sense of himior. Critics, pedantic or flippant, have over-
looked the fact that every nation has its himiorous, even burlesque,
patriotic airs, and that these are just as natural and useful as solenm
airs — ^indeed, more so, occasionally. As a specimen of burlesque,
even "slangy," musical humor, "Yankee Doodle" may safely hold
its own against any other patriotic air. But why apologize or
explain, since the matter was summed up so neatly many years
ago — at least as early as the Songster's Museum, Hartford, 1826,
in the lines:
Yankee Doodle is the tune
Americans delight in
'Twill do to whistle, sing or play,
And just the thing for fighting.
which apparently are the polished descendants of the lines in the
Colimibian Songster, 1799, under the title of "American Spirit:"
Sing Yankee Doodle, that fine tune
Americans delight in.
It suits for peace, it suits for fun,
It suits as well for fighting.
It may be added that the air has foimd its way with more or less
effect into the works of modem composers, such as Rubinstein,
Wieniawski, Schelling. However, be its esthetic appeal to musicians
weak or strong, this much is certain: Exceedingly few airs have
stirred antiquarians to pile a mass of literature around their origin
79
Digitized by
Google
80 Ya nkee Doodle.
as has "Yankee Doodle." But how grotesque, that the two most
painstaking contributions to the subject of ''Yankee Doodle" should
have remained impublished! I mean those by Afr. Moore and
Mr. Matthews. Mr. George H. Moore's paper, called "Notes on
the origin and history of Yankee Doodle/' and read first before
the New York Historical Society on December 1, 1885, acquired for
its author the reputation of knowing more about our air than any
other person then living; yet this famous paper was never printed.
Indeed, even the manuscript disappeared in the fogs of mystery
until Mr. Albert Matthews, of Boston, whose amazingly elaborate
research in the history of Americanisms brought him into close con-
tact with "Yankee Doodle," traced it to Doctor Moore's son.
Mr. Matthews made extracts from the manuscript for his own pur-
pose, and this purpose has been for many years to write an exhaustive
history of "Yankee Doodle" — at any rate, as far as its literary history
goes. Mr. Matthews contributed several papers on the subject to
the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, but these papers, too, have
remained impublished and are not accessible to the public; nor
have I seen them, but, after having collected the bulk of my data
and having gained control over the subject in form and substance,
I entered into a fruitful correspondence — mutually fruitful, I hope —
with Mr. Matthews on "Yankee Doodle." His generosity in parting
with data and information, patiently gathered for his own work
and perhaps for theories differing from mine, has enabled me to
polish this report and in many places to strengthen the line of
argument where I felt dissatisfied with it.
TANKEB, A NICKNAME FOR NEW ENGLANDERS.
The nickname "Yankee" is usually and has so been applied by
Europeans for a long time to citizens of the United States in general
as distinguished from other Americans. In our own country the nick-
name still retains a New England flavor, in keeping with the history
of the term. This statement seems to be contradicted by what
Mr. Albert Matthews wrote to the author under date of November 30,
1908:
It has been taken for granted by all writers that originally the word Yankee was
applied to New Englanders only. My material shows that this is a mistake and
that originally the word was applied by the British to any American colonist, and
was applied by the American colonists themselves to the inhabitants of some
colony other than their own . Thus, Pennsyl vanians called the Connecticut settlers
in the Wyoming Valley Yankees, but did not call themselves Yankees. Again,
Virginians called Marylanders Yankees, but did not apply the term to themselves.
I am speaking, you understand, of the decade between 1765 and 1775. Now as
the year 1775 is approached, it is undoubtedly true that there was a tendency to
. locate the Yankees more especiaUy in New England.
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 81
Mr. Matthews's material has not yet been published, and it is not yet
necessary to accept his interpretation of reference to the early use of
"Yankee" as the only correct one. Therefore, the author of this
report still holds that the nickname, while perhaps originally not
confined to New Englanders, was preferably appUed to them by the
colonists and that a Virginian, Marylander, Pennsylvanian, or New
Yorker of colonial times, let us say after 1760, would hardly have con-
sidered it a compliment to be called " Yankee."
This does not ai^ue that the British knew or always drew the local
distinction, or that their use of the word always impUed ridicule either
of the Americans in general or the New Englanders in particular. At
any rate, no satirical flavor attaches to the word when Gren. James
Wolfe (see his "Life," 1864, p. 437, by R. Wright) wrote under date
of June 19, 1758, "North East Harbour (Louisboui^) to General
Amherst:"
My posts are now so fortified that I can afford you the two companies of Yankees
and the more as they are better for ranging and scouting than either work or
vigilance.
How sectional the term still was shortly before our war for inde-
pendence may be illustrated by a reference to J. H. T.'s communica-
tion to the Historical Magazine (1857, Vol. I, p. 375) :
In ^^Oppressum,** a Poem by an American with notes by a North Briton, . . .
London, Printed; Boston, Reprinted . . . 1765, this word is introduced and
explained as follows. The writer denounces Mr. Huske (then a member of the
House of Commons, for Maldon in Essex), as the originator of the scheme for
taxing the colonies;
''From meanness first, this Portamouth Tankey rose
And still to meanness all his conduct flows;
This alien upstart, by obtaining friends,
From T-wn-nd's clerk, a M-ld-n member ends."
[Note] ''Portsmouth Yankey." It seems our hero being a new Englander by birth,
has a right to the epithet of Yankey; a name of derision, I have been informed, given
by the Southern people on the Continent, to those of New England: what meaning
there is in the word, I never could learn.'' (p. 10).
In the same volume of the Historical Magazine (pp. 91-92) atten-
tion is drawn by B. H. H. to an unpublished letter which Robert Yates,
the sheriflf of Albany County, N. Y., wrote on July 20, 1771, on his
return from an official visit to Bennington, Vt., and in which he refers
to the inhabitants of this town, thus:
We received an account from the Tcmkia that they would not give up the pos-
session [of the farm] but would keep it at all events.
and again:
We had discovered that the Yankees had made all the necesBary preparations
to give us the warmest reception.
85480-09 6
Digitized by
Google
82 Ya nkee Doodle.
In the extract of a letter dated Hartford and printed in the New
York Journal, June 15, 1775, describing the capture of letters from
the "high flying'' Tory, Robert Temple, occurs this sentence:
Other letters are full of invectivee agamst the poor Yankees, aa they call us.
In the "Journal of the most remarkable occurrences in Quebec,
1775-1776, by an officer of the garrison'' (rep. by the N. Y. Hist. Soc.
1880, p. 222), we read:
The New Yorkers look upon themselves as being far superior to what they call
the YankieSy meaning the people of Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode-Island
and New Hampshire, who effect a disgusting pre-eminence and take the lead in
every thing.
Rev. Wm. Gordon, when describing the skirmishes at Concord and
Lexington in the Pennsylvania Gazette, May 10, 1775, says:
They [the British troops] were roughly handled by the Yankeea, a term of
reproach for the New Englanders, when applied by the regulars.
Silas Deane, when writing June 3, 1775 one of his characteristic
letters from Philadelphia to his wife, after describing graphically the
Continental Congress, remarks:
. . . indeed, not only the name of a Yankee, but of a Connecticut man in par-
ticular, is become very respectable this way,
and James Thacher, in his Military Journal from 1775 to 1783 (p. 72),
commenting on the difference *' between troops from Southern States
and those from New England,*' remarked:
it could scarcely be expected that people from distant colonies, differing in manners
and prejudices could at once harmonize in friendly intercourse. Hence we too
frequently hear the burlesque epithet of Yankee from one party, and that of Buck-
skin, by way of retort, from the other.
These and other references would imply not only that the term was
preferably used by New Yorkers and the British soldiers against New
Englanders; that it was derisive, or at least not complimentary; that
it was comparatively unfamiliar to the New Englanders; and that it
had not yet been adopted by them for home use. They adopted it
during the war, however, and took, as happens quite frequently to
derisive nicknames, great pride in calling themselves, or being called,
''Yankees." For instance, Anburey states in his ** Travels," writing
from Cambridge, 1777, '^ after the affair of Bunker's Hill the Americans
gloried in it."
DERIVATION OF THE WORDS "YANKEE DOODLE."
The annotator of the poem "Oppression" expressed his inability
in 1765 to explain the meaning of the word. To-day he would rather
experience the diflSculty of choosing between the various etymological
explanations. The word "Yankee" gradually came to fascinate the
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 83
historian of words until about 1850 this fascination reached its climax.
Since then the craze has subsided, yet any number of explanations
are still ciurent and proffered as facts, merely on the presimiption that
embellished reiteration of statements correctly or incorrectly quoted
produces facts. Without an attempt to be exhaustive, it will be well
to bring some semblance of order into this literature by going back, as
far as possible, to the form in which the different and sometimes
fantastically developed theories originally appeared.
Possibly the first (in print) appeared in the Pennsylvania Evening
Post, May 25, 1775, reprinted from there in the New York Gazetteer,
June 1, 1775. It is in form of a short article :
BTYMOLOGT OF THE T70BD TANKBB.
When the New England colonies were first settled, the inhabitants were obliged
to fight their way against many nations of Indians. They found but little difil-
culty in subduing them at all, except one tribe, who were known by the name of
the Yankoos, which signifies invincible. After the waste of much blood and
treasure, the Yankees were at last subdued by the New Englanders. The remains
of this nation (agreeable to the Indian custom) transferred their name to their con-
querors. For a while they were called Yankees; but from a corruption, common
to names in all languages, they got through time the name of Yankees. A name
which we hope will soon be equal to that of a Roman, or an ancient Englishman.
It is a suspicious coincidence that the derivation of "Yankee" from
Yankoo, meaning 'Mnvincible,'* should have been brought forward at
the beginning of our hostilities with the English. Furthermore, it
never has been the Indian custom to transfer their names to their con-
querors, nor has it been the custom of the latter to acquiesce in such a
transfer, though they adopted many Indian names for localities.
Worst of all for this etymology, which has been accepted in all serious-
ness by several writers, an Indian tribe by the name of " Yankoos " is
not known to have existed. To illustrate the extremes to which
credulity in historical matters may lead, the following extraordinary
yam with reference to the *' Yankoo" theory may be quoted from the
Magazine of American History (1891, vol. 25, p. 256), where L. A.
Alderman writes :
John Dresser Chamberlain, my grandfather, wrote in 1870: '* According to tra-
dition we descended from two brothers who came from England, one of whom
settled in Massachusetts and the other in Connecticut. Benjamin Chamberlain,
a descendant of the Massachusetts stock, was a great warrior against the Indians,
and many of his exploits were printed in his biography. One was that he fought
the Yankoo chief — Yankoo meaning 'conqueror' in English — and whipped him.
Then the chief said: '1 no more Yankoo, you Yankoo,' and from that time and
circumstance the name was transferred to the whites, now called Yankees.
Benjamin Chamberlain lived at Southborough, Massachusetts, during the Revo-
lutionary war." [II]
Digitized by
Google
84 * Yankee Doodle.
A second theory of derivation was jBrst printed in Gordon's His-
tory of the Rise, Progress, and Establishment of the Independence of
the United States of America, (London, 1788, Vol. I, p. 481) :
You may wish to know the origin of the term Yankee. Take the beet account of
it which youir friend can procure. It was a cant, favorite word with fanner Jona-
than Hastings of Cambridge about 1713. Two aged ministers, who were at the
college in that town, have told me, they remembered it to have been then in use
among the students, but had no recollections of it before that period. The in-
ventor used it to express excellency. A Yankee good horse, or Yankee cider and
the like, were an excellent good horse, and excellent cider. The students used to
hire horses of him; their intercourse with him, and his use of the term upon all
occasions, led them to adopt it and they gave him the name of Yankee Jon. He
was a worthy, honest man, but no conjurer. This could not escape the notice of
the collegiates. Yankee probably became a by-word among them to express a
weak, simple, outward person; was carried from the college with them when they
left it and was in that way inculcated ... till from its currency in New England,
it was at length taken up and unjustly applied to the New Englanders in common,
as a term of reproach.
This version, of course, depends on the actual existence of a farmer,
Jonathan Hastings, about 1713. The assumption is corroborated by
the "Proprietors's Records" of Cambridge, Mass., which prove a
farmer and tanner, Jonathan Hastings, to have been quite prominent
in the affairs of the town about this time. Page's EDstory of Cam-
bridge, 1877, further proves that Jonathan was bom July 15, 1672,
and died August 20, 1742. These facts do not yet establish a con-
nection between Jonathan Hastings and the use of the term " Yankee "
as maintained by Gordon, but the editor of the Massachusetts Maga-
zine, 1795 (p. 301), while tracing the author of "Father Abdy's will,"
incidentally comes to our rescue. He writes that Rev. John Seccombe,
the reputed author of "Father Abdy's will," in a letter (which the
editor had before him) dated "Cambridge, Sept. 27, 1728," to his
friend Thaddeus Mason, both Harvard men, gives a ' 'most humorous
narrative of the fate of a goose roasted at ' Yankey Hastings's,' " and
it concludes with a poem on the occasion in the mock heroic.
Accordingly, Jonathan Hastings, of Cambridge, bore the nickname
of "Yankey" in 1728 at Harvard. This may be considered an
established fact, and though it does not necessarily follow that Gor-
don's account is based on equal facts, we may accept the reminis-
cences of the two aged ministers as substantially correct, however
embellished in course of time. The objectionable feature of this
account is that Hastings is called the inventor of the term. It is
all the more objectionable in view of the following conmiimication of
J. T. F. to Notes and Queries, 1878 (5th ser., vol. 10, p. 467) :
The inventory of the effects of WUliam Marr, formerly of Morpeth, and after-
wards ''of Carolina, in parts beyond the seas, but in the pariah of St. Dunstan,
Stepney'' (1725) j ends with, ''Item one negro man named Yankee to be sold."
Mr. W. Woodman, of Morpeth, has the docimient.
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 85
The natural inference from this is that Hastings did not invent the
term. He bore it as a nickname about 1728, and probably came to
it in the manner described by the tradition. Where he and from
whom he borrowed it remains to be ascertained, and also whether he
used the word in its original meaning or simply (though it may have
had a totally different meaning originally) because he liked the %
sound of it. At any rate 'the Jonathan Hastings theory leads merely
to an early use of the word, but not to its origin. Nor is the process
plausible that the term should have become so popular through the
exertions of Jonathan Hastings and his Harvard friends that it
spread from Cambridge, Mass., through the vast but thinly popu-
lated colonies and became, within fifty years, the reproachful nick-
name of the New Englanders in general, among whom the term
"Yankee" does not appear to have been current.
A third derivation of the term "Yankee" is given by Anburey,
who in 1777 wrote in a letter from Cambridge (Travels through . . .
America," 1789, vol. 2, p. 50) :
... it is derived from a Cherokee word, eankke, which signifies coward and
slave. This epithet of yankee was bestowed upon the inhabitants of New England
by the Viiginians, for not assisting them in a war with the Cherokees, and they
have always been held in derision by it. But the name has been more prevalent
since the commencement of hostilities . . .
This statement would be acceptable if it could be corroborated. A
letter of inquiry addressed to the Bureau of American Ethnology
brought this reply (August 18, 1908) from Mr. James Mooney, the
eminent authority on the Cherokee Indians:
The Cherokee words for coward and for slave (worker, or live stock property)
respectively, are udaskaati and cUnnaUtiiU.
The Cherokee name for the "Yankees/' Anir Tunffi, is simply their form for
<< Yankee,'' in the plural . . .
In private conversation Mr. Mooney further eiqpressed his opinion
that no word like earikJce, of whatever meaning, exists in the Cherokee
language.
A third Indian derivation was advanced in ^'Diedrich Knicker-
bocker's History of New York" (1809 (First ed.), vol. 1, p. 169), in
the chapter on ''The ingenious people of Connecticut and there-
abouts." Diedrich waxes eloquent over ''that grand palladium of
our coimtry, the liberty of speech, or as it has been more vulgarly
denominated the gift of {he gai" and then proceeds:
The simple aborigines of the land for a while contemplated these strange folk
in utter astonishment, but discovering that they wielded harmless though noisy
weapons, and were a lively, ingenious, good-humoured race of men, they became
very friendly and sociable, and gave them the name of YanoHes, which in the
Ifais-Tschusaeg (or Massachusett) language signifies silent men — a waggish appel-
lation, since shortened into the familiar epithet of Yankees, which they retain
imto the present day.
Digitized by
Google
86 Ya nkee Doodle.
This is in Washington Irving's best satirical vein. He makes his
Diediich Knickerbocker kill two birds with one stone, satirizing the
New Englanders and at the same time those freak etymologies of
the term '' Yankee" that were just then begixming to attract public
attention. Diedrich Knickerbocker's delightful narrative is full of
such etymological pranks. Yet some people did not appreciate the
joke nor see the point, but adduced in all seriousness Washington
Irving's authority when further experimenting with the puzzling
term.
The derivation of ''Yankee" from the Indian language, which has
attracted more attention than any other and is now current in the
principal dictionaries, is presumably due to Heckewelder's ''History,
Manners, and Customs of the Indian Nations," Philadelphia, 1819.
In the third chapter he writes of the "Indian relations and the con-
duct of the Europeans towards them," and while dealing with the
Lenape, Mohicans, and kindred tribes, speaks of the Indian tradition
surrounding the arrival first of the "Dutchemaan" at " Manahachr'
tanierik'^ (Manhattan) and subsequently of the " Yengeese" In a
footnote he explains the latter term as being " an Indian corruption
of the word English, whence probably the nickname YavJcees.*'
This passing hint is elaborated by Heckewelder in the thirteenth
chapter of his book (p. 130) as follows:
The first name given by the Indians to the Europeanfl who landed in Virginia
was WapM Lenape (white people), when, however, afterwards they began to
commit murder on the red men, whom they pierced with swords, they gave to
the Virginians the name Mechantchican (long knives) to distinguish them from
others of the same colour.
In New England, they at first endeavoured to imitate the sound of the national
name of the Bngliehf which they pronounced Yengees. They also caUed them
CJicmquaqtuxJt, (men of knives) for having imported these instruments into the
country, which they gave as presents to the natives, a The Mohicans of that
country called them Tschachgoos; [later] they dropped that name, and caUed the
whites by way of derision, SchvHmnack^ which signifies salt beings, or bitter things.
. . . They never apply it to the Quakers, whom they greatly love . . . they
call them Quaekels, not having in their language the sound expressed by our
letter R . . .
These were the names which the Indians gave to the whites until the middle
of the Revolutionary War, when they were reduced to the foUowing three:
1. Mechanschican or Chanschican (long knives) [Virginians and Middle colonies].
2. Yengees. This name they now exclusively applied to the people of New
England, who, indeed, appeared to have adopted it, and were, as they still are,
generally through the country called Yankees, which is evidently the same name
with a trifling alteration . . . The proper English they caUed Saggenash.
3. Quaeckels . . . Not only the Delawares, but all the nations round them
make use of these names and with the same relative application.
a Rogers's Key into the language of the Indians of New England, ch. VI.
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 87
Before analyzing this theory of Rev. John Heckewelder, which has
been adopted with more or less bold variations, one contemporaneous
etymological attempt which runs in a similar vein may be mentioned.
It appeared as a note to the appendix of John Trumbull's '' Poetical
works," Hartford, 1820:
Yankiei. The first settlers of New England were mostly emigrants from London
and its vicinity, and exclusively styled themselves the English. The Indians,
in attempting to utter the word English, with their broad gutteral accent, gave
it a sound which would be nearly represented in this way, YaungJiees, the letter
g being pronounced hard, and approaching to the sound of h joined with a strong
aspirate, like the Hebrew chetz, or the Greek chi, and the I suppressed, as almost
impossible to be distinctly heard in that combination. The Dutch settlers on
the river Hudson and the adjacent country, during their long contest concerning
the right of territory, adopted the name, and applied it in contempt to the inhab-
itants of New England . . . This seems the most probable origin of the term.
The pretended Indian tribe of Yankees does not appear to have ever had an
existence . . .
The sum and substance of these derivations is the supposed dif-
ficulty of the Indians in pronoimcing the word "English" without
corrupting it. The explanation seemed plausible, and it was adopted,
mentioning Heckewelder as authority, by Webster in the first edition
(1828) of his dictionary. By 1841 had been added "or more prob-
ably of the French word Anghis," but in 1848 the editor, not seeing
the fine point of defense, changed Anglais into Anglais. In support
of this corruption theory a passage in Hutchinson's "History of the
Colony of Massachusetts-Bay," (1764, vol. 1, p. 479), was remem-
bered:
It was observed that without the greatest difficulty, they [the Indians] could
not be brought to pronounce the letter L or R. For Lobster, they said Nobstan.
Having remembered this, one M. N. 6., in Notes and Queries, 1877
(5th ser., vol. 7, p. 338), summed the whole theory up with all its
virtues and defects in these words:
They [the Indians] lengthened and softened the vowels; thus even a clever
Indian could not pronounce English better than Eengeesh. Most Indians would
be still wider oS the mark and the common pronunciation was probably Angees
(the g hard), or Ankees.
The trouble with this entire theory is that Rev. John Heckewelder
(bom 1743 at Bedford, England) did not begin his labors among the
Indians imtil 1762. He abandoned the task before the expiration
of the year. Between 1765 and 1771 he went on short missionary
expeditions. His actual career as an important evangelist among
the Indians began in 1771, his real services to Indian archeology,
however, not until 1810, and his book on the Indians was not pub-
lished until 1819. Sixty years are ample to form mental associations
of disconnected data to amalgamate heterogeneous historical matter
Digitized by
Google
88 Ya nkee Doodle.
and traditions. Important as Heckewelder's "History'' is, it is now
reputed to suffer from too credulous an assimilation of fact and fancy,
and while much of the book reads as if he had gathered the informal
tion at first hand, it may easily be proved that it frequently was of
second hand and that previous books on the subject had been freely
used. For instance, he says that the Englishmen were called
"Chauquaquock (men of knives)'' and he refers in a footnote to
"Rogers's Key . . ." Such a book does not exist, but Heckewelder
did mean and use Roger Williams's "Key into the language of
America," London, 1643, and there may be foimd (see Reprint by
the Rhode Island Hist. Soc, 1827, p. 51) :
Ohauqock. A knife.
Obs.: Whence they call Englishmen Ohauquaquock, that is knivemen. . . .
To this he adds, on page 65 :
Wa(itacone-n<iaog — Englishmen, men, that is, coat-men, or clothed.
and on page 116:
£nglishm4nnuck — Englishmen .
Dutchmninuck — Dutchmen .
Though the absence of B and L in the Indian names of the Key is
remarkable, not a word is said about the difficulty of pronouncing
the word English, and not a single word even faintly resembling
Yarikee is mentioned in the whole Key. On the other hand, Roger
Williams does say, when treating of the variety of aboriginal dialects,
page 96:
So that although some pronounce not L nor R, yet it is the most prox>er dialect
of other places, contrary to many reports.
In the light of Roger Williams's Key, I64S, Heckewelder's state-
ment, 1819, imsupported by contemporary evidence, that the "In-
dians at first endeavoured to imitate the sound of the national name
of the English, which they pronounced Yengees,^' loses its authority.
Secondly, the critical historical method would now demand that the
tribes with or without the L and B be nicely separated, and that it
be traced, how either fared with their supposed futile attempt to
pronoimce the word "English." Only by this process of investiga^
tion would we come nearer the Indian origin of the word "Yankee,"
if it really has an Indian origin. The manner in which this origin
is developed backward does not appear to strengthen the theory.
For instance, let it be supposed the word "Yankee" originated with
the tribes who experienced no difficulty in pronouncing the letter
L. Is it reasonable that then the word "English" could have
become" Yankee," by changing the soimd e into a, adding y, harden-
ing g, dropping i and ahf If the word originated with tribes who did
not enjoy the letters I and r, the objections become still more nimier-
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 89
ous. We know from Hutchinson that such Indians liked to sub-
stitute n for Z and r ("lobster" becoming "nobstan''), and we know
from Governor Edward Winslow's "Good news from England, Lond.
1624/' that the Indians insisted on calling him Winsnow. It follows
that the word "English/' even if pronoimced with a broad E, either
becomes "Engish" or "Engnish." But the goal is ^'Yankee" and
can be reached only by subtle softenings, broadenings, clippings,
transformations, and additions of sound. The weakness of this
derivation could not escape the attention of the few, who are by
nature at all fitted to reason not only logically but methodically, and
efforts were made to substitute the word Anglais for English, thus
selecting the Indians of French Canada as possible godfathers of the
New England Yankees. Brushixig aside the Indians' preference for
substituting an n instead of dropping an I altogether, one could with
less difficulty arrive from Anglais at Yankee. Unfortimately for
this shift of responsibility from our to the Canadian Indians, the old
French word for Englishmen is Anglois, and therewith, of course,
the theory again drifts away from the word "Yankee."
It is, in view of these observations, not at all unlikely that Hecke-
welder's theory is one a posteriori, an afterthought, knowing, as he
plainly did, that the nickname of "Yankee" was confined in his
younger days more or less to the New Englanders, and having pos-
sibly heard it suspected that the word was of Indian provenience, he
combined fact and hypothesis without further analysis. He took
for granted what was merely a historical rumor, developed his story
from this artificial premise, and made the facts subservient to his
afterthought.
To-day our ethnologists, among them Mr. James Mooney, point to
other and even more grotesque corruptions of English words by the
Indians, and by subtle phililogical analysis they arrive at the con-
clusion that it was not impossible for the word English (with the
broad E) to have become Yankee in the mouths of the southern New
England Indians. However, they merely concede the possibility
from the standpoint of philology and do not positively commit them-
selves to Heckewelder's derivation. Nor would this be scientific,
since we have no evidence that the Indians actually used the word
"Yankee."
Simultaneously with the theory of Indian origin sprang up one
which carries us to the Orient, to Persia. One B. H. H. in the His-
torical Magazine (1857, vol. 1, pp. 156-157), drew attention to an
article in the eighth volume of the Monthly Anthology, Boston,
1803-1811. This article, dated ''New Haven, March 2, 1810," and
signed W, purports to have been copied from the Connecticut Herald,
New Haven, and the editor suspected N . . . W . . . jun., esq.,
to have been the author. This can but mean Noah Webster, and it
Digitized by
Google
90 Ya nkee Doodle.
is significant in this connection that the Monthly Anthology was in
the habit of attacking Webster's ponderous methods. The article
is much too long for full quotation. It begins with the statement
that—
Yankee appeals to have been used fonnerly by some of our common fanners in
its genuine sense. It was an epithet descriptive of excellent qualities — as a
Yankee horse, that is, a horse of high spirit and other good properties . . .
After this unmistakable allusion to fanner Yarikey Hastings and
some extraordinary feats of etymology of the type of Cicero's lucus
a non lucendo, the author steers with fuU sails into a Persian origin
of the word, as follows;
Now in the Persian language, Janghe or Jenghe [that is Yankee] signifies a war-
like man, a swift horse; also one who is prompt and ready in action, one who is
magnanimous . . . The word Yankee claims a very honourable parentage, for
it is the precise title assumed by the celebrated Mongolian Khan, Jenghis; and
in our dialect, his titles literally translated would be Yankee King, that is, War-
like Chief. . . .
The editor of the Monthly Anthology added that this article reads
as if ''intended for a buslesque upon those etymologists who are
always forcing derivations beyond all bounds of probability." Not-
withstanding these hints, this etymological hoax directed against
Noah Webster, whose dictionary does not contain any such Persian
definition, has been treated seriously. Its champions pointed to the
supposed fact that Morier in his ''Journey through Persia" said that
the Persians of that day spoke of America as Jenghee DuniaJi, and a
certain W. S. A., under the title of "Possible Eastern Origin of Yan^-
Jcee Doodle^ had this to say in the New England Historical and Gen-
ealogical Register, volimie 20, July, 1866:
A Possible Eastern Origin of Yankee Doodle. I made the following extract
from a volume printed in London about twenty-five years ago. It is the ' 'Journal
of Residence in England . . . originally written in Persian by H. R. H.^ Najaf
Eoolee Merza . . . London/' without date. Vol. II, p. 146:
' ' As to America, which is known in the Turkish language by the name of Yankee
Dooniah, or the New World." On asking I found that this is generally correct,
but the literal translation of the words is ''End of the World."
More fantastic things have happened than the importation of an
oriental word " Yanghee '' to America. Simply because such a deriva-
tion appears to be fantastic, it must not be brushed aside without
an effort to disprove it, for, after all, the derivations thus far criticised
are not very much less fantastic. However, the oriental theory can
be proved to be not only fantastic and extremely impossible, but
incorrect.
In the first place, this gentleman surreptitiously, because he wanted
to prove something, exchanged Yengee or YengTiee and YavJcee, not
aware of the fact that the discovery of a word in the language of
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 91
49ome country other than the one where it is known to have been used
for a century, proves nothing except its use. In the second place,
Dooniah and Doodle are not even phonetically related. Thirdly,
the words do not apply to North America, but to South America.
Says James Morier in his "Second Journey through Persia between the
years 1810 and 1816," London, 1818, when describing the return trip
of the Persian ambassador from England to Asia by way of Cape
Horn:
On the 11th of September [1810] we made Gape Frio; and as we approached
the shore we called the PersianB to look at the Yengee Duniahf or the new world,
of which in their country they had heard such wonders . . .
How far this is from ''Yankee Doodle" is further iUustrated by the
attempt at a correct pronimciation in the German translation of
Morier's book (1820) : '^Jendschi DunniahJ^
Different again is the derivation as suggested by Sdlfm Notes and
Queries, 1879 (5th ser., vol. 11, p. 38):
The word ''Yanks'' is always used in the east of Lincolnshire to describe the
coarse, untanned leather gaiters worn by the country folk. There was a large
exodus from this part of the country to America. Might not, therefore, the word
<< Yankee '' have been used to distinguish those who wore these gaiters or ''yanks ",
the incoming strangers, from the original inhabitants, who wore mocassins?
This is delightfully naive. One naturally asks: Were these
'^ yanks" used and known as such as far back as 1725? Were they
worn in America, if at all, by New Englanders only? Were these
gaiters known here as "yanks?" Who was it that thus distinguished
between the inmiigrants from eastern Lincolnshire and the Indians?
With such fantastic and naive methods the tenn Yartkee may be
traced to any desired language with more or less plausibility. For
instance, Mr. Louis C. Elson hints at having read of a Norwegian
derivation, and Mr. Nason, in a footnote to his ''Monogram" (p. 21),
says that some ''deduce it from the old Scotch word Yankief a sharp,
clever woman."
It would be extraordinary if the fact that "Yankee Doodle" was
applied to their New England neighbors, preferably by the people
of New York, whose population in those days was laigely of Dutch
origin, had not invited the attempts to derive the term from the
Dutch. Curiously enough, these attempts, though they all have
the same object in view, weaken the Dutch theory somewhat by
their contradictions.
One of the first, if not the first, attempt to derive the tenn from
the Dutch was noted by Greoi^e Ticknor. There is to be found in
his "Life, Letters, and Journals" (vol. 2, p. 124), the following entry:
Januaary t, 18S8, I passed the evening with Thieny. ... He is much skilled
in etymology, and thinks our etymologies of the word Yankee are all wrong, and
that, having arisen from the collision and jeerings of the Dutch and English in
Digitized by
Google
92 Ya nkee Doodle.
New York and New England, it is from the Dutch Jan — ^pronounced Yon —
John, with the very common diminutive kee, and doodlen, to quaver; which
would make the whole ^^ quavering or psahnrnnging Jaeky or Johnny," Doodle-
sack means a bagpipe.
Johnny would refer to John Bull; and if, doodlen be made in the present tense,
Yankee-doodle would be Johnny that sings psalms, Hartrkee — my little dear
heart, and hundreds of other diminutives, both in endearment and in ridicule,
are illustrations of the formation of the word. It amused me not a little, and
seems probable enough as an etymology, better certainly than to bring it with
Noah Webster from the Persian.
Somewhat similar is the derivation advanced by William Bell, in
Notes and Queries, 1853 (vol. 7, p. 103), under the heading ^'Yankee,
its origin and meaning:''
. . . the term is of Anglo-Saxon origin and of home-growth. . . . We may, of
course, suppose that in the multitude of these Dutch settlers [of New Amsterdam,
etc.] the names they carried over would be pretty nearly in the same proportion
as at home. Both then and now the Dutch Jan (the a sounded very broad and
long) . . . was the prevailing abbreviation appellative; and it even furnished, in
Jansenj etc. (like our Johnson) frequent patronymics, particularly with the favour-
ite diminutive eke, Jancke; and so common does it still remain as such, that it
would be difficult to open the Directory of any decent sized Dutch or Northern
German town without finding numerous instances, as Jancke, Jaancke, Jahncke,
etc., according as custom has settled the orthography in each family. It is
scarcely necessary to say that the soft /is frequently rendered by Fin our English
reading and speaking foreign words ... to show how easily and naturally the
above names were transformed into Yaknkee. So far the name as an appellative;
now for its appropriation as a generic. The prominent names of individuals are
frequently seized upon by the vulgar as a designation of the people or party in
which it most prevails . . . therefore, when English interests gained the upper
hand, and the name of New Amsterdam succiunbed to that of New York, the fresh
comers, the English settlers, seized upon the most prominent name by which
to designate its former masters, which extended to the whole of North America,
as far as Canada: and the addition of doodle, twin brother to noodle, was intended
to mark more strongly the contempt and mockery by the dominant party. . . .
It is, however, to the credit of our transatlantic brethren and the best sign of
their practical good sense, that they have turned the tables on the innuendo
and by adopting, carried the term into repute by sheer resolution and determinate
perseverance. . . .
There the matter rested for a while, except as it was made use of
for secondhand articles, etc. Then the Notes and Queries, 1877
(5th ser., vol. 7, p. 338), printed a curiously illogical communication
in which these words occur:
Doodle is surely only an imitation of the crowing of a cock — the meaning, if
any, of Yankee Doodle is New Englanders, be on the alert; or, ' ' show your spirit."
The absurdity of this apostrophe in the mouth of Dutchmen the
correspondent does not see, and we may pass on to the reference in
Notes and Queries, 1879 (p. 18), in which a reader of Smollett's
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 93
novel "Sir Lancelot Greaves" (1760) called attention to Captain
Crowe's words in third chapter:
Proceed with the story in a direct course, without yawing like a Dutch yanky.
Here we evidently have a Dutch word which is almost identical
with "yankee," but what sense can there possibly be in the combi-
nation of a Dutch ship with the word doodle^ which either means fool
or to bagpipe music?
Different again was Dr. Greoi^ H. Moore's derivation; who read
an (unfortunately unpublished) paper on the " Origin and history
of Yankee Doodle" before the New York Historical Society, Decem-
ber, 1885. In the meager report of this paper in the Magazine of
American History (1886, vol. 15, p. 99), we read:
His theory of its derivation assigns the origin of the word to the Low-Dutch word
janker, which signifies ''a howling cur, a yelper, a growler, a grumbling person/'
and he formed in the history of relations existing between the English and Dutch
sufficient reason for calling the English dogs.
This is driving the point home with a vengeance, and therein lies
the weakness of the derivation. Different again, and assuming, as
one naturally would, that ^'Yankee" has an ironical, sarcastic, but
not brutally insulting flavor, is the derivation as given by G. W. V. S.
in the Magazine of American EBstory (1891, vol. 26, p. 236) :
When the Holland Society made its famous pilgrimage to Holland in 1888 . . .
theHon.H.D.Levyssohn-Norman . . . in the course of a very interesting speech,
said: '! Yankee " is an alteration of the Dutch word Jantje (pronounced Yantyea),
equivalent to Johnnie, a nickname of the Dutch people. In the days of the
revolution of 1830, the Belgian insurgents gave often to a Dutchman the nick-
name of ''Jantje Eaas (Johnnie Cheese).'* So that Yankee is derived from
Jan (John), Jantje being its diminutive.
But Jantje ( Yantyea) and Yankee are not the same in sound, and
if this be the correct derivation, it is difficult to see why Yankee
should have been preferred to the equally easy Yantyea. If the
Dutch, on the other hand, actually do use Jancke (pronounced
Yankee) in the sense of little John or Johnnie, then this would be
the most plausible derivation, and "Yankee Doodle" would be
''Johnny Doodle/'
To make sure of this point, a letter of inquiry was sent to the
eminent Dutch musical scholar, D. F. Scheurleer, at The Hague,
and he answered under date of October 7, 1908, as follows:
. . . MerkwtLrdig genug hat man sich hier mit der ErGrterung der Bedeutung
des Wortes Yankee sehr wenig befasst. Ausgeschlossen ist es nicht, dass ein
hoUlUidisches Wort zu Grunde liegt. Der sehr allgemein verbreitete Taufname
Jan (so allgemein, dass frOher jeder Kellner mit Jan angerufen wurde) hat viele
Diminutiv-Formen je nach dem Dialekt. Jantje (spezial-Name fdr unsere
Matrosen), Jannetje, Jannigie, Janke (nur an einzelnen Orten gebrftuchlich).
Ich weise darauf hin. ohne daraus eine Folgerung zu machen.
Digitized by
Google
94 Ya nkee Doodle.
These, then; are some of the more or less ingenious attempts at
the etymology of the word "Yankee/' but not one of them exhibits
as much learning as the eruditely witty mock derivation of "Porson
Junior ' ' from the Greek. This essay (in the Democratic Review, 1839,
vol. 5, pp. 213-221) is by all odds one of the most brilliant contri-
butions to the literature of parody.
Curiously enough the word "doodle'' has almost escaped the
onslaughts of etymologists, and yet this word and not "Yankee"
may hold the key not only to the etymological problem but to that of
the origin, or at least of the age of the tune "Yankee Doodle," as
will be made clear later on.
One popular derivation of the word "doodle" is from the Scotch
word dovdle, used in the same sense as the German duddn, the slang
word for playing music. But the Oxford Dictionary does not trace
dovdle in print earher than Sir Walter Scott, 1816. The Grermans
also use the word Dudel-SacTc for bagpipe, and as the latter is also
known in the English language as doodle-sack, it stands to reason
that the Germans borrowed their Dudel-Sack and dudeln from the
Scotch. Similarly the Dutch word doedehdk and similar words are
not original with the Dutch, and as Weiland's Woordenboek, 1826,
would allow us to infer, are of comparatively recent use with them.
The Scotch derivation of the word "doodle" is at least plausible,
whereas statements like this in Notes and Queries, 1877 (April 28),
that "Doodle is surely only an imitation of a cock," may be relegated
to the realm of etymological curiosities, inspired perhaps by the
fact that in G. A. Stevens' Songs, 1772, and elsewhere, occurs the
expression "cock a doodle do." However, still more acceptable
than the Scotch, a derivation will appear to be which is based on the
use of the word "Doodle" in English dramatic literature of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It may be traced there with
comparative ease as the following references, partly selected from
Mr. Matthews' unpubUshed material, will prove:
1629. John Ford, "The Lover's Melancholy (act III, I): ''Vanish, doodles,
vanish."
1681. T. Otway*fl ''The Soldier's Fortune" (act I, 2): Sylvia asks Lady Dunce:
"Is your piece of mortality such a doting doodle"?"
1683. In Edward Ravenscroft's "London Cuckolds" "Doodle," and "Wiseacre"
are the "Two aldennen of London."
1706. InE. Ward's "Humours of a Coffee House "(act II, 283) /SnorZ says: "Thou
art the meerest Tom Doodle . . . sure Nature had too much work upon
her hands when thou wer't making, and clos'd thy skull before she put
the brains in."
1730. In H. Fielding's Tom Thumb "Noodle" and "Doodle" are "Courtiers
in place, and consequently of that party that is uppermost!"
1731. Chetwood : ' ' Generous Free Mason " : or, the Constant lady with the humouis
of Squire Noodle, and his Man Doodle. A tragi-comi-farcical ballad
opera ..."
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 96
1731.* In the cast of the Battle of the poets appear Noodle and Doodle as Judges
of the Contention.
1733. In "Rome excised. A new tragi-comi ballad opera "Doodle" ia "Brother
to Cyrenaeus.**
Whether or not Johnson in 1755 correctly saw in "doodle" a
cant word possibly corrupted from do litUe, its meaning is clearly
(see Oxford Dictionary) that of a "simpleton, noodle, silly, or foolish
fellow," but generally of the rural type. If these derivations of
"doodle" be adopted, all difficulties of explaining the meaning of
"Yankee Doodle" vanish. Whatever the origin of "Yankee"
might have been, after "Yankee" was preferably applied to the
New Englanders, "Yankee Doodle" would simply mean a New
England doodle, and it is not to be wondered at that the New
Englanders did not take kindly to this nickname "Yankee,"
especially not if it meant "Johnny."
DOODLE'
Though sometimes dragged into the discussion, the derivation
of the word "Yankee" evidently furnishes no tangible clue to the
origin of the song "Yankee Doodle." The etymological labyrinth
merely leads to the probability that the words "Yankee Doodle"
were not available for a song until after 1700. For the discovery
of the origin of the melody, the first recorded use of the word " Yankee ' *
is of absolutely no help, since melodies, from which certain words
finally become inseparable, often precede these words by decades.
The origin of the song must be traced in a totally different direction.
As was the case with the derivation of the word "Yankee," numerous
conflicting accounts of the origin of the song exist. Most of these,
too, are merely inaccurate and uncritical reiterations, embellishments,
combinations of previous theones. Only after the genealogy of
these theories had been established, some main arteries became
discernible in the confused mass of tradition. An attempt is here
made to trace the original sources of the various theories, and as
far as was possible, the original sources only, since all later reitera-
tions, etc., contain nothing substantially new and merely cover the
main paths with impenetrable underbrush and rubbish.
Possibly the earliest allusion to the origin of the song is contained
in Gordon's "History of the Independence of the United States"
(London, 1788, vol. 1, p. 481). This work is a collection of letters
and the reference to "Yankee Doodle" is to be found in a letter
dated "Roxbury, April 26, 1775:"
a song composed in derision of the New Englanders, scomfuUy called Yankees.
Digitized by
Google
96 Yankee Doodle.
An entry to the same effect in James Thacher's "Military Journal,
from 1775 to 1783/' would appear to antedate Gordon, but the
Journal was not published until 1823, and then with amendments
and additions from other sources. Indeed, his references to "Yankee
Doodle" are copied almost verbatim from Gordon. Much more
substantial is the account given in Fanner & Moore's Collections,
May, 1824 (p. 157-160), in an unsigned article on "Yankee Doodle:"
. . . The story nuiB that the song entitled Yankee Doodle was composed by a
British officer of the Revolution with a view to ridicule the Americans, who by
the English bloods of that time, by way of derision, were styled Yankees ... it
may possibly amuse some of your readers to see a copy of the song as it was printed
thirty-five years since, and as it was trolPd in our Yankee circles of that day.
What mutations it might have undeigone previous to that time, or whether any
additions or alterations have been made since, I know not; but I am, however, of
the opinion, that it has had as many conmientators and collators as the text of
Shakespeare ...
This anonymous article, together with the text of "Yankee
Doodle," was printed in May. In July, 1824 (vol. 3, pp. 217-218),
the editors published a totally different account of the ''Origin of
Yankee Doodle:"
In looking over an old file of the Albany Statesman, edited by N. H. Carter,
Esq., we met with the following interesting note, respecting the origin of the tune
Yankee Doodle — the words of which were published in the Collections for May:
" It is known as a matter of history, that in the early part of 1755, great exertions
were made by the British ministry, at the head of which was the illustrious Earl
of Chatham, for the reduction of the French power in the provinces of the Canadas.
To carry the object into effect, General Amherst, referred to in the letters of
Junius, was appointed to the command of the British army in North Western
America; and the British colonies in America were called upon for assistance,
who contributed with alacrity their several quotas of men, to effect the grand
object of British enterprise. It is a fact still in the recollection of some of our
oldest inhabitants, that the British army lay encamped, in the summer of 1755,
on the eastern bank of the Hudson, a little south of the city of Albany, on the
ground now belonging to John I. Van Rensselaer, Esq. To this day, vestiges of
their encampment remain; and after a lapse of sixty years . . . the inquisitive
traveller can observe the remains of the ashes ... It was this army, that, under
the conunand of Abercrombie, was foiled, with a severe loss, in the attack on
Ticonderoga ... In the early part of June, the eastern troops began to pour in,
company after company, and such a motley assemblage of men never before
thronged together on such an occasion, imless an example might be fotmd in the
ragged regiment of Sir John Falstaff, of right merry and facetious memory. It
would, said my worthy ancestor, who relates to me the story, have relaxed the
gravity of an anchorite, to have seen the descendants of the Puritans, marching
throu^ the streets of our ancient city, to take their station on the left of the
British army — some with long coats, some with short coats, and others with no
coats at all, in colours as varied as the rainbow, some with their hair cropped like
the army of Cromwell, and others with wigs whose curls flowed with grace around
their shoulders. Their march, their accoutrements, and the whole arrangement
of the troops, furnished matter of amusement to the wits of the British army.
The musick played the airs of two centuries ago, and the tout ensemble, upon the
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle.
97
whole, exhibited a eig^t to the wondering strangera that they had been imaccufl-
tomed to in their own land. Among the club of wits that belonged to the British
army, there was a physician attached to the staff, by the name of Doctor Shack-
buig, who combined with the science of the surgeon, the skill and talents of a
musician. To please brother Jonathan, he composed a tune, and with much
gravity recommended it to the officen, as one of the most celebrated airs of martial
musick. The joke took to the no small amusement of the British corps. Brother
Jonathan exclaimed it was nation fine, and in a few days nothing was heard in the
provincial camp but the air of Yankee Doodle . . .''
This account was widely circulated, but soon other traditions and
theories began to demand recognition. One of the most perplexing
to all those who did not have access to its very scarce source ap-
peared in an unsigned article on the ''Origin of Yankee Doodle^'
in the Musical Reporter (Boston, 1841, May, pp. 207-200) :
It appears that, previous to the time of Charles I, an air somewhat similar to
the one in question, was common among the peasantry of England, of which
the following is a copy
This air during the time of Cromwell was set to various ditties in ridicule of
the Protector. One of these began with the words ''The Boundheads and the
Cavaliers ". Another set of words was called "Nankee Doodle '', and has through-
out a striking resemblance to some of the popular stanzas, which were common
in the American Colonies from the time of their origin to the Revolution, and in
some sections of the country, even to the present day. The song, ''Lydia
Lockef or ''Lucy Locket" has been sung to the same tune from time imme-
morial. This air seems to have been the foundation of Yankee Doodle.
The rest of the article is a more or less inaccurate repetition of
previous opinions.
This account was widely circulated, but apparently in the mean-
time other traditions had been clamoring for recognition. John W.
Watson, in his ''Annals of Philadelphia," not in the first edition,
1830, but in the second, 1844 (vol. 2, pp. 333-335), hesitated not to
print this bouquet of historical gossip and blunder:
** Yankee Doodle", This tune so celebrated as a national air of the revolution,
has an origin almost unknown to the mass of the people in the present day. An
aged and respectable lady, bom in New England, told me she remembered it
well, long before the revolution under an another name. It was then univer-
sally called '^Lydia Fisher" and was a favourite New England jig. It was then
86480-09 7
Digitized by
Google
98 Ya nkee Doodle.
the practice with it, as with Yankee Doodle now, to sing it with variouB impromptu
verses — such as
Lydia Locket lost her pocket
Lydia Fisher found it;
Not a bit of money in it,
Only binding round it.
The British, preceding the war, when disposed to ridicule the simplicity of
Yankee manners and hilarity, were accustomed to sing airs of songs set to words,
invented for the passing occasion, having for their object to satirize and sneer
at the New Englanders. This, as I believe, they called Yankee Doodle, by
way of reproach, and as a slur upon their favourite ''Lydia Fisher '\
. . . Judge Martin, in his History of North Carolina, has lately given another
reason for the origin of ** Yankee Doodle ", saying, it was first formed at Albany,
in 1755, by a British officer, then there, indulging his pleasantry on the homely
array of the motley Americans, assembling to join the expedition of GrenenJ
Johnson and Governor Shirley. To ascertain the truth in the premises, both
his and my accounts were published in the gazettes, to elicit, if possible,
further information, and the additional facts ascertained, seem to corroborate
the foregoing idea. The tune and quaint words, says a writer in the Columbian
Gazette, at Washington, were known as early as the time of Cromwell, and were
applied to him then, in a song called ''Nankee Doodle'', as ascertained from the
collection he had seen of a gentleman at Cheltenham in England, called ''Musical
Antiquities of England '', to wit:
Nankee Doodle came to town
Upon a little ponjr.
With a feather in his hat,
Upon a macaroni, &c.
The term feather, <&c., alluded to Cromwell's going into Oxford on a small
hone, with his single plume fastened in a sort of knot called a ' ' macaroni ' ' . The
idea that such an early origin may have existed seems strengthened by the fact
communicated by an aged gentleman of Massachusetts, who well remembered
that, about the time the strife was engendering at Boston, they sometimes con-
veyed muskets to the country concealed in their loads of manure, &c. Then
came abroad verses, as if set forth from their military masters, saying:
Yankee Doodle came to town
For to buy a firelock:
We will tar and feather him,
And so we will John Hancock.
The similarity of the first lines of the above two examples, and the term
"feather," in the third line, seem to mark, in the latter, some knowledge of the
former precedent. As, however, other writers have confirmed their early knowl-
edge of "Lydia Locket," such as
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
In a rainy shower, &c.
we seem led to the choice of reconciling them severally with each other. We
conclude therefore, that the cavaliers, when they originally composed "Nankee
Doodle," may have set it to the jig tune of "Lydia Fisher," to make it the more
offensive to the Puritans. Supposing it, therefore, remembered in succeeding
times as a good hit on them, it was a matter of easy revival in New England, by
royalists, against the people there, proverbially cedled by themselves, "Oliver
Cromwell's children," in allusion both to their austere religion, and their fre«
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 99
notions of govemment. In this view, it was even possible for the British o&cer
at Albany, in 1755, as a man skilled in music, to have before heard of the old
<<Nankee Doodle," and to have renewed it on that occasion.
This was substantially the same story as the one which Watson
wrote to the Massachusetts Historical Society, February 13, 1832, bb
Mr. Matthews discovered, but this letter was not published in their
proceedings until 1861 (vol. 5, pp. 209-212), and therefore can not
have had much influence before 1861.
Soon other compilers followed in Watson's footsteps, chief of
whom the voluminous but unscrupulously inaccurate B. F. Lossing.
In the first edition, 1851-62 (vol. l,p. 81) of his "Pictorial Fieldbook
of the Revolution'' he claims that Thatcher [I] on page 19 of his
Military Journal wrote:
A song, called Yankee Doodle, was written by a British sergeant at Boston, in
1775, to ridicule the people there, when the American anny, under Washington,
was encamped at Cambridge and Roxbuig.
It is characteristic of Lossing's methods that Thacher (comp.,
p. 95 of this report) never wrote these words, but that Lossing
doctored the quotation to suit himself. It is equally characteristic
of him that in the edition of 1859-60 the supposed quotation from
Thacher is not canceled, though Lossing in the supplement of the
second volume (p. 683) gives a totally different version. The latter
is merely a confused conglomeration of previous accounts. About
this time the columns of Notes and Queries were opened to a flood of
communications on the subject of Yankee and Yankee Doodle.
One of the longest was that by T. Westcott, dated Philadelphia, Jime 5,
1852, and printed 1852 in volume 6, page 57. It is merely an echo of
previous accounts, principally of Watson, out of whose words he
construes the claim that —
The tune was known in New England before the Revolution as Lydxa Fisher^s
Jig*
Mr. Westcott, however, took occasion to add this important
observation:
There is no song. The tune in the United States is a march; there are no
words to it of a national character. The only words ever affixed to the air in this
country is the following doggerel quatrain:
Yankee Doodle came to town
Upon a little pony,
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called it macaroni.
Digitized by
Google _
100 Ya nkee Doodle.
Duyckinck's Cyclopaedia of American Literature, 1855, volume 1,
page 463| helped to complicate matters still further. There we read:
The tune was not original with Shackbuig, as it has been traced back to the
time of Charles I., in England. In the reign of his son we find it an accompani-
ment to a little song on a famous lady of easy virtue of that date, which has been
perpetuated as a nursery rhyme-
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it,
Nothing in it, nothing in it,
But the binding round it.
A little later we have the first appearance of that redoubtable personage, Yankee
Doodle. He seems even at that early stage of his career to have shown his charac-
teristic trait of Tw^^iriTig the uioBt of HiT««ft1f —
Yankee Doodle came to town,
Upon a Kentish pony;
He stuck a feather m his hat,
And called him Macaroni.
It is not impossible, however, that Yankee Doodle may be from Holland. A
song in use among the laborers, who in the time of harvest migrate from Germany
to the Low Countries, where they receive for their work as much buttermilk as
they can drink and a tenth of the grain secured by their exertions, has this burden —
Yanker didel, doodel down
Didel, dudel lanter,
Yanke viver, voover vown,
Botermilk and Tanther.
That is, buttermilk and a tenth. This song our informant has heard repeated
by a native of that country, who had often listened to it at harvest time in his
youth.
The precise date when
Father and I went down to camj) —
can not, we fear, be fixed with accuracy. But as the tune was sung at Bunker
Hill, may be assumed to have been in 1776.
Our copy of the words is from a broadside in a collection of ''Songs, Ballads, etc.,
purchased from a ballad printer and seller in Boston in 1813" made by Isaiah
Thomas. The variations and additional stanzas in the notes are from a version
given in Farmer & Moore, III, 157.
A positive statement by F. B. N. S. appeared in the Historical
Magazine (1867, vol. I, p. 92) :
The verses commencing ' Father and I went down to camp ' were written by
a gentleman of Connecticut, a short time after Gen. Washington's last visit to
New England; as will be shown in a book of songs and ballads, soon to be issued
in New York.
I have not been able to trace the proprietor of these initials nor
the book he refers to in Roorbach's *'Bibliotheca Americana," or in
the catalogue of the famous Harris collection of American poetry.
A curious contribution to the " Yankee Doodle " literature foimd its
place in the Historical Magazine, 1868 (vol. 2, pp. 214-215). One
T. H. W. there reprinted an article clipped from the Press, Phila-
delphia, September, 1857. This, in turn, had been sent the Press by
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 101
one Hennan Leigh as the copy of the following letter, dated '^ London,
July 21, 1854, 29 St. Mark's Crescent, Regent's Park:"
With respect to the air of Yankee Doodle, the earliest copy which Dr. Rimbault
has found is in '^ Walsh's collection of Dances for the year 1750 " where it is printed
in 6/8 time, and called * ' Fisher's Jig. " This is very interesting, because for more
than half a century the air in question has been sung in our nurseries to the verse:
Lucy Locket lost her pocket,
Kitty Fisher found it,
Not a bit of money in it,
Only binding round it.
According to a set of old engravings of London characters (probably by Holler)
published in the reign of Charles II, Kitty Fisher figures as a courtesan of that
period. This seems to send the time back a long way.
It has been said that the air of Yankee Doodle dates still further back, and that
the verse
Yankee Doodle came to town,
Upon a little pony;
He stuck a feather on his hat.
And called it macaroni.
relates (with the alteration of Nankee for Yankee) to (Tromwell. The lines are
said to allude to his going to Oxford with a single plume fastened in a knot, called
a macaroni. But this is all conjecture; all we know for certain is, that the air in
question was known in England the first half of the last century as * ' Kitty Fisher's
Jig. " Dr. Rimbault has all the popular music of England from the earliest time,
but finds no trace of the air of Yankee Doodle (in print) before the year 1750.
This letter, which in the main merely reiterates a time-worn account,
traces for the first time the earliest appearance of the time '' Yankee
Doodle'' in print. This reference has become one of the stimibling
blocks in the controversy, and not in a manner as to bestow credit
on the methods of the famous Doctor Rimbault. But who wrote
the letter and sent it to the Historical Magazine? Doctor Rimbault
is spoken of in the third person. This might lead to the impression
that the letter merely gives to a third party the essence of a conver-
sation between the writer and Doctor Rimbault. If this were the
case, then Doctor Rimbault could not be held responsible for all the
mischief done by the letter. I fear that nothing can exonerate him,
since the responsibility rests with Doctor Rimbault and no one else.
Says he in a contribution to the Historical Magazine, 1861, page 123:
"When sending my commimication to the H. M. in July, 1868 (vol.
2, p. 214)." This transaction throws a peculiar light on the methods
of Dr. Edward F. Rimbault.
To the American, English, and Dutch the Historical Magazine now
added a Biscay and Himgarian origin of the tune, 1858, volume 3,
page 280:
The following letter, says the Natumal Intelligencer ^ has been received by a
gentleman of this city from our accompliahed secretary of legation at Madrid:
Madrid, June S, 1868.
Mt dear Sir:
The tune Yankee Doodle, from the first of my showing it here, has been
acknowledged by persons acquainted with music to bear a strong resemblance to
Digitized by
Google
102 Yankee Doodle.
the popular airs of Biacay; and yesterday a professor from the north recognized
it as being much like the ancient sword dance played on solenm occasions by the
people of San Sebastian. He says the tune varies in those provinces, and pro-
poses in a couple of months to give me the changes as they are to be found in their
different towns, that the matter may be judged of and fedrly understood. Our
national air certainly has its origin in the music of the free Pyrenees; the first
strains are identically those of the heroic Dama Eapartay as it was played to me,
of brave old Biscay.
Very truly yours, BucKiNOHAif Smith.
On the same page the Historical Magazine helped to circulate this
story:
Kossuth, says the Boston Post, informed us that the Hungarians with him in
this country first heard Yankee Doodle on the Mississippi River, when they
immediately recognized it as one of the old national airs of their native land —
one played in the dances of that country— and they began immediately to caper
and dance as they used to in Hungary.
Again it was the Historical Magazine, which in 1859 (vol. 3, pp.
22-23) printed an article signed J. C. with the editorial remark that
it had been ''Published in the Baltimore Clipper in 1841 by a person
who well understood the subject:"
In Burgh's Anecdotes of Music, vol. Ill, p. 405 [1814] after speaking of Dr.
Ame and John Frederick Lampe, the author proceeds:
Besides Lampe and Ame, there were at this time (1731) other candidates for
musical fame of the same description. Among those were Dr. Christian Smith,
who set two English operas for Lincoln's Inn Fields, Teraminta and Ulysus. . . .
About the year 1797, after having become a tolerable proficient on the German
flute, I took it into my head to learn the bassoon, and a book of instructions from
the late Mr. Joseph Carr, who had then recently opened a music store in this city
[Baltimore] being the first regular establishment of the kind in the country. In
this book there was an Air from Ulysses, which was the identical air now called
Yankee Doodle^ with the exception of a few notes, which time and fancy may
have added.
Benson J. Lossing again took part in the controversy in an article
on "The Origin of Yankee Doodle" for the Poughkeepsie Eagle,
which was reprinted in Littell's Living Age (1861, vol. 70, pp. 382-384).
This article merely copies the accounts in "Notes and Queries,"
Duyckinck's Cyclopsedia and other sources, without the slightest
attempt at verification of the data except when he remarks of the
"Botermilk and Tanther" refrain in Duyckinck:
This account is apocryphal, to say the least, for the words in the above verses
are neither German, Dutch, nor any other known language on the face of the earth.
To the theories of Yankee Doodle's origin thus far enumerated an
anonymous writer in All the Year Round (1870, February, vol. 3,
pp. 262-256), in an article "On a few old songs," added this:
It seems on the authority of the late M. T. Moncrieff, the author of ^^Tom and
Jerry" and countless other farces and plays, who made it his pleasure in the
closing years of his life when afflicted with blindness, to investigate the history
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle.
103
and origin of old times, that the air was composed for the drum and fife about the
middle of the eighteenth century by the Fife-Major of the Grenadier Guards.
The air was not intended for a song, but for a march, and it was long after it had
become farniliar to the ears of the people in towns where British regiments were
stationed, that words became associated with it.
Doctor Rimbault reappeared on the plan with an article on
"American National Songs" in "Leisiire Hour" (1876, vol. 25
pp. 90-92). This second account is not a repetition of what he had
written in 1858. Indeed, without saying so, our author refutes
most of his previous statements that had helped to make the origin
of "Yankee Doodle" worse than a Chinese puzzle:
There are no words to this tune in the United States of a national character;
the tune is a march. The earliest words known there are this doggerel quatrain —
Yankee Doodle came to town
Upon a little pon^,
He stuck a feather m his hat.
And called it Macaroni.
With the alteration of i^ankee for Yankee, a string of similar verses is said to
exist, which were supposed to allude to the coming of Oliver Cromwell (on a
small horse) into Oxford, with his single plume, which he wore fastened in a sort
of knot, which the adherents of the royal party called "a macaroni ** out of deri-
sion. We must own to an entire want of faith in this story. The probability is
that the tune is not much older than the time of its introduction into America.
We know that it was popular in England at that time, having been printed in
one of Thomson's country dance books as ''Kitty Fisher's Jig."
Kitty Fisher, aa everybody knows, was a celebrated character in the middle of
the last century. She was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds more than once, and
ultimately married Squire Norris of Bemmendon, in Kent. Lucy Lockit was
also a well-known character in the gay world. She was not so fortunate as her
friend in making a good marriage nor in having her face handed down to pos-
terity by the Court painter.
The well-known rhymes to this tune, still sung by children —
Lucy Lockit lost her pocket
Kittv Fisher found it;
Not a bit of money in it.
Only binding round it.
have some covert allusion, understood at the time, but now forgotten.
We give a copy of Thomson's version of the tune, which is written in triple
time. It was afterwards altered to common time, as now known:
KiTTT Fl8HSB*S JlO
Digitized by
Google
104 Yankee Doodlei
Strange to say, this account appears to have escaped the atten-
tion of Admiral George Henry Preble when he prepared the second
edition (Boston, 1880) of his "History of the Flag of the United
States." The admiral's article on "Yankee Doodle" (pp. 746-753,
not in. the first edition of 1872) does not pretend to be based on
original research. It is merely a r69imi6 of the various accounts
thus far published. Yet it contains a few statements that call for
consideration. He says:
There is an earUer version of the words in England which I heard repeated
by my father in my childhood days, which runs:
Nankee Doodle came to town
Upon a Kentish l>onv^
He stuck a feather in his hat,
And called him Macaroni.
As I heard it repeated, the second line was, Riding on a pony, or. Upon a
little pony . . .
In the English opera written about the middle of the eighteenth century, by
Dr. Ame, is the comic song of ''Little Dickey, " who resents the arrogance and
attempted tyranny of some older boy. The last stanza runs thus:
Did little Dickey ever trick ye?
No, I'm always civil, etc.
The air of the song is what we caU ''Yankee Doodle, " but it is not so called in
the opera. . . .
Innumerable have been the verses that have been adapted to it [Yankee
Doodle], but it is believed the following were those best known and oftenest
repeated by our fathers during the war of 1776, and they are said to have been
sung at the battle of Bunker's Hill in 1775. Words additional or similar were
repeated to me by my father fifty years ago, as those familiar to him when a
boy, during the revolutionary times. Perhaps their order of following is not
correct.
Then follow 17 stanzas of "Yankee Doodle, or Father's return from
Camp/' in the main identical with the stanzas given in Farmer &
Moore's Collections, but clearly accumulated from different versions.
The last few quotations illustrate that by 1880 the matter of
"Yankee Doodle" had fallen entirely into the hands of compilers,
whose sole object it seems to have been, and still seems to be, to
accept more or less credulously the niunerous conflicting statements
and to weave them indiscriminately into a smooth, entertaining
tissue of facts and fancy. The first to really analyze this ragout was
Mr. William Barclay Squire, and he contributed to the first edition
of Grove's Dictionary of Music (1879-1889) an article on "Yankee
Doodle," which at that time was by far the best, and is still valu-
able. Mr. Louis C. Elson, in his useful book on the " National Music
of America," 1900, added in the main merely information received
from Mr. Albert Matthews, of Boston. Nor does the amoimt of his
original critical research rise above what may be expected from a
book plainly designed and written in a style to satisfy the popular
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 105
demand for more or less verified facts on our national songs. This
applies even more strongly to Mr. Kobb^'s chatty "Famous Ameri-
can Songs/' 1906; who also caught a glimpse of Mr. Matthews's un-
published mine of data. From the same soiu'ce come the following
excerpts from Dr. George H. Moore's paper "Notes on the origin
and history of Yankee Doodle," read before the New York Histor-
ical Society on December 1, 1885, and before the New England His-
torical and Genealogical Society on December 7, 1887. Aa was
stated in the introduction to my report on "Yankee Doodle," Mr.
Moore's paper was never printed, though it was mentioned in the
Magazine of American EQstory for January, 1886, in the Boston Post
of December 8, 1887, and in the New England Historical and
Genealogical Register for January, 1888. Mr. Albert Matthews, as
he informed me under date of January 3, 1909, rediscovered the
manuscript and copied long extracts. "Moore," says Mr. Matthews,
"picked to pieces various theories about 'Yankee,' but accepted
• without criticism the Farmer & Moore version." Clearly Mr.
Moore's impublished paper can not have influenced subsequent
writers very much, but it is essential that so much of it be printed
here as was available through the cotirtesy of Mr. Albert Matthews:
Dr. Shuckbuigh unquestionably played an important part in the proceedings
which resulted in making Yankee Doodle a national tune. He took the initia-
tive step. He married to verse, (not immortal, for not a line of it can be proved
to exist to-day) but to a song sufficiently popular to be remembered for many
years, the old fashioned jig which had charmed his childhood and lingered in
his memory to become the (vehicle) inspiration of his comic muse in later
years . . . Dr. Shuckburgh undoubtedly scored (achieved) a success in his
Yankee Doodle Song, hitting off the men and events of the time, in a style which
readily admitted additions and alterations to fit occasions. That song was a
satire more or less clever of the New Englander and his ways — written originally
from the point of view of an Englishman long domesticated in New York, and
reflecting the prejudices of the British tory and the Albany Dutchman — ^the
intellectual apparatus of that extraordinary mythical creature, the genuine
Knickerbocker. What that first Yankee Doodle Song was is mainly left to con-
jecture . . . The only verses I have met with, which carry any appearance of
having been a part of the original are the following:
There is a man in our town,
I pity his condition.
He sold his oxen and nis sheep.
To buy him a commission —
When his conunission he had got,
He proved a nation coward
He durst not go to Gape Breton
For fear he*d be devoured.
Another verse has less authority:
Yankee Doodle came to town
Put on his striped trowse's
And vow'd he could n't see the town (place)
There was so many houses.
Digitized by
Google
106 Yankee Doodle.
So far the literature on the origin of "Yankee Doodle" moved in
a few distinct channelsi but in 1905 two theories were added that
have very little in common with those previously advanced, com-
bined, embellished. In the German magazine " Hessenland " (vol. 19,
1905, pp. 20-23), Mr. Johann Lewalter published an article under the
title: "Der 'Yankee Doodle' ein Schwahner Tanz?" In other
words, the author endeavored to prove the probabiUty of a Hessian
origin, but his knowledge of the literature is very slight and he did
not exercise discrimination in the use of his sources, so that most of
his article is not worthy of consideration. As to his hypothetical
question, it is sufficient to abstract from the article the following:
In Langenscheidt's ''Land iind Leute in Amerika" it is said that probably
the air of the folksong ''Yankee Doodle '' has its origin in a military march played
by the Hessian soldiers in the War for Independence.
The same origin is hinted at in the eighth volume (1880) of Spamer's "lUus-
triertee Konversationslexikon". Mr. Lewalter then calls attention to the fact
that the principal recruiting station in 1776 was Zi^;enhain in the Schwalm, the
fertUe province of Hesse, to the further fact that "Yankee Doodle" in form,
musical spirit and rhythm bears a peculiar resemblance to the genuine dances
and folksongs of the Schwalm region. Therefore, he concludes, it may be claimed
that l^is song, played by the Hessian troops as a march, was imported by
them to America in those days. Finally, the fact should be noted that during a
country fsAr in the Schwalm in the fall of 1904 "Yankee Doodle " was played as a
Schwalm dance, and men and women danced to it as they would to one of their
own traditional airs without discovery of the substitution.
It will be seen later on how suddenly his Hessian theory collapses^
if the historical test is applied. Much more complicated but much
more fruitful in its application is a theory advanced by Mr. William
H. Grattan Flood in the "Dolphin" (Philadelphia, 1905, vol. 8,
pp. 187-193) under the title "The Irish origin of the tune of Yankee
Doodle." In this interesting article Mr. Grattan Flood, an enthusi-
astic student and champion of Irish music, first sets out to imdermine
principally the English origin. Then, in the footsteps of the eminent
English folk-song collector, Mr. Frank Eadson, he refers to the
"EarUest printed version" of "Yankee Doodle" in the first volume
of James Aird's "Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign
Airs," printed at Glasgow in 1782. Without further preliminaries
Mr. Grattan Flood then proceeds:
The very structure of this tune is seen to be decidedly Irish and apart from
any other argument intrinsic evidence should point to its Irish origin. . . . The
above printed version by Aird in 1782, antedates the "Two to One " (1784) version
by two years, and is much nearer the Irish original ['All the way to Galway'],
with the strongly marked C natural (the so called ''flat seventh'') so charac-
teristic of seventeenth centiuy tunes in D major. However, the oldest form of
the tune is also given here as it appears in a MS dated 1750, the authenticity of
which is beyond question. The manuscript was written at different times
between the years 1749 and 1750, and the owner's name is given, dated Decem-
ber 1, 1750.
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 107
By way of iUustrating the changes which a tune undergoes in seventy or ei^ty
years, I think it is well to give the version as noted by Dr. Petrie in 1840, but, as
will be seen, the changes are unimportant.
Thus '' Yankee Doodle" can rightfully be claimed as a product of Ireland. . . .
CETTIOAL ANALYSIS OF THE THEORIES ON THE ORIGIN OP "YANKEE
The chronological enumeration of the theories on the origin of
"Yankee Doodle" will have disclosed their genealogy and concatena-
tion sufficiently to now warrant neglect of such dates, references, and
inferences that are mere variations and aberrations from the original
source. The examination of this amazing labyrinth of conjectures
will be based entirely on such analytical data only as possess some
real substance. The other data will be treated as not existing.
Much of the analytical evidence has become quite famiUar to his-
torians, but much will have the flavor of novelty. However, no
distinction will here be made between old and new data, except when
necessary.
To simi up, since 1775, when the origin of "Yankee Doodle"
began to arouse interest, it has been claimed that —
1. The song of "Yankee Doodle" was composed by a British
officer of the Revolution.
2. The air had its origin in a miUtary march "SchwSlmer Tanz,"
introduced into this country by the Hessians dining the war for
Independence.
3. The first part of the tune is identical with the Danea Eaparta
and the tune had its origin in the Pyrenees.
4. The air is of Himgarian origin.
5. The tune was introduced by German harvest laborers into
Holland.
6. The air was composed by the fife-major of the Grenadier Guards
about 1750 as a march.
7a. The tune was founded on an English tune common among the
peasantry of England previous to the time of Charles I.
7&. It was set during the time of Cromwell to various ditties in
ridicule of the protector. One of these began with the words "The
Roundheads and the Cavaliers;" another
Nankee Doodle came to town
Upon a Kentiflh pony [or Upon a little pony]
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called him Macaroni.
ivere known as early as Cromwell's time, and indeed applied to him.
Digitized by
Google
108 Yankee Doodle.
8. In the reign of Charles II the tune was sung to the words, per^
petuated as a nursery rhyme:
Lucy Locket lost her pocket
Kitty Fisher foiind it.
Nothinff in it, nothing in it
But the binding round it.
[or, Not a bit of money in it
Only binding round it]
9. The air is the same as of the New England jig '^Lydia Fisher/'
which was a favorite in New England long before tilie American
Revolution.
10. The earliest printed version of the air "Yankee Doodle"
appears in 6/8 time in "Walsh's collections of dances for the year
1760" under the title of "Fisher's Jig."
11. The air is identical with "Kitty Fisher's Jig" as printed in one
of Thomson's countiy dance books in triple time.
12. "Yankee Doodle" is identical with an ''Air from Ulysses/'
opera by J. C. Smith.
13. The air "Did little Dickey ever trick ye" in an opera by Ame,
composed about 1760, is the same as "Yankee Doodle."
14. Doctor Shackburg; wit and surgeon in the British army
encamped in 1755 near Albany, composed a time and recommended
it to the provincial officers as one of the most celebrated airs of martial
music and that this joke on the motley assemblage of provincials took
immediately.
16. Doctor Shuckburgh wrote the Yankee Doodle verses to an old-
fashioned jig.
16. The air is of Irish origin and is identical with "All the way to
Galway."
These 16 theories have here been grouped not chronologically but
amicably to a process of elimination. The majority of these theories,
on close inspection, relate rather to the early use of than to the origin
of the song. It will therefore facilitate the process of elimination
if some consequential data on the use of the air in America xmtil the
time of our war for independence are here brought together.
In the New York Journal, October 13, 1768, we read in the "Jour-
nal of Transactions in Boston, Sept. 28, 1768:"
Sept. t9. The Fleet was brought to Anchor near Castle William, that EveniBg
there was throwing of Sky Rockets, and those passing in Boats observed great
Rejoicings and that the Yankey Doodle Song was the Capital Piece in their Band
of Music."
Writing of the events at Boston in 1769, the late Mr. Fiske in his
work on the "American Revolution" (vol. 1, p. 65) says:
On Sundays the soldiers would race horses on the Common, or play Yankee
Doodle just outside the church-doors during the services.
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 109
Unfortunately Mr. Fiske did not refer to his authority for this almost
incredible bit of information; nor did Mr. Elson, when he wrote in
his book on our national music (p. 145):
A little later [than 1769], when the campe were in the town of Boston, the British
custom was to drum culprits out of camp to the tune of ''Yankee Doodle,'' a
decidedly jovial Caniio in exUu.
The next reference carries us to the commencement of hostilities.
When the news of the affair at Lexington (Apr. 19, 1775) reached
Lord Percy in Boston, says the Reverend Gordon in his History in a
letter dated "Roxbury, April 26, 1775," he ordered out a reenforce-
ment to support his troops.
The brigade marched out playing, by way of contempt, Yankee Doodle , . .
James Thacher has almost literally the same in his Military Journal
under date of April 21, 1775. A further contemporary reference is
found in the "Travels (1st ed., vol. 2, p. 50) of Thomas Anburey, the
British officer, who, under date of " Cambridge, in New England, Nov.
27, 1777," wrote as follows:
. . . the name [of Yankee] has been more prevalent since the commencement
of hostilities. The soldiers at Boston used it as a term of reproach, but after the
afEair at Bunker's Hill, the Americans gloried in it. Yankee Doodle is now their
paean, a favorite of favorites, played in their anny, esteemed as warlike as the
Grenadier's March— it is the lover's spell, the nurse's lullaby. After our rapid
successes, we held the Yankees in great contempt, but it was not a little mor-
tifying to hear them play this tune, when their anny marched down to our
surrender.
Anburey, of course, alludes to General Burgoyne's surrender at
Saratoga, October 17, 1777. Again the military bands of the Conti-
nental army are said to have used '^ Yankee Doodle" as their paean
at the climax of the war when Lord Comwallis surrendered at York-
town, October 19, 1781, but Robin, Elnox, Thacher, Anburey, Chas-
tellux, Gordon, and Johnston do not confirm this popular legend. I
distinctly recall having seen it told by a French memoir writer of the
time, but unfortunately am unable to retrace my source.
On that occasion the British army marched out to the tune of The
World turned upside down." So it was in more than one respect.
Clearly, before and during the first stages of the war, ''Yankee
Doodle" was considered a capital piece by the British soldiers to ridi-
cule the New Englanders, but the latter blimted the point of the joke,
and indeed used it in rebuttal by appropriating the tune with all its
associations for their patriotic field music. This curious process
found an echo in one of our very first by-products of the war. John
Trumbull's ''M'Fingal" was first published at Philadelphia in 1775.
Digitized by
Google
110 Yankee Doodle.
In the first, original edition the first cari^ '^The Town Meeting"
begins:
When Yankies skill'd in martial rule,
First put the British troops to school;
Instructed them in warliie trade,
And new maneuvres of parade.
The true war dance of i ankv-reels,
And val'rous exercise of heels.
and later on the lines occur:
Did not our troops show much discerning,
And skill vour various arts in learning?
Outwent they not each native Noodle
. By far in playing Yanky-doodle;
which, as 'twas your New-England tune
'Twas marvellous they took so soon?
A New England tune or not, '^ Yankee Doodle" was common prop-
erty in New England before the war for independence. Not alone
thiS; it is easily proven that the tune was well known south of New
England; too, at least nine years before the war. In my writings I
have had repeated occasion to point to Andrew Barton's comic opera
"The Disappointment, or The force of credulity," New York, 1767,
in this connection. This, the first American opera Ubretto, unmis-
takably belongs to the class of ballad operas, that is, operas in which
the airs were simg not to new music but to popular ballad times.
Now, as Sabin, without attracting proper attention at the time, dis-
covered as early as 1868, there appears in the 1767 edition, though not
in the 1796 edition, of this coarse, yet witty, libretto, written in Phil-
adelphia, but printed in New York:
AIR IV, YANKEE DOODLE.
01 how joyful shall I be,
When I get the money,
I will brin^ it all to dee,
01 my diddling honey.
(Exit, singing the chorus, yanhee doodle, etc.)
It follows conclusively that the air of ''Yankee Doodle" was suffi-
ciently popular in America in 1767, or more correctly, in Philadel-
phia, to be used in a ballad opera. It further follows from the above
that the words of the chorus refrain were so well known in 1767 that it
was sufficient to print: '* Yankee doodle, etc."
The fact that the air of ''Yankee Doodle" was popular in America
in 1767 renders it impossible for a "British officer of the Revolution"
to have "composed" the song. If at all true, this tradition can only
mean that he either added some verses to a current text or wrote an
entirely new set of verses.
The second theory on the list collapses for the same reason. The
Hessian military can not have introduced the tune to our countiy
as it was popular in America long before their arrival here. On the
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. Ill
contrary; it becomes probable that the Hessian bands exported the
air from America. However, not chronology alone, but logic forbade
the acceptance of the Hessian origin, since according to Mr. Lewalter's
own account '^ Yankee Doodle" was merely grafted on the Schwalm
peasants by way of experiment. They danced readily enough to the
tune, but Mr. Lewalter's story clearly shows that they did not con-
sider it one of their traditional dance tunes. This plain observation
should discourage further efforts in this direction, which would pre-
sumably be based on the fact that the British militaiy service included
Hessians long before 1776, indeed before 1767.
Similar objections must be raised against the theories of the Biscay
and Hungarian origin. They were advanced almost one hundred
years after *' Yankee Doodle" had become popular in America, time
enough for any tune to find its way into any country and to be so
assimilated that its foreign origin is entirely forgotten. That Hun-
garians danced to it fifty years ago proves absolutely nothing except
that ''Yankee Doodle" with its rhythmic accents appealed to them.
Kossuth and his friends, experts in revolutions but not in musical
history, recognized in "Yankee Doodle" one of the old national airs
of Hungary; this ako proves nothing except that they knew the air.
It is the same with the Biscay origin advanced by A&. Buckingham
Smith in 1858. Had he contented himself with recording the use of
the tune in Biscay, one may be puzzled by the coincidence that two
Turanian nations were willing to naturalize "Yankee Doodle." But
Mr. Smith goes further, and he claims that "the first strains are
identically those of the heroic Danea Esparta [ !] as it was played to me
of brave old Biscay." Are they 1 I quote without comment the first
bars of this ^^Ezpata Dantza^^ (sword-dance), as published by Charles
Bordes in "Archives de la Tradition Basque," under title of "Dix
danses . . . du Pays Basque Espagnol," 1908:
~etc
As a fifth theory we have that promulgated by Duyckinck's Cyclo-
psBdia in 1855:
It is not impossible . . . that Yankee Doodle may be from Holland. A song
in use among the laborers, who in time of harvest migrate from Germany to the
Low Countries . . . has this burden —
Yanker didel, doodel down
Dideli dudel lanter,
Yanke viver, voover vown,
Botermilk and Tanther.
The Duyckincks received their information from a person who in
turn relied on the memory of a Dutchman who ^^had listened to it at
harvest time in his youth." This circuitous route may explain why
Digitized by
Google _
112 Yankee Doodle.
the chorus refram, as quoted above, belongs to no known language.
In itself the fact that the words are neither German, Dutch; or Eng-
lish proves nothing and should not have been advanced so hastily by
Lossingy Elson, and others, since such nonsense rhymes are common
to all people. Here are a few examples taken at random from books
in the English language. O'Keefe has this nonsense in one of his
librettos:
Dithenim, doodle adgety
Nagity, tragedy rum.
Gooetnenim fooale nidgety
Nidgety, nagety mum.
In the libretto to the '' Castle of Andalusia" occurs this:
A master I have, and I am his man,
Galloping dreary dun
And he will get married, as tut as he can
With my haily, gaily, ^ambraUy,
Giffiling, niggling, galopmg,
Galloway, oraggletail, dreary dun.
Finally, in the American songster '*The Blackbird," New York,
1820, I noticed the refrain on page 39:
With my titol teedle tum
Likewise fol lol f eedle fum
Not forgetting diderum hi,
And also t^dle tweedle dum.
Sense there is not in these samples of nonsense rhymes, yet who
would deny that they are based on the English language? Conse-
quently, the ''Yanker didel, doodel" lines with the one word Boter-
milk (buttermilk) as an anchor of sense may either have been
intended as a Dutch nonsense rhyme, or they are the unintelligible
Dutch corruption of a Low German (Plattdeutsch) chorus refrain,
or they are merely the result of travel of the original English *' Yan-
kee Doodle" refrain corrupted more and more, as it passed from
America into the German lowlands, thence to Holland, and from
there back to America. I am inclined to think that this is the
most plausible explanation, rather than to simply discredit, as has
been done, the narrative in Duyckinck's Encyclopasdia, and to accuse
the editors of having invented the silly lines out of the whole cloth.
After all, the substance of their statement is merely that during
the first half of the nineteenth century harvest laborers from the
German lowlands are known to have sung the air of '* Yankee
Doodle" in Holland. This implies early use, not origin, and even
if it implied the latter, not the Dutch but the *'Plattdeutsche"
would be responsible for the melody.
We turn to Mr. Elson's book on the National Music of America
and there find these interesting lines:
Just as this volume is going to press [1900] the author is enabled, through
the kindness of M. Jules Eoopman, traveling in Holland, to trace this theory of
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 113
Dutch origin more definitely. The fint period of the melody is quite familiar
to Dutch musicianB, and has been used in Holland from time immemorial as a
children's song; the second period is not known in Holland.
Again^ this implies at the best merely early use and by no means
a Dutch origin. If ''Yankee Doodle" were a traditional Dutch
air, it certainly would not have escaped the scrutinizing eye of the
best authorities on Dutch folk songs, such as Van Duyse and D. F.
Scheurleer. The story of a Dutch origin may be dropped, since
Mr. D. F. Scheurleer, in a letter to me under date of October 7,
1908, remarks:
Was die Melodie betrifft, muss ich gestehen in den Niederlanden kein Proto-
type zu kennen. Dieses war auch der Fall bei von mir befiagten Sachverst&n-
digen.
Das von Ihnen citierte quasi hollftndische Emte-Lied ist mir v611ig neu und
ich wtlsste daran keinen Sinn zu geben . . .
Ich habe beim Yankee doodle Oftera gedacht an hier im ISten Jahrhundert
B^hi bekannte Savoyarden-Lieder, gesungen von Savoyarden-Enaben, die mit
Drehleier und Meerschweinchen herumzogen. Diese Leierkastenlieder waren
sehr geeignet um von Matrosen und Emigranten weiter befOrdert zu weiden . . .
To avoid all possible confusion, it may be added that the air of
the Dutch song 'Tauwel Jonas" (Paul Jones) is not identical with
''Yankee Doodle."
Somewhat more perplexing than the theory of Dutch origin is the
one attributing ''Yankee Doodle" to the fife-major of the Grenadier
Guards about 1750, who is said to have composed the melody as a
march for drum and fife. This statement rests on the authority of
Mr. T. Moncrieff, but imfortunately no clue to his source is given.
It is significant, however, that according to this theory words became
associated with the air long after it had become familiar to the ears
of the people in towns where Britiah regiments were stationed. The
weak point of this theory is its vagueness. The strong point that the
air is attributed without circumlocution to a tangible author. "Yan-
kee Doodle" must have had an origin. If we should be forced to
admit that all other theories are inherently weak, then the fife-major
of the Grenadier Guards would loom up as a very formidable candi-
date for the authorship of "Yankee Doodle." Not, of course, of a
march by this title, but of a quick march, with some other or with-
out title, which found its way shortly after 1760 to America, there
became popular, was wedded to words dealing with the New Eng-
land Yankees, and permanently retained the name of "Yankee
Doodle." That the air was imported by the Grenadier Guards
themselves is impossible, because Sir F. W. Hamilton's "History
of the First or Grenadier Guards" proves that a detachment of the
regiment, including seven dnunmers and two fiifers, was not sent to
86480-09 8
Digitized by
Google
114 Yankee Doodle.
America until 1776. The whole fife-major theory, however, is con-
siderably weakened by reference to these words in a letter written
on December 22, 1908, to the Librarian of Congress by Major Mont-
gomerie of the Grenadier Guards:
. . . We cannot discover that the office of Fife-Major ever existed in this Regi-
ment. We have had Drum-Majors since 1672, but their names we do not know.
The air of ''Yankee Doodle" seems to have been foxmded, said our
anonymous in the Musical Reporter, Boston, 1841, on an air some-
what similar which was common among the peasantry of England
previous to the time of Charles I, 1600 (1625)-1649. On page 97 of
this report the air in question is copied and it requires a very unmusical
ear to detect beyond the rhythm and general character any telling
similarity. Consequently, said air may have been common among the
English peasantry of those days, but this fact would shed no light
whatever on the origin of ''Yankee Doodle," as the two airs are not
related. Furthermore, if this air cited by our anonymous is the one
that was set during Cromwell's time to various ditties, such as "The
Roundheads and the Cavaliers," or "Nankee Doodle," then all pro-
tracted and painstaking controversy on this subject was unnecessaryi
since "Yankee Doodle" is not concerned. Indeed, the controversy
could easily have been avoided ere this had the commentators found
their way to a copy of the rather scarce Musical Reporter. The air
there quoted and reprinted on page 97 of this report is but a version
of "Nancy Dawson," and as such an eminent authority on folk songs
as Mr. Frank Ejidson expressed himself (Dec. 22, 1908), he "should
very much be surprised to have proof of its existence before 1760 or
thereabouts." As to the ditties beginning "The Roundheads and the
Cavaliers" and "Nankee Doodle came to town," Rev. T. Woodfall
Ebsworth, the eminent authority on English ballads, is quoted in the
first edition of "Grove's Dictionary of Music" to this effect:
I believe that I have seen and weighed, more or less every such ballad still
remaining in print, and most of those in M.S. that search has detected: and I can
declare unhesitatingly that I never came across any indication of such an anti-
Cromwellian original as the apocryphal '^Nankee Doodle came to town." I
believe that none such is extant or ever appeared. . . There is no contemporary
(t. e. 1640-1660 or, say 1648-1699) ballad specially entitled ''The Roundheads and
the Cavaliers.''
The ante-Cromwellian origin of "Yankee Doodle " and its anti-Crom-
wellian use with all the embellishments that imaginative minds have
added during the last seventy years may definitely be laid to rest.
However, since the (slightly varying) lines —
[Nankee] Yankee Doodle came to town
Upon a Kentish pony.
He stuck a feather in his hat
And called him Macaroni
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 115
have actually been sung in America for generations to the tune of
''Yankee Doodle," it will become necessary later on to approximately
fix the date of these lines, and that is, to anticipate the third or even
fourth quarter of the eighteenth century. Thus, Cromwell and
"Yankee Doodle" are separated by at least a century.
Theories eighth to eleventh all have this in common, that they take
as starting point the rhyme:
Lucy Locket lost her pocket
Kitty Fiaher found it
Not a bit of monev in it
[or, Nothing in it, nothing; in it]
Only binding round it.
For ''Lucy Locket" Lydia Locket is sometimes substituted; for
"Kitty Fisher," Lydia Fisher, and other slight verbal differences occur
in the nimoierous citations of these lines.
With the exception of the theory of ante-Cromwellian origin, they
have been chiefly responsible for the mass of confusion surrounding
''Yankee Doodle," particularly after Doctor Rimbault threw the
weight of his authority into the controversy.
From the perusal of the literature on the subject as gathered for
this report, it appears conclusively that the lines were used as a nursery
rhyme during the first half of the nineteenth century both in England
and America, and were then always sung to the same air as "Yankee
Doodle." Indeed, "two female relations" informed one G. A. G., for
Notes and Queries, 1865 (vol. 8, p. 155), that the lines were "current
some fifty years ago in the girls' schools" of the Isle of Wight and of
Hampshire — ^that is, about 1810.
For the use of the lines during the eighteenth century we have, to
my knowledge, the contemporary statement only of an aged and re-
spectable lady bom in New England, who remembered having heard
the rhyme sung to the same tune long before the Revolution as a favor-
ite jig, called "Lydia Fisher." (See on p. 98, Watson's account,
1844.) On the other hand, the anonymous author in the Musical
Reporter, Boston 1841, gives
that is, "Nancy Dawson" as the air to which the song "Lydia
Locket or Lucy Locket has been sung . . . from time immemorial."
If we turn to page 98 and attempt to sing the rhyme to this melody,
we find that this is easily done, even in the fourth bar, if the two
words "found it" each get two of the four notes. Except for this
fourth bar the traditional "Yankee Doodle" is not sung more read-
ily. Here then would seem to be a conflict between the state-
ment of an old lady relying on her memory and actual quotation of
Digitized by
Google
116 Yankee Doodle.
a melody by an equally anonymous writer who may have had an
equally good memory. This difference of opinion is not vital, since
often in folk music the same words are grafted on different melodies
until the fittest survives. At any rate, we have no reason to doubt
the possibility that *'Lucy Locket" was sung also to the air of
** Yankee Doodle" in New England previous to the American revolu-
tion.
For further data we must rely on internal evidence. ''Lucy
Locket," of course, points to "Lucy Lockit," one of the main charac^
ters in the famous "Beggar's Opera," first performed in 1728 and
popular during the entire century. Possibly, ' 'Lucy Locket " found her
way into the rhyme only for reasons of soxmd. However, 1730 would
appear to be about the earUest possible date for the rhyme unless Gay
adopted "Lucy Locket" as an effective stage name from the popular
rhyme. The presence of a Ejitty Fisher in the rhyme would forbid
this conjecture if we recognize in her with Rimbault the famous lady
of easy virtue called "Kitty Fischer." What Rimbault wrote about
her in the Historical Magazine (1858) is mostly nonsense, as he him-
self tacitly admitted by printing a totally different reference to this
lady in the Leisure Hour (1876) :
Eatty Fiaher, as everybody knows, was a celebrated character in the middle of
the last century. She was painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds more than once, and
ultimately manried Squire Norris of Bemmendon [recte Benenden] in Kent.
This agi^es with what one finds about her in "Notes and Queries"
and Stephen's Dictionary of National Biography. The registers of
Benenden give the date of her burial as March 23, 1767. It is not
recorded when Catherine Marie Fischer, probably of German origin,
was bom, nor are such biographical details of much account for our
argument. It stands to reason that Eatty Fischer was not made the
heroine of such verses before she had become a really public character.
Since she appears to have reached the height of her reputation as pro-
fessional beauty about 1769, shortly before she became the second
and exemplary wife of Mr. Norris, it would seem safe to conjecture that
the "Lucy Locket" and "Kitty Fisher" rhyme did not originate
many years before 1759. Therefore, the attempt to trace this rhyme,
which only gradually can have become a 7mr«erj/-rhyme, by way of
this Kitty Fischer to the times of Charles 11, 1630 (1660)-1685, was
conspicuously absurd. On the other hand, nothing would prevent
us from assuming that the rhyme, with whatever melody, may have
foxmd its way to America before our war for independence, that is,
before 1775. In our coimtry Kitty Fisher appears to have become
Lydia Fisher. This modification may have been due to the natural
desire to avoid the harsh verbal sound of "pocket — ^Kitty", and since
our people probably took no special interest in the famous Eltty
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 117
Fischer's affairs, they substituted Lydia perhaps for some further
local reason. But, after all, is it necessary to recognize in the Kitty
Fisher of the rhyme the famous Kitty Fischer or any other particular
Kitty Fisher t The name surely neither was nor is so uncommon as to
compel this association. Indeed Mr. Matthews, following the same line
of argument, has found two ladies of this name, contemporary with the
beautiful courtesan. The one is ' ' an eminently respectable young lady
who is mentioned several times in letters written in 1743-1747 by Lieut.
Colonel Charles Russell, of the British Army," the other a ' *Miss Kitty
Fisher, a very young lady at boarding school at Leicester mentioned in
the Oxford Magazine, April, 1771." It is entirely possible that "Kitty
Fisher" was incorporated in the rhyme without the slightest intention of
personal allusion, just because the name ''Kitty Fisher" was common
and popular, and because it sounds rather well in the rhyme and fits
the tune. Should this have been the case, then the absence of real
evidence to the effect that the lines were known long before 1800
would fortify the impression that they originated about 1800, and
this again would explain nicely why they were sung to (the then
already very popular) tune of "Yankee Doodle."
The ''Lucy Locket" rhyme was clearly intended for singing, and
it is the rule with such folk songs that the melody preceded the
text. In other words, the earlier the rhyme is dated the older
becomes the melody of ''Yankee Doodle," unless the rhyme was
sung originally to another tune, which was exchanged later on for
the rhythmically similar and catchier "Yankee Doodle." Naturally
the idea suggested itself to trace this tune in written or printed
form as far back as possible. Here, again. Doctor Rimbault became
responsible for much of the confusion surrounding our air. In the
Historical Magazine (1858, vol. 2, p. 214), we read that Rimbault
found the earliest copy of the tune in "Walsh's collection of dances
for the year 1750 where it is printed in 6/8 time, and caUed FisTier's
Jig/' but in his article in Leisure Hour, 1876, Rimbault turns his
back on his previous discoveries and says: ^
The probability is that the tune is not much older than the time of its intro-
duction into America. We know that it was popular in England at that time,
having been printed in one of Thompson's country dance books as Kitty Fisher* 8
Jig.
A few lines below Doctor Rimbault gives ''a copy of Thompson's
version of the tune which is written in triple time. It was aftei>
wards altered to common time, as now known."
The contradictions between these statements are so flagrant that
suspicions of Doctor Rimbault's methods not only, but of his veracity,
are aroused. It is a disagreeable duty to attack a well-known and
defunct scholar, yet Doctor Rimbault stands convicted by his own
Digitized by
Google
118 Yankee Doodle.
testimony. It may be after all that he saw our tune somewhere^
but first he discovered a ''Fisher's jig" in 6 — 8 time in Walsh, and
then, forgetting all about this discovery, he finds it printed in triple
time as ''Kitty Fisher's Jig" in Thompson. Only if both statements
are true, does Rimbault stand acquitted. Now, Mr. William Barclay
Squire in the first edition of Grove's Dictionary, has already cast
suspicions on Rimbault's statement of 1858 by the remark that
"no copy of 'Fisher's Jig' has turned up," and he was repeatedly
supported in this statement by Mr. Frank Kidson.
To make absolutely sure whether or no these two eminent authori-
ties on English folk song had found in the meanwhile evidence to
support Rimbault, carefully prepared letters of inquiry were addressed
to them which they had the kindness to answer as follows:
Mr. Squire, August 6, 1908:
We have [at the British Museum] a small collection of Ck>untry Dances pub-
lished by Walsh in 1750, but no ''Yankee Doodle" is in this.
Mr. Kidson, August 12, 1908:
Dr. Rimbault's statements have never been proved. I have seen two copies
of Walsh's Dances for 1750 and have seen those for 1742, 1745, 1748, 1765, and in
fact have MS. copies of them all in full. I have many (very many) 18th century
dance collections and four or five Caledonian Country Dances (Walsh) but
nothing like Yankee Doodle in any of them. Kitty Fisher's Jig is also non est.
and previously Mr. Eidson had informed Mr. Albert Matthews that
he had also examined Thompson's Dances from 1761 and 1765 in
vain. Finally, Mr. Squire, September 21, 1908:
''Kitty Fisher's Jig" has never turned up ... he [Mr. Kidson] and I have
both looked thro' endless dance books in vain.
Equally void of substance appears to be the claim presented by
one J. C. in the Baltimore Clipper, 1841, that an ^' Air from Ulysses,^*
which he found ''about the year 1797" in a book of instructions
"for the bassoon" was the identical air now called Yankee Doodle,
with the exception of a few notes."
A careful reader of these quotations from J. C.'s narrative (see p.
102) can not fail to notice that the air evidently was not really identical,
that the author is contributing data to the controversy from memory
after a lapse of forty years, that he did not have the book of instruc-
tions before him when he wrote his article. No methodically trained
historian would accept such circumstantial evidence without serious
scruples. A curious circumstance about J. C.'s statement is that he
begins with a quotation from Burgh's Anecdotes, which has nothing
to do with "Yankee Doodle," but merely acquaints the reader with
the fact that John Christian Smith [recte John Christopher Smith,
1712-1795] composed an opera "Ulysses." Why this quotation}
Apparently because J. C. desired to trace the composer of an Air from
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 119
Ulysses, whom he had either forgotten or who was not mentioned in
his book of instructions. He remembered the word Ulysses in con-
nection with a tmie ahnost identical with '^ Yankee Doodle/' and with
the help of Burgh's Anecdotes he conjectured a bridge between the
word Ulysses and the opera Ulysses by John Christopher Smith, which
was performed at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1733. It would seem an easy
matter to verify J. C's conjecture by a reference to Smith's score, but
unfortunately no copy of his opera has ever been discovered, nor is it
certain that the music was ever published. However, if a tune like
Yankee Doodle was in Smith's opera '^ Ulysses," then this jiglike tune,
must of necessity fit words in the Ubretto of this mythological opera.
Though such a combination appeared to be very improbable, Mr.
WiUiam Barclay Squire of the British Museum was approached in the
matter, and he wrote me under date of September 21, 1908:
Sam^ Humphreys' Ulysses (libretto) is here, but contains nothing to which one
can imagine Y. D. to have been sung. Here are some specimens:
Balmy Sltmibers, soft Repose,
Gently cull my lovely Fair;
Send your solace to her Woes,
Ease her of said Despair, etc. etc.
Or,
Now I die with joy, to be
Chaste, and dutiful to thee;
And resi^ my youthfid Bloom,
All untainted to the Tomb, etc. etc.
Not only this, Mr. Squire stated that he knows of no such book of
instructions for the bassoon as alluded to by J. C.
Like so many other theories of the origin of ''Yankee Doodle" the
conjecture of a connection between the tune and John Christopher
Smith's opera ''Ulysses" may safely be dropped.
Ere this a flaw in the J. C. statement had been suspected, and Mr.
William H. Grattan Flood in his article quoted on page 106, suggested
that the error of asserting an air from Ulysses as the source of the time
might have arisen from a confusion of the designation Ulysses with a
song of that niCme in Dibdin's Musical Tour, 1788, the full title of which
is ' ' The Return of Ulysses to Ithaca." As the analysis of J. C's state-
ments leaves it open to doubt from where the "Yankee Doodle"
melody in his book of instructions for the bassoon was taken, Mr.
Grattan Flood's suggestion is as acceptable as any. The song in ques-
tion accompanies "Letter LXXXTV" in Dibdin's Musical Tour, and
b preceded on page 341 by this bit of explanatory monologue:
''Why," said the Poet, ''you may remember Mr. O'Shokneey, the other night,
favoured us with the whole siege of Troy to an Irish tune — ^for my part, I felt my
consequence as a poet a little touched at it — and so, not to be outdone, I have
brought Ulysses back to Ithaca safely through all his perils, to the tune of — Yankee
Doodle, . . ,"
Digitized by
Google
120 Yankee Doodle.
Omitting the prelude and postlude and the accompanimenti the first
of Dibdin's eight burlesque stanzas reads:
lack - 1 - ly tbls ba - con say'd be - fore the walls of II - Ion.
Tan - kee doo - die, doo - die doo, black ne - gro be get fum - bo and
when yon oome to our town we'll make you drink with bum • bo.
A facsimile of the whole song appears In the Appendix as PI. xlr-xv.
The burlesque song, by the way, was first used by Dibdin in this
form for his puppet play ''Reasonable Animals,'' 1780.
The statement in Admiral Preble's ''History of the Flag," that the
melody of "Yankee Doodle" occurs in an opera composed by Thomas
Augustine Ame about 1750 to the words "Did little Dickey ever trick
ye/' was long ago discredited by Mr. William Barclay Squire in Grove's
Dictionary. Mr. Squire called attention to the appearance of the air
under its own title in the comic opera "Two to One," of which the
libretto was written by Geoi^e Colman the younger, the music
selected, arranged, and composed by Dr. Samuel Arnold and the
score published by Harrison & Co. in 1784. The song in question was
sung by Mr. Edwin in the character of Dickey Ditto. Plate XVI
shows the first stanza with the melody in facsimile.
At the time Mr. Squire held that this probably was the earliest
appearance of Yankee Doodle in print, but Mr. Frank Kidson in his
fine collection of "Old English Country Dances," 1890) pointed to an
earlier version to be found in the first volume of James Aird's "A
Selection of Scotch, English, Irish, and Foreign Airs," Glasgow. Since
Mr. Kidson could not find "any air in it, which gives a later date than
1775 or 1776," he fixed (on p. 13) the date of publication at about that
period, but the late Mr. Glen in his scholarly "Early Scottish Melodies"
fixed the date of Aird's first volume as 1782, and Mr. Kidson, in a
letter to me (Aug. 12, 1908), accepted this date as "all right." Aird's
"Yankee Doodle" is reproduced in facsimile on Plate XVII of the
appendix. No earlier appearance in print than this of 1782 has been
discovered, and the fact that the same volume contains at least one
negro jig and several "Virginian airs" would seem to prove a direct
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 121
American influence, probably called forth by the war. Presumably
"Yankee Doodle" came to Aird's notice by way of America.
If; then, the ascertained earliest appearances in print of Yankee
Doodle in Europe have been traced to (1) James Aird's Selection
. . . , first volume, Glasgow, 1782; (2) Samuel Arnold's Opera ''Two
to One," London, 1874 ; (3) Charles Dibdin's * 'Musical Tour," Sheffield,
1788, the question suggests itself. When and where was the tune first
printed in America} In his valuable "Songs and Ballads of the
American Revolution," 1855, Mr. Moore published a ballad of the
title "The Recess." This satire, he says, first appeared at London
written by "a true friend of the King and the Colonies." "It was
reproduced in America, in 1779, on a music sheet adapted to the tune
of Yankee Doodle,"
Mr. Moore does not mention publisher or place of publication of
this music sheet, nor does he point to any library in which it may be
found. He may be correct in his statement. In that case I failed to
locate the piece when compiling material for my "Bibliography of
Early Secular American Music." Until actual proof of the piece's
existence is given me, I prefer to suspect that "The Recess" was
printed without music as a broadside, perhaps with the indication
"To the tune of Yankee Doodle." The first stanza as given by Mr.
Moore reads:
And now our Senators are gone
To take their leave of London
To mourn how little they have done
How much they have left undone I
Of secular music very little was published in America before 1790,
and according to my bibliography "Yankee Doodle" did not appear
in print in America until Benjamin Carr's "Federal Overture," a
medley of patriotic songs, including "Yankee Doddle," and composed
in 1794, was published "adapted for the pianoforte" by B. Carr, New
York, in January, 1795. No copy of this appears to be extant, only
a "medley duetto adapted for two German flutes" in the fifth number
of Shaw and Carr's "Gentleman's amusement." Unfortunately the
copy of the Library of Congress, the only one that has come to my
notice lacks the very pages where one could expect to find "Yankee
Doodle *• in the form given it by B. Carr. Nor have I as yet found a
copy of John Henry Schmidt's "Sonata for begioners," 1796, in which
our air was "turned into a fashionable rondo," nor a copy of " Yankee
Doodle, an original American air, arranged with variations for the
pianoforte," as printed by J. Carr, Baltimore, in 1796. Presumably
in June, 1798, "Yankee Doodle" was "Published by G. Willig,
Market street No. 185, Philadelphia," together with "The President's
March. A new Federal Song." ("Hail Columbia." For facsimile
of both, see Pis. IX and X in Appendix.) A copy of this extremely
Digitized by
Google
122
Ya nkee Doodle.
rare piece is preserved in a miscellaneous volume of ''Marches and
Battles'' at the Ridgway branch of the Library Company of Phila-
delphia. The melody, simg to the words ' 'Columbians all the present
hour/' has this form:
This version was composed or rather arranged by James Hewitt,
since he advertised, probably between 1800 and 1802, the ''New
Yavkee Doodle^' beginning "Columbians all the present hour as
Brothers should unite us," as "composed and published at his Musical
Repository No. 69, Maidenlane, New York." A copy of this song is
preserved at Harvard University. Some years later, GottUeb Graup-
ner, one of Boston's most important musicians, "printed and sold"
at his "Musical Academy No. 6, Franklin Street, Franklin Place,"
"General Washington's March" together with "Yankee Doodle" in a
simple arrangement for the pianoforte. Mr. Elson's "History of
American Music" contains a facsimile, and from this the following
version of the melody is quoted:
Different again is an earlier form of the time in the "Compleat
tutor for the fife," Philadelphia, George Willig [1805]. On page 28
of this curiously American reprint of a rare English pubUcation, we
find among the interpolations "Yankee Doodle:"
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle,
123
Another early form appears on page 8 of Raynor Taylor's ' 'Martial
music of Camp Dupont/' Philadelphia, G. E. Blake [ca. 1818]:
Alexander Wheelock Thayer, the Beethoven biographer, commu-
nicated to the first edition of Grove ''the following version as it wss
sung sixty years since, and as it has been handed down by tradition
in his family from Revolutionary times : "
Tan - kdd doo - die, keep It up,
Yan - kee doo - die dan - dy,
Mind the mn - sio
These early versions of the melody will be sufiicient to demonstrate
that "Yankee Doodle/' whatever its original form might have been,
passed through many hands before it became fixed in the popular
mind in its present form. The semiofficial form now used in the
United States is contained in John Philipp Sousa's "National Patri-
otic and Typical Airs of all Lands," Philadelphia, 1890:
This process of elimination and substitution of notes, and even bars
is characteristic of many folk songs, and the "Folk" unconsciously
adopts the same attitude of mind as does a composer who polishes
and changes his melodic ideas imtil he feels satisfied with the result.
But this process also explains, how imperfect rendition and local usage
Digitized by
Google
124
Ya nkee Doodle.
can produce such abortive and almost incredible versions as the one
in James Hulbert's ''Variety of Marches" (1803, p. 8) and in his
''Complete Fifers' Museum" (Greenfield, Mass. [18-], p. 12):
fl f r r r ir- J- ^-j^jL^yt ^ ^r r\r J ^ f ^
or the one in Alvan Robinson's "Massachusetts Collection of Martial
Musick" (2d. ed., Exeter, 1820, p. 58):
In addition to these early versions in print a few in manuscript
are extant. For instance, the facsimile on Plate XYIII shows the
form of "Yankey doodle" as it appears in "Whittier Perkins' Book
1790" of "A Collection of Dancing Tunes, Marches, & Song Tunes"
now in possession of Mrs. Austin Holden, Boston, Mass. This is an
exceedingly interesting collection of more than one hundred tunes,
and its importance is increased by the fact that it was written by
a person with a very neat hand not only, but a musical hand. Parts
of a Boston newspaper of 1788 have been used for the inside of the
leather binding, but this, of course, though original, may have been
added any time after 1788. The earliest possible date of compila-
tion is 1778, since in that year Francis Hopkinson wrote his "Battle
of the Kegs," which figures in the collection. It furthermore looks
as if the collection was complete before Whittier Perkins claimed
it as his property in 1790. We are perfectly safe in dating this
version of "Yankee Doodle" as it appears on the first page of the
impaged collection as "about 1790:"
# — ^ -m m 1- , - ■■ » ■ - - ^ # ^-#
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle,
YAITKBB DOODZ.B
125
i flr r-Ttfc r- i r r/c r' i f efr r r ri.=5^rr 1
This last version is probably a few years earlier. It appears written
in a collection of psalm and popular tunes attached to an incomplete
copy of Thomas Walter's * 'Grounds and rules of musick," Boston,
edition of 1760, as preserved under number of **G. 38. 23" at the
Boston Public Library. As a matter of fact, the manuscript music
forms two collections in two different hands. The psalm tunes are
paged 26-46 in continuation of the engraved psalm tunes, and on
page 42 we read ''Wm. Cummingham, Esqr. 1765." These psalm
tunes are followed by seventeen pages of such popular airs as ''The
Hero," "Lovely Nancy," "A trip to Halifax," "God save the King,"
'Trince Eugene's March," "Bellisle March," "Wild Irishman,"
"British Grenadiers," and "Yankee Doodle." The presence of so
many marches and of a "Hessian Minuet" permits us to conjecture
that the collection was written after 1766, either during the war or
immediately after. It is therefore perhaps not unsafe to date this
version of "Yankee Doodle" as "about 1780." It will be observed
and the fact is noted here without an attempt to solve the puzzle,
how strikingly these two early American manuscript versions differ
from the early printed versions and how much more similarity exists
between them and the printed New England versions of 1803 and
1820. Indeed the assumption is not <U aU far fetched that Yankee
Doodle in its modem form is a composite tune, formed ovi of ai least
two different tunes of different a^e. Finally a version may here be
recorded which Mr. Frank Eadson found in a manuscript book in
his possession, the first date in which is 1790 and the last 1792:
' 1^ r r j Tw~f r r 1^ ^ 1^ r r r i # r
"Yankee Doodle" has gradually become a national march, a
national air. That its text is now more or less obsolete, is so evident
as not to require proof. The only words current are with slight
variations:
Yankee Doodle came to town
Riding on a pony.
Stuck a feather in nis hat
And called it Macaroni.
Digitized by
Google
126 Yankee Doodle.
These or similar words Admiral Preble, 1816-1885 in his childhood
heard repeatedly (see p. 104) from his father, Capt. Enoch Preble,
1763-1842. As far as I can see, this is the only evidence we have
that the words were known in America as early as about 1820. They
may have originated much earlier. How much earlier, depends on
the circumstancial evidence offered by the words '^ Yankee Doodle''
and "Macaroni." The combination of ''Yankee" and ''Doodle"
was, so Andrew Barton's "The Disappointment" proves, fairly cur-
rent in 1767, at least in Philadelphia. Since no earlier reference to
a time ^'TarJcee Doodle" has come to light, and since it is entirely
possible that the time under this title had rushed into popularity in
the very year of pubUcation of "The Disappointment," no earlier
date for the use of the words "Yankee Doodle" would be safe than
"at least as early as 1767." After that, the use of these two words
in combination became, as we know, fairly frequent, at any rate in
America, Doodle retaining its old meaning and "Yankee" becoming
preferably a nickname for New Englanders. In England the combi-
nation "Yankee Doodle" probably was not used until about or
after 1770.
As Mr. William Barclay Squire informed me, the British Museum
[G, 310. (163)] preserves a single-sheet song, called "Yankee Doodle,
or, the Negroes Farewell to America. The words and music by
T. L." The sheet bears the initials C. & S., i. e., Charles and Samuel
Thompson, who published music at London from 1764 to 1776 or
1778. (The music bears no relation to our "Yankee Doodle" tune.
This is mentioned here because somebody in the ecstasy of discovery
may claim that T. L. wrote and composed our "Yankee Doodle.")
The publishers may have printed this sheet song as early as 1764 or
as late as 1778. Consequently, it does not help us positively to
trace the earhest known use of the words "Yankee Doodle" in
England.
Attention had been drawn to this song in Notes and Queries as early
as 1852, and by Doctor Rimbault in Notes and Queries December 1,
1860, and in the Historical Magazine, 1861, where he stated that the
British Museum gave the song the conjectural date of 1776. Rim-
bault added the titles of two other "Yankee Doodle" songs printed
in England and preserved at the British Museum, which are of inter-
est in this connection:
(1 ) D'Estaing eclipsed, or Yankee Doodle's defeat. By T. Poynton.
(2) "Yankee Doodle, or (as now christened by the saints of New
England), the Lexington March.''
Rimbault further stated that Poynton's song has its own melody,
whereas the second song has the familiar "Yankee Doodle" music, a
statement since verified by Mr. William Barclay Squire, Mr. Matthews,
and others. Of the text of this particular "Yaiikee Doodle" song
more will be said later on. Here it is sufficient to remark that Mr.
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 127
Albert Matthews discovered a copy of it in possession of Mr. John
Ritchie, jr., of Boston. It bears the imprint of Thomas Skillem,
London, and he is known, according to Mr. Frank Eidson's ''British
Music Publishers/' to have printed music under his own name at 17
St. Martin's lane between 1777-78 and 1799. Therefore, this partic-
ular publication by Skillem can not have contributed to the circula-
tion of the words ''Yankee Doodle" in England before 1777.
With reference to "D'Estaing eclipsed, or Yankee Doodle's defeat,"
this quotation from the Gentleman's Magazine, 1783, by Petersfidd
in the Magazine of American History (1877, Vol. I, p. 452), will be of
service:
Your readers and the public must remember an object of compaBsion who used
to sing ballads, about the streets and went by the vulgar appellation of Yankee
Doodle, alluding to a song he sang about London, at the Commencement of the
American War; his real name was Thomas Poynton.
Apparently he was identical with the author and composer of
''D'Estaing ecUpsed." In that case, he most probably sang his own
''Yankee Doodle" words and tune about the streets and not our
"Yankee Doodle." However, since D'Estaing was "eclipsed" in
1778 and 1779, T. Poynton can not have contributed to the circula-
tion of the words "Yankee Doodle" in England until after 1778.
These data render it very improbable that lines containing the two
words "Yankee Doodle" in this combination can have originated in
England before 1764. This allows the widest possible margin (the
beginning of C. and S. Thompson's activity as music publishers),
whereas the probabiUties are that the two words were not current
in England until considerably after 1770.
Turning to the word "Macaroni" in our doggerel quatrain —
Yankee Doodle came to town
Ridine on a pony
Stuck a feather in nis hat
And called it Macaroni,
it may have been used as mere nonsense, the fun consisting in the in
itself burlesque association of ' 'feather in his hat" and ' 'Macaroni"
without any hidden meaning. In this case the word ''Macaroni"
would afford no tangible clue for tracing the earliest possible date of
the verses. It is different if the prevailing and almost obviously
correct impression be accepted that we have here an allusion to the
London Macaronis imitated by a New England doodle with the aspi-
rations of a dandy and a fop.
According to Doctor Murray's Oxford English Dictionary the word
"Macaroni" as applied to a certain kind of burlesque poetry, dates
back to 1638 and flourished between 1727 and 1741. In the sense of
fop, dandy, it was the exquisite of a class which arose in England
about 1760 and consisted of young men who had traveled and affected
the taste and fashions prevalent in continental society. Again, ac-
cording to Doctor Murray, this use seems to be from the name of the
Digitized by
Google
128 Yankee Daodle.
'^Macaroni Club/' a designation probably adopted to indicate the
preferences of the members for foreign cookery^ macaroni still being at
that time little eaten, though the dish was known in England as early
as Ben Jonson's time (1599). Horace Walpole, on February 6, 1764,
speaks of '' the Macaroni Club, which is composed of all the traveled
young men, who wear long curls and spying glasses." A few months
later, on May 27, 1764, he writes: '^Lady Falkener's daughter is to be
married to a young rich Mr. Crewe, a Macarone, and of our Loo."
Mr. Henry B. Wheatley m ''London Past and Present" (1891, Vol. 11,
p. 463) states that the Macaroni Club was ''instituted in 1764." As
Mr. Wheatley does not allude to any authority for this definite date,
I agree with Mr. Matthews that he ought rather to have stated "about
1764." Moreover, Mr. Matthews unearthed an important account
of the origin of the word as applied to fops under the title "Macaroni
explained" in the Scots Magazine for November, 1772:
Macaroni b, in the Italian language, a word made use of to express a compound
diah made of vermicelli and other pastee . . . Thia diah was far from being
univerBally known in this country till the commencement of the last peace:
when, like many other foreign fa^ions, it was imported by our eonnoscenti in
eating, as an improvement to the subscription-table at Almack's. In time, the
subscribers to those dinners became to be distinguished by the title of Macaroni:
and as the meeting was composed of the younger and gayer part of our nobility
and gentry, who, at the same time that they gave in to the luxuries of eating,
went equally into the extravagances of dreas, the word Macaroni changed its
meaning to that of a person who exceeded the ordinary bounds of fashion, and
is now justly used as a term of reproach to all ranks of people, indifferently, who
fall into this absurdity.
The "last peace" was the Peace of Paris, 1763. This together
with the fact that the statement was made less than a decade from
that peace and that nobody has succeeded in unearthing a reference
to "Macaroni" in the sense of fop earlier than 1764, leads to a very
simple conclusion: If in our "Yankee Doodle" lines the word
"Macaroni" is used in the sense of fop, then the lines almost with
certainty had their origin after 1764- It is further significant that
the Macaronis, who affected immense knots of artificial hair, ludi-
crously small cock-hats [!], enormous walking sticks with long tassels
and jackets, waistcoats and breeches of very close cut (see Wright's
Caricature History of the Georges, London [1868], p. 259), reached
the height of their reign as arbiters of advanced fashion from about
1770 to 1775. All this direct and circumstantial evidence on the
words "Yankee Doodle" and "Macaroni" leads to the conclusion
that our doggerel quatrain did not originate until about or after 1764.
Furthermore, it imdermines the possibility that the verses were not
written in America and since no reference is made in English sources
to these lines until far into the nineteenth century, it may be taken
for granted that indeed the lines originated in America. The question
would still remain open, by whom were they written? By a city-
bred Colonial, who merely desired to ridicule the rustic New Eng-
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 129
landers, or by a Tory or by a Britisher? Had two or three verses^
UBinistakably belonging together, been preserved instead of one,
the question would probably have been easy to answer. The stanza —
Yankee Doodle came to town
Riding on a pony, etc.
never appears with companion stanzas, and yet it is safe to say that
such existed. Unless an authentic contemporary copy of the whole
''poem" turns up, we, at this late date, can do no more than call
attention to some verses which have survived, and which may have
belonged to the original string of stanzas, or at least may have been
inspired by them. Such verses are the following:
1. From Watson's "Annals of Philadelphia," 1844, contained also
in his letter of February, 1832 :
Yankee Doodle came to town
For to buy a firelock:
We will tar and feather him
And BO we will John Hancock.
2. Samuel Breck in his "Recollections" (1877, p. 132), writing
about 1830 and speaking of John Hancock, said:
. . . This subject brings to my mind four verses to the tune of Yankee Doodle"
often sung by the British officers during the Revolution:
Madam Hancock dreamt a dream;
She dreamt she wanted something;
She dreamt she wanted a Yankee King,
To crown him with a pumpkin.
3. George H. Moore's manuscript on "Yankee Doodle" pre-
viously mentioned contains this stanza recorded by an "old gentle-
man who recalled [it] about 1830 as one of a ditty common in his
own school days:"
Yankee Doodle came to town
Put on his strip' d trowse's
And vow'd he could n't see the place (town)
There ivas so many houses.
This last verse, just as the " Macaroni " verse, deals humorously with
the personal appearance of Yankee Doodle, and while slightly satirical,
might have been written not only by a Britisher, but by any American,
Tory or Rebel, who desired to poke some fun at the New England
coimtiy bumpkins. It is different with the first and second verse
just quoted. They obviously can have been penned only by a Tory
or a Britisher, and the question merely is what date of origin their
contents suggest, though they do not seem to have appeared in print
imtil far into the nineteenth century. A brief reference to the biog-
raphy of so well known a historical figure as John Hancock will
answer the question without much further comment:
Bom in 1737 at Quincy, Mass., John Hancock became one of the most active
" Sons of Liberty " (after 1765), a representative of the Massachusetts Legislature,
1766-1772, and he was a member of the Committee to demand of the royal governor
the removal of the British troops from Boston, 1770. The efforts of the governor
to secure his and Samuel Adams's person, led to the Battle of Lexington April 18
86480—09 9
Digitized by
Google
130 Yankee Doodle.
and 19, 1775 uid caused Gen. Grage to exclude both from the general pardon granted
the rebels. Ghoeen President of the Provincial Congress in October, 1774, he
became a delegate to the Ck)ntinental Ck)ngress, 1775-1780, and its President from
May, 1775, to October, 1777. He married Dorothy Quincy at Fairfield, Conn.,
August 28, 1775.
The "Madam Hancock" verse, therefore — so it may be argued —
was not written before August 28, 1775, but a "Madam Hancock"
may have been introduced for reasons of satire into this verse by its
author without the slightest knowledge whether or not John Hancock
was married. Nor do the words "Yankee King" necessarily point
to the year 1775, when Hancock became President of the Continental
Congress, because it appears from "A New Song" in the Boston
Gazette of March 26, 1770 (to which Mr. Matthews called my atten-
tion) that the sobriquet "K — g H — k" was applied to him as eariy
as 1770. However, "Madam Hancock" and "Yankee King" taken
together would seem to lend force to the conjecture that this particular
verse origmated after August 28, 1775, rather than before. No such
circumstantial evidence attaches to the "tar and feather" verse,
except that from 1768 on the patriots delighted in inflicting this pas-
time on the Tories, and that John Hancock certainly was despised
by Tory and Britisher alike after 1770 more than before.
The three verses beginning " Yankee Doodle came to town," it may
safely be assumed, belong to the same breed of verses, though tbey
and others may not have been written by one author or on the same
occasion. The "Madam Hancock" verse surely had a source not
very distant from that of the others, and as far as the date of origin
of all four verses is concerned, everything seems to point to a date
later than 1770. For practical purposes, indeed, these verses may
be said to have been written probably about 1775.
On page 105 of this report George H. Moore's unpublished opinion
of Doctor Shuckburgh's share in the fortunes of "Yankee Doodle"
was quoted in part. He there mentions as "The only verses I have
met with which carry any appearance of having been a part of the
original."
There is a man in our town
I pity his condition.
He sola h\& oxen and his sheep
To buy him a commission —
When his own commission he had got,
He proved a nation coward
He durst not go to Gape Breton
For fear he'd be devoured.
Moore does not say that he got these verses from an "old gentle-
man " remembering them like the " Strip'd trowse's " verse about 1830,
nor does he state who this old gentleman was, nor would a disclosure
of identity help us much. Any attempt to date these two verses must
take its cue from the allusion to Cape Breton : the author of the verses,
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 131
clearly belonging together, referred either to the capture of Cape
Breton on June 17, 1745, by the Americans, or by General Amherst on
July 26, 1758 (Louisbourg).
Here the matter would have to rest, but for the "Yankee Doodle"
song published by Thomas Skillem, of London, between 1 777 and 1 799,
and preserved at the British Museum. As stated on page 177, Mr.
Matthews discovered another copy at Boston in possession of Mr.
Ritchie, jr., who allowed the Ldbraiy of Congress to secure a facsimile.
(See Appendix, PI. XX.) The title and text read :
YANKEE doodle;
or,
(as now christened by the Saints of New England)
THE LEXINGTON MABOH.
N. B. Hie Woids to be Sung throu' the Nose, <fc in the West
Country drawl & dialect.
[Here the znuslo and first Terse f oUofw.]
1. Brother Ephraim sold his Cow
And bought him a Commission,
And then he went to Canada
To fight for the Nation.
But when Ephraim he came home
He prov'd an arrant Coward,
He wouldn't fight the Frenchmen there,
For fear of being devoured.
2. Sheep's Head and Vin^^ar,
ButterMilk and Tansy,
Boston is a Yankee town.
Sing Hey Doodle Dandy.
First we'll take a Pinch of Snuff,
And then a drink of Water,
And then we'll say, How do you do.
And that's a Yanky's Supper.
3. Aminidab is just come Home,
His Eyes all greas'd with Bacon
And all the news that he cou'd tell
Is Cape Breton is taken.
Stand up Jonathan
Figure in by Neighbor,
Nathan stand a little off
And make the Koom some wider.
4. Christmas is a coming Boys,
We'll go to Mother Chases,
And there we'll get a Sugar Dram,
Sweeten 'd with Melasses.
Heigh ho for our Cape Cod,
Heigh ho Nantasket,
Do not let the Boston wags
Feel your Oyster Basket.
5. Punk in Pye is very good.
And so is Apple Luitem,
Had you been whipp'd as oft as I
You'd not have oeen so wanton.
Uncle is a Yankee Man,
I 'faith he pays us all off,
And he has got a Fiddle
As big as Daddy's Hog's Trough.
Digitized by
Google _
132 Ya nkee Doodle.
Stanzas sixth and seventh are too obscene for quotation. The
sixth, however, contains a reference to ''Doctor Warren," and if the
famous patriot Joseph Warren is meant, as is probable, then this
stanza must have been written after 1764, when Warren began to
practice medicine at Boston, and most likely before June 17, 1775,
when he was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. If the whole song
were known as a imit, and printed by Skillem in its original and
complete form, then the allusion to Doctor Warren would also settle
the approximately latest date of the text. In the absence of any
such positive information, we are obliged to fall back on the single
stanzas and on the title. Whatever the date of the text in part or
as a whole may be, the title ''Yankee Doodle or The Lexington
March" clearly alludes to the momentous battle of Lexington and
Concord April 18 and 19, 1776, and can not have been prefixed to
the text before this date, though, of course, the text could have been
written earlier without this particular title. The second and fifth
stanza do not offer any clew except "Boston is a Yankee town"
and "Uncle is a Yankee Man. " The history of the use of the word
as applied to New England, renders it probable that these stanzas
were written after 1760. The third mentions the taking of Cape
Breton as "news," but it is not at all necessary to date the stanza
therefore as early as 1745 or 1758. The joke of the stanza may have
consisted in this, to picture the Yankee Aminidab as such a country
bumpkin and so absurdly behind the times, that "all the news that
he cou'd tell" was the taking of Cape Breton. The more years had
elapsed since that memorable event, the more effective the joke.
Whether this was the intention of the author or not, we at least
need not hesitate to date the stanza later than several months after
July 26, 1758, because it would really be carrying historical accuracy
too far to consider seriously the year 1745 in connection with any
"Yankee Doodle" song.
The first stanza is still more puzzling. It may refer either to the
French-Canadian war, and more particularly again to the year 1758,
or to our own expedition to Canada in 1776. In the latter case the
allusion to "The Frenchman" would be a little troublesome, though
here again the joke may consist in ridiculing Brother Ephraim's
anachronistic notions. That in older times the stanza was con-
nected with the French-Canadian war rather than with the war of
the Revolution may be aigued from the fact that the two verses
quoted on page 130 clearly refer to the expedition against Cape
Breton in 1758, and these two verses, it will be noticed, are strikingly
kin to the "Brother Ephraim" stanza. So kin indeed that one must
have been evolved from the other. The two four liners, whatever
their date of origin, were not recorded until far into the nineteenth
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 183
centuiy, whereas the ''Brother Ephraim" stanza was published
possibly as early as 1777. Consequently, in absence of proof to the
contrary, the natural assumption must be that the ''Brother
Ephraim" stanza was the prototype.
The inferences to be drawn from this text interpretation are these:
(1) If the poem including the title was a unit, then it must have
been written some time after April 18, 1775 (battle of Lexington and
Concord), but not very much later than June 17, 1775 (Warren's
death).
(2) If the poem was a unit, originally without the title "Yankee
Doodle or the Lexington March/' then it might have been written
not much later than Jime 17, 1775, and not earlier than 1764.
(3) If the poem printed in this form, was a composite, then the
single yeises were written any time after July 26, 1758 (Amherst's
victory at Cape Breton), and before the date of publication.
Whatever inference be preferred, with all its consequences, no dis-
agreement seems possible on the point that this text was not written
by a New Englander, but can only have been penned by either an
American Tory or a Britisher. Here attention must be called to
the statement of Eeverend Gordon (see p. 95), who under date of
"Roxbury, April 26, 1775," calls "Yankee Doodle" "a song com-
posed in derision of the New Englandeis." In view of such contem-
porary evidence it would be folly to deny the substantial correctness
of this statement. Whether or not the story recorded by the anony-
mous author in Farmer & Moore's Collections, May, 1824, correctly
adds the detail "composed by a British officer of the Revolution"
is immaterial. The fact remains that verses composed, i. e., written
in derision of the New Englanders must have existed before April 26,
1775, in form of a specific well-known song, to which, of course, any
niunber of verses might have been added later on ad lUntum, If
the first of the three inferences emunerated above be adopted, then
the shortness of the interval between April 18 and April 26, 1775,
would seem to exclude the possibility that Reverend Gordon had
"Yankee Doodle or the Battle of Lexington" in mind, and in that
case the "Yankee Doodle came to town" verses would offer them-
selves more readily for a solution of the problem. If, on the other
hand, inferences second or third be preferred, we would have our
choice between tioo texts without much evidence in favor of either.
However, there exists a third text, and the inability to keep the three
asimder has caused much of the frightful confusion surrounding our
"Yankee Doodle."
In the history of the American drama, Royall Tyler's comedy "The
Contrast" holds the place of a pioneer work. Though not published
until 1790, at Philadelphia, the play was acted as early as April, 1787,
at New York, and performed there and elsewhere with more or less
Digitized by
Google _
134 Yankee Doodle.
success. In ''The Contrast" we find in Act III, scene 1, this amusing
bit of dialogue. Jonathan, the first stage Yankee, when asked to sing
a song, says:
all my tunes go to meeting tunes [psalm tunes], save one, and I count you
won't altogether like that 'ere.
Jenny: What is it called?
Jonathan: I am sure you have heard folks talk about it, it is caUed Yankee
Doodle.
Jenny: Oh! it is the tune I am fond of, and, if I know any thing of my mistress,
she would be glad to dance to it. Pray, sing?
Jonathan [Sings]:
Father and I went up to camp.
Along with Captain Goodwm;
And there we saw the men and boys,
As thick as hasty-pudding.
Yankee docxlle do, etc.
And then we saw a swamping gun
Big as a log of maple,
On a little deuced cart,
A load for father's cattle.
Yankee Doodle do, etc.
And every time they fired it off
It took a horn of powder.
It made a noise like father's gun,
Only a nation louder.
Yankee Doodle do, etc.
There was a man in our town
His name was
No, no, that won't do. . . . [after some dialogue]
Jonathan: No, no, I can sing no more, some other time, when you and I are
better acquainted, I'll sing the whole of it — no, no — that's a fib — I can't sing but
a hundred and ninety-nine verses: Our Tabitha at home can sing it aU — [Sings]
Marblehead's a rocky place.
And Cape-Cod ia sandy ;
Charlestown is burned down,
Boston is the dandy.
Yankee doodle, doodle do, etc.
I vow my own town song has put me into such topping spirits, that I believe I'll
begin to do a little, as Jessamy says we must when we go a courting — . . .
Enough of the dialogue has been quoted to make it self-evident
that Rojall Tyler did not write these verses himself, but merely
borrowed them for his purposes from what the Germans so happily
call the ''Volksmund." Discounting some of the hundred and
ninety-nine verses as part of Tyler's humorous poetic license, it is
clear that many folk poets must have been at work to form such an
endless chain of verses for Yankee Doodle, the single links of which
would be left out or inserted according to local preferences, as is so
often the case with folk songs. It is, furthermore, clear that the text,
whole or in part, could not have become so well known and popular
in one or two or three years in a countiy like America to make a
reference to more than 199 ballad verses an effective bit of humorous
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 185
exaggeration and comedy writing. Thus we seem to drift back toward
Revolutionary times, but it is also significant that at least the verse
"Marblehead's a rocky place" can not have been written before June
17, 1776, the day on which Charlestown was burned down by General
Gage. Nor would there have been any sense in writing them after
1785, when the town was rapidly rising from the ashes.
Curiously enough, this verse, which seems to have been written
between middle of June, 1775 and 1785, appears in none of the
historically important sources of the publications of the ''Yankee
Doodle" text. No safe inference is to be drawn from this fact, but
one is naturally inclined to believe that it was a local interpolation
not belonging to the original text.
The publications of the text alluded to are the following:
(1) A broadside entitled "The Yankee's Return From Camp,"
containing fifteen stanzas and adorned in the upperhand comers by
two grotesque woodcuts. This broadside is in the possession of the
American Antiquarian Society, Worcester. The Library of Congress
possesses, by courtesy of this institution, a photographic facsimile of
this broadside (See Appendix, PI. XXI), as also of the following
broadside preserved at the American Antiquarian Society:
(2) ''The Yankey's Return From Camp. Together with the
favorite Song of the Black Bird. " This version of " Yankee Doodle, "
too, has fifteen stanzas. (See Appendix, PI. XXTT.)
(3) "The Farmer and his Son's return from a visit to the Camp."
The whereabouts of the original of this broadside are now unknown,
but Mr. Worthington C. Ford, while still with the Boston Public
Library, had a bluepruit made of the original, and this blueprint he
presented to Mr. Albert Matthews of Boston. Mr. Matthews, in turn,
permitted the Library of Congress to photograph this doubly unique
blueprint for this report. A description is unnecessary, as Plate
XXTTI shows this blueprint in facsimile.
(4) Under title of "Yankee Doodle" eleven stanzas contributed by
an anonymous writer to Farmer and Moore's Collections (1824, vol. 3,
p. 159-160), with five stanzas added by the editors:
YANKEE DOODLE.
1. Father and I went down to camp,
Along with Captain Goodwin,
Where we see the men and boys
As thick as Hasty-^mdiin.
2. There was captain Washington
Upon a slapping stallion,
A giving orders to his men —
I guesi there was a million.
3. And then the feathers on his hat,
They look'd so tamalfina,
I wanted pockily to get
To give to my Jemima.
Digitized by
Google
186 Yankee Doodle.
4. And there they had a 8wampin gun
As large as log of maple,
On a deticed little cart —
A load for father's cattle;
6. And every time they fired it off.
It took a horn of powder:
It made a noise like father's gun.
Only a nation louder.
6. I went as near to it myself
As Jacob's underpinnin,
And father went a$ near again —
I thought the deuce was in him.
7. And there I «e6 a little k^e,
Its heads were made of leather —
They knock 'd upon 't with little sticks
To call the folks together.
8. And there they'd fife away like fun.
And play on comstock fiddles,
And some nad ribbonde red as blood,
All wound about their middles.
9. The troopers, too, would gallop up
And fire right in our faces;
It scar'd me almost half to death
To see them run such races.
10. Old uncle Sam. come there to change
Some pancakes and some onions,
For lasses-cakes, to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.
11. But I can't tell you half I see
They kept up such a smother;
So I took my hat off — made a bow.
And scamper 'd home to mother.
[The editors are in possession of a copy of Yankee Doodle which contains several
verses more than the foregoing. We will add them, though we are not certain but
that they are interpolations.]
After verse 6:
Cousin Simon grew so bold,
I thought he would have cock'd it,
It scar'd me so, I shrink 'd it off.
And hung by father's pocket.
And Captain Davis had a gun,
He bind a clapt his hana on 't.
And stuck a crooked stabbing iron
Upon the little end on 't.
And there 1 seeA pumpkin shell.
As big as mother's bason,
And every time they touch 'd it off,
They scamper'd like the nation.
I see another snarl of men
A digging graves, they told me,
So tamal long, so tamal deep.
They tended they should hold me.
It scar'd me so, I hooked it off
Nor stopt as I remember.
Nor tum'd about till I got home,
Lock'd up in mother's chamber.
After verse 10:
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 137
A comparison of the three broadsides given in the Appendix in
photographic facsimile proves that the texts are identical, though
the titles and the orthography differ a little. Each broadside has
fifteen stanzas in the same sequence; each has the spelling '' Yankey
Doodle" in the chorus, and what is not without importance, each
has ''Captain Gooding^' in the second line of the first stanza. These
three broadsides therefore represent three issues of one and the same
poem not only, but of the poem in a concrete and accepted form.
The anonymous contributor to Farmer & Moore's Collections re-
marked that his was a ''copy of the song as it was printed thirty-five
years since, and as it was troU'd in our Yankee circles of that day."
This would establish the year 1789 as approximate date of the original
pubUcation, but it does not follow that he actually copied the words
from a printed broadside or page before him at the time of writing
Tiis article. He may have copied from memory, as it were, the song
as printed and current about 1789. Though no broadside or sheet
song appears to have come down to us with the unquestionable date
of 1789, we are not justified in assuming that the anonymous invented
the existence of a pubUcation of the "Yankee Doodle" text about
1789, and in absence of negative proof are permitted only to regret
that no copy of this publication is accessible.*
It is clear that this Yankee Doodle story lends itself to endless
variation and expansion, and Royall Tyler's humorous "one hundred
and ninety-nine verses" is an illusion to the fertiUty of the folk mind
in inventing new stanzas with or without local flavor. Between 1 789
and 1824 our anonymous therefore must have heard many stanzas
not printed in the nonextant publication of 1789. If he then, in 1824,
did not copy the text from a broadside before him, but from memory,
very probably he no longer was able to distinguish such stanzas as
actually occurred in the 1789 edition from those added later on. Nor
would he be absolutely successfid in adhering to the original order
of the stanzas or in every instance to the original text. That this
conjecture, and not the one which would imply actual copy of a
broadside before the anonymous contributor to Farmer & Moore,
comes nearer the truth may be inferred from the facts that the first
seven stanzas of the eleven, though not in the same sequence, appear
in the old broadsides, that the five stanzas added by Farmer & Moore
appear in the same broadsides, and that only three of the fifteen
stanzas in these broadsides do not appear in Farmer & Moore. Con-
sequently Farmer & Moore used a copy of one of these three broad-
a This attitude inyolves certain consequencee, for instance, as the tenth stanza con-
tains a reference to *'old Uncle Sam." This Americanism possibly was derived from
Yankee Doodle verses current about 1789, and did not originate as late as about 1812.
Digitized by
Google
138 Yankee Doodle.
sides, and since it will become clear that they contain in all proba-
bility the original text in an accepted form it follows that not the
five stanzas added by Farmer & Moore, but, on the contrary, the
stanzas eight to eleven in the version of our anonymous are interpo-
lations. It will be further noticed that three of the stanzas appear
also in Royall Tyler's comedy. Consequently, everything tends to
safeguard the assumption that here we have the text of the "Yankee's
Return from Camp " in its best-known, oldest, and presumably original
form. The question now is whether or not the broadsides them-
selves help to trace the date of origin of this text. The ''Yankee's
Return from Camp" has the imprint, "N. Coverly, jr.. Printer, Milk-
Street, Boston." Reference to the Boston City Directories proves
that this printer flourished between 1810 and 1823, the " jr." disappear-
ing from the directory of 1818. However, the broadside can not
have been printed after 1813, since it forms part of the curious collec-
tion of songs, ballads, etc., in three volumes, presented to the Amer-
ican Antiquarian Society by Isaiah Thomas in 1814, with the state-
ment that it was ''purchased from a ballad printer and seller in
Boston, 1813. Bound up for preservation — to shew that the articles
of this kind are in vogue with the vulgar at this time, 1814." Con-
sequently the date of this particular broadside is fixed as between
1810 and 1813.
No such definite clew is given in the broadside of "The Yankey's
Return from Camp. Together with the favorite Song of the Black
Bird." The spelling of YanJcey instead of Yankee suggests the sec-
ond half of the eighteenth century rather than the first half of the
nineteenth, but the argimient is not a safe one, since the spelling
with y is easily traced in early nineteenth-century Uterature. Indeed,
it appears in the very chorus of Coverly's broadside, 1810-1813. In
his amazingly minute monograph on the Americanism "Uncle Sam"
(p. 61 of the reprint from Proceedings of the Am. Ant. Soc, 1908),
Mr. Matthews infers from Isaiah Thomas's dedicatory words accom-
panying the gift of this ballad collection that our anonymous broad-
side was "probably printed in 1813." In private correspondence
(November 30, 1908) Mr. Matthews asserts that "The burden of the
proof lies on him who asserts that the 'Yankey's Return ' was printed
before 1813." I utterly fail to see how even a strictly Hteral inter-
pretation leads to a definite year. Isaiah Thomas merely says that
he purchased the entire collection, not merely this broadside, from
a ballad printer and seller in 1813. Even without the fact that
some of the ballads were printed earlier, it would have been contrary
to common sense to assume that the three voliunes of ballads were
actually printed in one and the same year, 1813. Thomas's words
do not really give any clew to the dates of publication of his ballads,
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 189
except that they can not have been later than 1813, and that they
are somewhat limited by the remark '*in vogue with the vulgar
at this time, 1814." But if they were in vogue one year after the
collection was purchased by him, they may, at the very least, have
been in vogue one year before, 1812. But I doubt that Isaiah Thomas
intended his remarks to be taken thus narrowly, and it will be
methodically just as correct to give his words enough elasticity to
prevent literal interpretations from ending unnecessarily in blind
alleys. "At this time, 1814," may safely be taken to mean about
this time, or, in round figures, as we are dealing with popular ballads
more or less in vogue, the first quarter of the nineteenth century.
We also fail to find a definite clew to the date of publication of
this particular broadside, if we turn our attention to "The favorite
song of the Black Bird." All authorities (see f. i., Christie's Tradi-
tional ballad airs) agree that the song appears in the very earliest
edition of Ramsay's Tea Table Miscellany, 1724-1727, and Mr. Grat-
tan Flood, in his History of Irish Music, 1906, asserts that he found
allusion to the song in 1709. Of course, the broadside can not have
been published before "The Black Bird" became a favorite, and
probably was not published after the song had ceased to be a favor-
ite. Different melodies have been recorded for this song, but the
texts preserved are practically identical and the text proves "The
Black Bird " to be a Jacobite song. One version is given on page 68
of the second volume of Hogg's Jacobite Relics, 1821, and it is very
significant that the author says in his note on the song (p. 288):
The Blackbird, seems to have been one of the street songs of the day; at least,
it is much in that style, and totally different from the manner of most Jacobite
songs. It has had, however, considerable popularity. This copy was commu-
nicated by Mr. Fairley, schoolmaster in Tweedsmuir.
This surely does not read aas if ''the Blackbird " was still a favorite
in Scotland in 1821. Furthermore, while it is claimed that the words
appear in ''The American Songster,'' Baltimore, 1830, it is a fact
that most American songsters of the first quarter of the nineteenth
century do not contain the song, nor can it be found in such stand-
ard collections of Scotch songs as Smith's "Scottish Minstrel " [182-];
Graham's "Songs of Scotland," 1848-1860; Johnson's "Scotish musical
museum," 1869-; Johnson's "Scots Musical Museum " [1787]. There
are still other reasons for holding that the song had passed its popu-
larity in 1813. The words of "The Blackbird," as printed in the
broadside and as anybody can see, clearly make veiled allusion to
the Pretenders or their cause. The farther away from this time the
song is removed chronologically the less popular it presumably was.
Not only this, but the sentimental and once so popular song "The
Maid's Lamentation," so the authorities in English folk song like
Digitized by
Google
140 Ya nkee Doodle.
Barmg-<}omd and Chappell tell ns^ had one of its earliest appear-
ances in print in the ''Songster's Magazine/' 1804^ and this song. has
all the appearance of being a mere imitation and variation of ''The
Blackbird," or at least of having been poetically influenced by it.
The "Maid's Lamentation" in its early form begins:
Earlv one morning, just as the sun was rising
I heard a young damsel sigh and complain
Oh gentle shepherd, why am I forsaken?
On why should I in sorrow remain 1
After that the lines differ widely, yet the imderlying poetic motive
is the same — a lamentation on the loss of a beloved "blackbird," or
sailor, or shepherd, etc.
All this seems to substantiate the impression that the broadside
with "The favorite song of the Blackbird" should be dated away
from the year 1813 rather than toward it. However, one part is
imdeniable; The Blackbird can not have been printed together with
"The Yankey's return from Camp" before the words of the latter
were written.
The mysterious F. B. N. S. wrote in 1867 and promised to prove
in a book:
The verses commencing ** Father and I went down to the camp" were written
by a gentleman of Connecticut a short time after Gen. Washington's last visit
to New England ....
This visit occurred in the fall of 1789, and therewith collapses the
statement of F. B. N. S. In fact, in this form it is so absurd that
one is almost led to suspect that he did not mean exactly what he
wrote. The absurdity would disappear if F. B. N. S., either not
knowing of or foi^etting Washington's last visit, really alluded to
his forelast visit. This would carry us to the so-called "Provincial
Camp," Cambridge, Mass., where Geoi^e Washington arrived on
July 2, 1775, after his appointment as commander in chief of the
American Anny, and from where he removed headquarters after the
evacuation of Boston on March 26, 1776. Unfortunately the book
of ballads in which F. B. N. S. promised proof of his statement (see
p. 100) hasnot been traced, and therefore weare also entirely in thedark
as to the reasons for assigning the authorship of the text to a gentle-
man of Connecticut. Nor would this gentleman be without a com-
petitor since Dr. Edward Everett Hale when printing the "Yankey's
Return'' in his "New England History in Ballads," 1903, remarked:
An autograph note of Judge Dawes, of the Harvard class of 1777, addressed to
my father, says that the author of the well-known Imes was Edward Bangs*
who graduated with him.
The historian would have preferred to see the autograph note of
Judge Dawes printed in full, as in this form it merely assigns the
poem to a member of the Harvard class of 1777 without defining the
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 141
date or place of Edward Bangs'spoetic effusion. According to Doctor
Hale's meager information, Edward Bangs might have written the
lines any year between the time he was able to mount Pegasus and
1787, when part of the text was quoted in "The Contrast'' written
as Mr. Matthews suggestively pointed out in his monograph on
'*Uncle Sam" by a member of the Harvard class of 1776. In this
connection it is also suggestive that Bangs had, as a college boy,
joined the Middlesex farmers in the pursuit of April 19, 1775, that
Harvard College was transferred from Cambridge to Concord in
September, 1775, and returned to Cambridge in 1776. On the other
hand there appears to exist no evidence, positive, circumstantial, or
even traditional, that the words of the "Yankey's Return from
Camp" were written or known before the war for independence, that
is, before 1775.
If we turn to the text itself, it clearly reveals an American origin.
It is so full of American provincialisms, slang expressions of the time,
allusions to American habits, customs, that no Englishman could
have penned these verses. Even if he could have done so, he would
not have done so, because his poetic efforts in this form would
largely have been a puzzle to his comrades. Had this text been a
British production, it would have found its way to England, which
apparently is not the case. To be a British satire on the unmilitary
appearance of provincial American troops, as has been said, the
verses would have to be derisively satirical, which they are not.
They breathe good-natured humor and they deal not at all with the
uncouth appearance of American soldiery, but with the experience of
a Yankee greenhorn in matters miUtary who went down to a miUtary
camp and upon his return narrates in his own naive style the impres-
sions made on him by all the wonderful sights of military pomp and
circumstance. But the text helps us beyond proving a mere
American origin. Our Yankee clearly describes not an imaginary
camp, but a particular camp, and part of the desired effect was
calculated by the author from personal allusions: Captain Gooding,
Squire David, Captain Davis, Captain Washington. These names
were unmistakably borrowed from Uf e. One need not go deeply into
the military records of the several States to find captains by the
name of Gooding and Davis. A perusal of Heitman's ''Historical
Register of OflScers of the Continental Army" of "Massachusetts
Soldiers and the Sailors of the Revolutionary War," etc., will bear
out my statement abimdantly, indeed confusingly. At any rate,
the names of Gooding and Davis can not be used against the present
network of argument, whereas the allusion to and description of a
"Captain Washington and gentlefolks about him" who is "grown so
tamal proud, he will not ride without 'em," etc., as a bit of humor-
ously twisted characterization, fits none so well as George Washington,
Digitized by
Google
142 Ya nkee Doodle.
commander in chief. Without tliis allusion to George Washington,
the date of the text would be indefinite within certain limits. With
this allusion the conjecture becomes fairly safe that the text cf
" Father and I went down to camp*' originated at or in the vicinity cf
the '^Provincial Camp," Camhridge, Mass,, in 1776 or 1776,
This becomes an unavoidable conclusion, as much as anything can
be conclusive in the absence of documentary evidence, if we now turn
to the third broadside. (See facsimile PL XXIII.) The broadside
is adorned by a crude woodcut of five soldiers, which suggests mili-
tary times, but more suggestive is the fact that the title reads: "The
Farmer and his Son's return from a visit to the Camp.'' Not a camp,
but the camp, and since George Washington is one of the heroes of the
text, the article ''the" can not but refer to the provincial camp. The
title of this broadside does not read so smooth and polished as that
of "the Yankey's return from Camp," and for this reason, if for no
other, we may conjecture that "The Yankey's" is an afterthought,
not of the author, but of the folk, and that "The farmer and his son's
return, etc.," antedates any version headed "The Yankey's return," .
indeed that the latter title did not appear in print before the New
Englanders had proudly adopted for use amongst themselves this
nickname "Yankee." Thus, to sum up, it would appear that the
" Yankee Doodle" text " Father and I went down to camp " originated
in 1775 or 1776, and that we have in this particular broadside its first
and original edition printed presumably shortly after it had been
written. Since the fifteen stanzas are identical in the three earliest
known editions, they clearly represent an accepted form of the text
not only, but a form attributable to a single author, and it would
really seem as if the authorship of Edward Bangs in 1775 rather than
in 1776, rests on something more than tradition.
An investigation of the "Yankee Doodle" text would not be com-
plete without a brief consideration of the chorus refrain. Yet, strange
to say, this appears not to have aroused any interest, though as a
matter of fact the refrain may hold incidentally the key to the whole
problem of the origin of the time. As time went by, the refrain was
altered and paraphrased to suit the merits and intentions of the occa-
sion, but such versions are of no account historically in this particular
connection. It is drflFerent, of course, with the text in Farmer &
Moore and in the three broadsides analyzed above. No refrain
appears in Farmer & Moore, but the three broadsides have:
Yankev doodle, keep it up,
YanKey doodle dandy,
Mind the music and the step.
And with the girls be hanay.
Though conjectural analysis seems to force us to date the "Yankee
Doodle" text beginning "Father and I went down to camp" either
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle. 143
1776 or 1776, yet this is after all a conjecture and all we positively
know is that some of the verses appeared in print as early as 1790 in
Tyler's "The Contrast." In this comedy, however, the full chorus
refrain is not given, merely "Yankee doodle do, etc.," but it does
appear in a song written by "A Yankee" in commemoration of the
adoption of the Federal Constitution by Massachusetts, and this song
was reprinted in the Independent Chronicle, Boston, March 6, 1788,
from the Pennsylvania Mercury. The ballad "Yankee Doodle's
Expedition to Rhode Island " in Rivington's Royal Gazette, October
3, 1778, has merely "Yankee Doodle, etc."
In Dibdin's "The Return of Ulysses to Ithaca" (1780), 1788, and
in Andrew Barton's "The Disappointment," 1767, we have "Yankee
Doodle, etc." The difference between these sources and Tyler is
very slight, but it is also very suggestive, since the Dibdin and Barton
refrain may have had the full text as given above, while the presence
of the additional do in the Tyler refrain makes the use of this text at
least doubtful. And this is not at all startling, but has a very obvious
explanation if one reads the following references, some of which I owe
to the courtesy of Mr. Matthews.
There appeared in the Royal Gazette, November 27, 1779,
A NEW 80N0 TO AN OLD TUNE.
Written by a Yankee, and sung to the tune of Doodle-doo:
The Frenchman came upon the coast
Our great allies, and they did boast
They soon would bang the British host.
jDoodle, Doodle-doo, pa, pa, pa, pa, pa.
It should be borne in mind that this is a British satire, not really a
patriotic Yankee song. Moving backwards, we find that in 1772
G. A. Stevens included in his "Songs, Comic and Satyrical."
DOODLE DOO.
Tune—Ev'ry where fine ladies flirting.
Younglings fond of Female Chaces,
Mount of Hopes in Wedlock's Races,
Some for Fortune, some for Faces.
Doodle, Doodle, Doo, etc.
The same refrain was used in ''A Royal Love Song, 1770," in
**A low Song upon a High Subject," 1769, and as printed in the
Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, London, January 6, 1776 for —
A new Song, entitled and called, the Best exchange: The old fumblers for
young lovers. To the tune of Doodle, Doodle, Doo.
Still earlier we have in the St. James Chronicle, February 3-5, 1763 :
A new Song. Suns' at a certain Theatre Royal in the character of a Frenchman.
Tune — Doodle, Dooffle, doo:
See me just arrived from France-e:
All de vay from dere I dance-e,
Vid my compliments I greet ye;
All de vile I mean to sheat ye.
Doodle, etc.
Digitized by
Google
144 Yankee Doodle.
And in 1762, September 13 (reprinted in T. Wright's Caricature
History of the Georges, 1868) :
THE GONORESS; OR, A DEVICE TO LOWER THE LAND TAX, TO THE TUNE OF DOODLE,
DOODLE, DO.
Here you may see the happy OongreeB
All now is done with such a bon-grace,
No English wight can surely grumble,
Or cry, our treaty-makers fumble.
Doodle, dooole, do., etc.
The ''Caricature History" also contains ''The Motion" (p. 128)
among verses clearly relating to the Duke of Argyle and to the
year 1741, this one:
Who de dat de box to sit on?
'Tis John, the hero of North Briton,
Who. out of place, does place-men spit on,
Doodle, etc.
We are carried far into the seventeenth century by Edw. Ravens^
croft's comedy after the Italian manner "Scaramouch a philosopher,
Hariequin a School-boy," 1677. In the fifth act, first scene Harlequin
sings "ridiculously" "Tricola, tracola" mixed with "Doodle-doodle-
doo," and "Toodle-doodle-doo."
In "the Witch of Edmonston" by William Rowley, Thomas Dek-
ker, John Ford, etc., 1668, Act IV, scene 1, occurs this interesting
passage:
Enter Anne Ratcliff mad.
Rate, Oh my Ribs are made of a i>ayned Hose, and they break. There's a
Lancashire hornpipe in my throat: hark how it tickles it, with Doodle, Doodle,
Doodle, Doodle.
And finally in Middleton's & Rowley's "The Spanish Gipsy," 1663
(acted 1623 or 1624), Sancho sings a line with Doodle-doo.
What do these references prove? First, that a chorus refrain with
"Doodle-doodle, do" existed as early as the middle of the seventeenth
century. In America the word "Yankee" was grafted on to this not
later than 1767 (Barton's Disappointment), and the form of "Yankee
Doodle do" was used as late as 1787 or 1790 (Tyler's Contrast). If
the internal and other evidence submitted led to the conclusion that
the "Father and I" text originated 1775 or 1776, then the conjecture
is fairly safe that the refrain "Yankee Doodle keep it up" is of the
same date. This conclusion in turn would lead to the other that in
Barton's ' ' Disappointment ' ' the older refrain ' ' Yankee Doodle-doodle
do" was used. But the references would appear to establish a very
much more important point, namely, the existence of a tune called
"Doodle, doodle, do" certainly as early as 1762 and probably as early
as the seventeenth century. Indeed, we are almost compelled to
assume that this tune was known as a Lancashire hornpipe as early
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 145
as 1658. Since the texts mentioned lend themselves more or less
smoothly to our ''Yankee Doodle" melody, the latter may be sus-
pected to be identical with the ''Doodle, doo" tune, but it would not
necessarily follow that words were sung to it except as chorus refrain.
In 1772 Stevens' "Doodle Doo" was to be sung to the tune of "Ev'ry
where fine ladies flirting." I have not yet traced a song with these
first words, but it will be noticed that they lend themselves smoothly
to the "Yankee Doodle" melody. This suggests the query: Were
these perhaps the original words that went with the melody or were
they grafted on the melody later, or do they, after all, represent a dif-
ferent melody? I am not in a position to give any answer to these
questions which might solve the problem of "Yankee Doodle" in a
manner heretofore hardly suspected. However, the existence of a
"Doodle, doo" air before 1750 and possibly identical with the
"Yankee Doodle" air has become so probable that this probability
obliges the historian to move with caution and skepticism when
examining the theories of the origin of "Yankee Doodle" not yet
analyzed, namely, the Doctor Shuckburgh theory in Farmer and
Moore's Collections, 1824, and the "All the way to Galway" theory
of Mr. Grattan Flood, 1905.«
<> This book was in proof sheets when at last Mr. Frank Kidson, having at first almost
denied the existence of such a tune, was able to send the author the following under
, date of Leeds, May 11, 1909:
[" Doodle Doo. No. 175, p. 88, Wright's 200 Choice Country Dances, vol. 2d, ca. 1750.]
In explanation Mr. Kidson, to whom again thanks are due for his professional
courtesy, writes:
'' I have great pleasure in sending you the Doodle Doo which you will see prac-
tically fits the words given in G. A. Steven's "Songs Comic and Satyrical,"
Oxford, 1772, p. 134, song 72.
I have copied the tune from a coimtry dance book without title, but which I
know for a certainty to be the second volume of Wright's 200 Country Dances,
a later edition issued by John Johnson of Cheapside about 1750. Particulars are
given in my British Music Publishers. . . Dan Wright first issued his two
volumes, and then Johnson continued with his 3, 4, 5, & 6th, reprinting the 1st
and 2d from his old plates with new plates substituted for certain cases. The
85480-09 ^10
Digitized by
Google
146 Ya nkee Doodle.
The latter does not call for a lengthy discussion, as the supposedly
Irish origin of "Yankee Doodle" (see p. 106) is based simply on
two assertions: Fiist, that its structure is "decidedly Irish;" second,
that it is identical with the Irish tune of "All the way to Galway"
as it appears in a manuscript dated 1750, the authority of which
Mr. Grattan Flood says to be beyond question.
Since the structure of the melody has been claimed with equal
enthusiasm as decidedly Hessian, Hungarian, Scotch, English, etc. —
indeed, in his letter quoted above, Mr. D. F, Scheurleer called my
attention to the similarity of "Yankee Doodle" with the tunes of
the itinerant Savoyards — ^Mr. Grattan Flood's manifestly sincere
assertion can not be accepted without very careful proof as "intrinsic
evidence." Mr. Grattan Flood's other assertion is somewhat
strengthened by facts not mentioned in his interesting article. It
appears from Sargent's "History of an expedition against Fort Du
Quesne in 1755" (Philadelphia, 1856) that when Braddock's ill-fated
campaign was being prepared drafts were made in Ireland "from
the second battalion of the Royals, at Galway," besides from other
Irish regiments. Furthermore, the "Orders for Foreign Service,"
quoted in Knox's "Historical Journal of the Campaignes in North
America for the years 1757, 1758, 1759 and 1760," leave no doubt
that Major-General Kennedy's regiment stationed at Galway, the
Fifty-fifth Regiment stationed at Galway and two other Irish regi-
ments, the First or Royal Regiment of Foot and the Seventeenth
Regiment of Foot, received marching orders in February. In this
connection it is also noteworthy that in 1758 the Fifty-fifth Regiment
participated in General Abercrombie's imlucky Lake expedition
(Ticonderoga!), the First and the Seventeenth regiments in General
Amherst's siege of Louisburgh, whereas Keimedy's Forty-third Regi-
ment aU through 1758 was condemned to idleness in Nova Scotia.
However these facts may fit into the historical argument, it is known
that of the 8,000 regulars voted by Parliament in 1757 for reenforce-
old plates have the moons and half moons (as in the Dancing master), but the
new plates have them not. Dooef^ 2>oo is from a new plate issued about 1750 . . .
I have some startling theories about Yankee Doodle name and tune, and one
is that the first part is older than the 2d part. . . "
It is clear that our Yankee Doodle and this Doodle Doo are not identical or even
similar and that the several Yankee Doodle texts can not have been sung to this
Doodle Doo. It is equally clear that the Doodle Doo texts quoted on p. 143 fit our
Yankee Doodle well, but this Doodle Doo very poorly, if at all. Here, then, is a
new puzzle and a new obstacle in the path that seemed to lead easily out of the whole
Yankee Doodle labyrinth. Personally, I still adhere to the belief that there must
have been kinship between Yankee Doodle and Doodle Doo, and I am keenly
interested in Mr. Kidson's startling theories in the desperate hope that he at last
may be able to give a satisfactory solution of the Yankee Doodle puzzle.
Digitized by
Google
Ya nkee Doodle,
147
ments, fully one-half were Irish. If then "Yankee Doodle" is of
Irish origin and identical with "All the way to Galway," it is clear
how this influx of Irish soldiers may have helped to spread the air
in America; even had it not been known previously to the Irish
then settled in America. But; has Mr. Grattan Flood succeeded in
proving the identity, without which his theory of the Irish origin,
of course, coUapses? On pages 123-125 of this report some of the
early printed and manuscript versions of "Yankee Doodle" are
quoted, and here are two versions of "All the way to Galway" as
given by Mr. Grattan Flood in his article:
Aiiii THJB Wat to Galway
Ms. 1750
if^^f r r ^
^
^=r^
^^
=
^^^
\r r ' \
^^^=r=F^
^^
z
All thk Way to Oalwat
PXTHIS 184
To these may be added for more comprehensive comparison a
manuscript version (ca. 1820) in possession of Mr. Frank Kidson:
and the version in Capt. Francis O'Neill's " Dance Music of Ireland "
(Chicago, 1907, p. 172):
[ I'dXnrrr^ J iJ jJJ Jin^ J II
Digitized by
Google
148
Ya nkee Doodle,
If Mr. Grattan Flood says that the C natural in the first half of
"All the way to Gal way/' the so-called flat seventh, is unmistakably
Irish, then the first half of "Yankee Doodle" is just as unmistakably
not Irish. Though the eye may detect a similarity between the two
first parts, to the musical ear they soimd fimdamentally xmlike.
Only the first, third, and fifth bars of the eight in the 1760 version
of "All the way to Galway" could possibly be pressed into service
for Mr. Grattan Flood's theory, which he bases, it should be kept in
mind, on a comparison between Aird's "Yankee Doodle" of 1782 and
a 1750 manuscript version of "All the way to Galway." This com-
parison becomes still more futile if the two second halves be con-
trasted. Only one bar, the last, is identical, and that bar, I trust,
may be f oimd in a million compositions. How weak the whole theory
is appears convincingly if we figuratively try to cover one time with
the other and apply the numerical test of identity: "All the way to
Galway" has 67 notes, "Yankee Doodle" 62. Only 18 notes are
iienticall
It is easily seen how Mr. Grattan Flood came to embrace the Irish
theory. There is an obvious wholesale similarity in melodic structure,
if considerations of key be discarded, between the secong halves of the
earliest "All the way to Galway" and some of the "Yankee Doodle"
versions — for instance, those of Willig (p. 122) and Sousa (p. 123).
Approximate similarity, not approximate identity! This similarity
in melodic patterns belongs to the chapter on "Thematic coincidences
and common property" in thehistory of music. It is afascinating but
wholly unreliable and dangerous chapter. In the case of "Yankee
Doodle" the wholesale similarity, as it was called above, may be
admitted, but the moment deductions of identity are to be drawn
from this similarity we are perfectly justified in claiming an equal
share of similarity between "Yankee Doodle" and the Scotch air
"^Will ye go to Sheriff muir " as given, for instance, in Hogg's "Jacob-
ite Relics" (1819, V. I, p. 149):
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle.
or, as in Gbw's Third Repository (ca. 1806) :
149
j ^^^jF^A ^ ^ggroTi-cin^^^T^
This version I owe to the courtesy of Mr. Frajok Kidson, as also
the much more important information that the ''Sheriff Muir^' air
appears in Oswald's "Caledonian Pocket Companion" (Book 6, circa
1750-1760). Without this discovery it would merely be possible to
state that the text of the air appears in Semple's "Poems and Songs
of Kobert Tannahill" (1876), among the "Unedited and impublished
pieces" (p. 354) of the poet (1774-1810), as doubtful, and that Hogg
says "The air has long been popular." With Mr. Kidson's find, we
would be able to offset the Irish claim for "All the Way to Galway"
by a Scotch claim for " Will ye go to Sheriff Muir," since the proximity
of the dates of first known appearance of both tunes would forbid to
derive for the sake of argument "Will ye go to Sheriff Muir" and thus
again incidentally "Yankee Doodle" from "All the Way to Qalway."
Should it be insisted that the Irish time dates "from about the first
quarter of the 18th century," as Mr. Grattan Flood suspects under
date of July 23, 1908, equal emphasis might be laid on the probability
that Oswald did not print a new tune, but a popular, that is, a fairly
old one, and that there might be some connection between it and the
battle of Sheriffmuir, 1715.
The probabilities are that neither "All the Way to Galway" nor
"Will ye go Sheriffmuir" contributed anything to "Yankee Doodle."
On the other hand, if mere similarity is to decide the origin of " Yankee
Doodle," and if the latter's hypothetical prototyi)e, the time "Doodle,
doodle, doo" (or perhaps "Everywhere fine ladies flirting") should be
found to antedate "All the Way to Galway," what would prevent the
argument that "All the Way to Galway" borrowed its better half
from " Yankee Doodle " instead of vice versa? However, not to let my
personal opinion enter too much into this report, it should be noted
that Mr. Grattan Flood's theory is by no means accepted by other
eminent authorities. For instance, Mr. Frank Kidson wrote me
under date of August 12, 1908, this sweeping statement:
' 'AH the Way to Galway' ' is not really like Yankee Doodle, and cannot be proved
to be earlier in date even if it was like it.
Digitized by
Google
150 Yankee Doodle.
And Captain Francis O'Neill under date of July 14, 1908, wrote:
I agree with you in noting the diasimilftrity of the first parts of the tunes under
consideration, the style and composition of first part of Yankee Doodle is more
modem. I must admit, no Irish tune, March or Air that I can remember, unmis-
takably resembles the first part of Yankee Doodle and I have an excellent memory
in such matters.
The substance of the rather novelistic account (see pp. 96-97)
which under the title of "Origin of Yankee Doodle" appeared in
Farmer and Moore's Collections, 1824, is, to recapitulate, this:
In 1755 Doctor Shackburg[I], a physician attached to the staff of
General Abercrombie's army, encamped a little south of Albany,
N. Y., on the ground "now" belonging to John I. Van Rensselaer,
esq., "to please hrother JonaOian composed a tune" and with much
gravity recommended it to (he officers as one of the most cdehraied airs
of martial music. The provincial troops, whose march, accoutre-
ments, arrangement, the narrator with great glee compares to that
of Sir John Falstaff 's ragged regiment, took the bait, and in a few days
nothing was heard in the provincial camp but the air of Yankee
Doodle,
By utilizing the data printed in the "Historical Magazine," in
O'Callaghan's New York Colonial Dociunents, in the "Collections of
the New York Historical Society," in the old British Army lists, and
combining them with the information contained in transcripts for the
library of Congress from the "Sir William Johnson Manuscripts of
Letters, and passages relating to Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, 1745-1773,"
his life may be traced with sufficient clearness for the present purpose.
It is a curious coincidence that two Richard Shuckbuighs appear
about this time in the British army lists, but the Richard Shuckburgh
whose commission in the army dates from March 18, 1755, who in
December of the same year became a lieutenant in the First Regi-
ment of Foot Guards, and in 1768 a captain, can not possibly be
connected with "Yankee Doodle" in preference to the Dr. Richard
Shuckburgh for the simple reason that this reginient, since 1815
commonly known as the Grenadier Guards, did not come to America
before 1776. Dr. Richard Shuckbuigh, on the other hand, was
prospecting with a Captain Borrow as early as 1735 on the Delaware,
and he held a commission as surgeon in the "Four Independent
Companies of Foot at New York" since June 25, 1737. About 1748
Doctor Shuckburgh began to take a lively interest in the Indians,
and as early as 1751 he speaks of his ambition to become secretary
of Indian affairs under Sir William Johnson, with whom he was on
terms of friendship. When this position became vacant through
the death of Captain Wraxall in July, 1759, Sir William immediately
appointed Dr. Shuckburgh to this office for which he appears to have
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 151
been eminently qualified, having in the words of Sir WiUiam John-
son, March 24, 1760, "recorded all my proceedings with the several
nations of Indians since the opening of the last campaign," 1759.
Unfortunately Sir William delayed the report of his action and
recommendation to the board of trade. Consequently, when his
letter finally reached London, a Mr. Marsh, in 1761, had already been
selected as Wraxall's successor. If it was bad enough for Shuck-
burgh to be "elbowed out" of a position, as he put it, it was more
imfortunate that the rules forbade him to hold two offices. In the
firm expectation that his secretaryship would become permanent,
he had in 1761 resigned his conmiission as surgeon in the Independent
Companies, and of course now found himself without any position.
His disappointment at these developments gives the keynote to
his correspondence of the next few years, though on January 10,
1763, he is able to send Sir William the good news:
1 have compleated my Purchase with the Surgeon of the 17th Regt. and received
my Commiasion from the General the 29th ult.
These facts explain why Shuckburgh suddenly disappears from
the British army hsts (carefully extracted for me by Mr. Lydenburg
of the N. Y. Public Library), and just as suddenly reappears in 1764
as surgeon of the Seventeenth Regiment of Foot, stationed since 1758
in America. The most miserable year of his life Shuckburgh spent
in 1765 at the military post of Detroit, separated for a full year from
his family and for six months shut off from all communication.
When he returned to New York at the end of 1765, the military
service had lost its attraction for him, and he probably did not view
the death of Mr. Marsh in the same year with much regret, since
now the secretaryship of Indian affairs was again within reach. Sir
William Johnson lost no time in repeating his former recommenda-
tion, but not until 1767 did Shuckburgh receive the place. This
appointment explains why not Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, but a
Thomas White, appears as surgeon in the 17th regiment from May
9, 1768, on.
Shuckburgh was not to enjoy his new office for many years. On
December 26, 1772, Sir WilUam Johnson wrote of him to the Earl
of Dartmouth as "aged and of late very infirm," and on August
26, 1773, the New York Gazetter printed this obituary notice:
Died, at Schenectady, last Monday, Dr. Richard Shuckburgh, a gentleman of
very genteel family, and of infinite jest and humour.
Sir William Johnson was greatly shocked by this news, and from
Johnson Hall, September 30, 1773, wrote to Mrs. Shuckburgh to
assure her of his concern at her loss and of his great friendship for
her husband. That he should, in the same letter, have called her
Digitized by
Google
152 Yankee Doodle.
attention to the fact that her hxisband had borrowed $100 from him
shortly before his death was at least not tactful, and the fact is
mentioned here merely to show that Shuckburgh, though quite a
property holder in the colony, was frequently in financial trouble.
However, he had at least the satisfaction of seeing his daughter well
married to a British officer.
The obituary notice mentions Shuckbui^h's ''infinite jeet and
humour." BBs correspondence with Sir William Johnson would not
permit this inference. It is of a serious turn and mainly expressive
of his disappointment at not having received the secretaryship of
Indian affairs. Yet one or two letters contain a few humorous
remarks, and that Shuckburgh was conscioxis of his humorous talents
appears from a letter to Sir William Johnson imder date of April 18,
1763:
I am apt to say somewhat like Scarron, when he was dyiag, that I may have
made more People laugh in my lifetime in this World of America than will cry at
my departure out of it . . .
When Dr. Richard Shuckburgh was bom I am unable to tell, but
it is fairly safe to conjecture that he was bom in England about 1705.
That Shuckburgh is a well-known Warwickshire name would not be
conclusive, since there exist also Shuckburghs from Limerick,
Ireland, but Sir William Johnson, in 1752, made some complimentary
remarks to ''Mr. Shuckburgh, stationer, in London," about his
brother, the doctor. The latter, in one of his letters, speaks about
his friends in England, and, indeed, in 1767 spends a few months in
London. Li view of this circumstantial evidence, O'Callaghan's
statement in his New York Colonial Documents (vol. 8, p. 244,
footnote) that Shuckburgh was of German origin may safely be said
to be incorrect.
Farmer and Moore reprinted their article on the origin of Yankee
Doodle from "an old file of the Albany Statesman, edited by N. H.
Carter, Esq." Such a paper never existed. The facts are these:
The "Albany Register" ran from 1788 to 1819, or the first months
of 1820. In 1819, Nathaniel Hazeltine Carter had become the editor,
and he became the sole proprietor of the Albany Register early in
1820. He changed its name into the New York Statesman for
reasons given in the first issue. May 16, 1820. Since the New York
Statesman was practically a continuation of the Albany Register
some people, exactly as happens to-day in libraries in similar cases,
would carelessly speak of the Albany Statesman, meaning either the
Albany Register or the New York Statesman (printed at Albany).
Farmer and Moore took their article from an old file of the "Albany
Statesman, ' ' and the word old would suggest the Albany Register rather
than the New York Statesman. The same account^ as Mr. Matthews
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 153
discovered, appeared in H.Niles's'' Principles and Acts of the Revolu-
tion in America" (1822, p. 372), and there, too, the article was
attributed to the "Albany Statesman." This would prove nothing,
since the incorrect term "Albany Statesman" might have been
the current one for the then defunct Albany Register, but in Niles's
Register, November 11, 1826, the same story is actually attributed to
the New York Statesman. This would suggest the inference that
the story was printed at Albany in the New York Statesman between
1820 and 1822, but as a matter of fact the copy at the Library of
Congress proves that the paper was not published between May,
1820, and end of November, 1821, and by 1822 the offices of the
New York Statesman had been removed to New York City. There-
fore, we have every reason to prefer the older Albany Register as
source of the story. So did Mary L. D. Ferris in her article
on "Our National Songs," New England Magazine, 1890 (vol 2,
p. 483), but her statement that N. H. Carter himself wrote the
article in 1797 for the "Albany Statesman" is woefully absurd, since
Carter (1787-1830!) was then only 10 years of age. Furthermore,
Mr. Frank L. Tolman, the reference Ubrarian of the New York State
Library, had the Albany Register for 1797 examined and reexamined
for me without finding any article on the origin of Yankee Doodle.
Finally, internal evidence absolutely forbids to date the article in
question so early, because the author of the article distinctly writes
of a "lapse of sixty years" since 1756, which would fix the date of
publication of the article about 1815, and incidentally its source as
the Albany Register. At any rate, two generations had passed
before the tradition that Doctor Shuckburgh "composed the tune"
of "Yankee Doodle" found its way into print. If such a tradition
is to be accepted as history, its details must be above suspicion.
The practical joke of composing a tune and then reconmiending it
gravely as one of the most celebrated martial airs is at least plausible,
since even great composers — for instance. Hector Berlioz — are known
to have played such jokes on the unsuspecting. It is not plausible,
however, that Shuckburgh would have blunted the point of his joke
by calling the tune "Yankee Doodle." This name it can only have
received after the novelty of the subterfuge had worn off, and the
puzzle is, why just "Yankee Doodle?" Such impossibiUties in the
story, as General Amhert's presence at Albany in 1755 instead of 1758,
may be here disregarded as pardonable historical inaccuracies, but the
sine qua non is the presence of Dr. Richard Shuckburgh at Albany,
N. Y., in the summer of 1755 on the Van Rensselaer estate. Now, it
is a matter of history that in that year Doctor Shuckburgh was surgeon
in the "Four Independent Companies of Foot" at New York, and it
ia also a matter of easily verified history (see f. i., Sargent's "History
Digitized by
Google
154 Yankee Doodle.
of an expedition against Fort Duquesne/' Philadelphia; 1855) that at
least two of these companies were ordered by Governor Dinwiddle in
1754 from New York to garrison the fort at Wills Creek, Va., where
they still were in 1755, and exactly these troops George Washington
had been so anxiously expecting. When the preparations for General
Braddock's ill-fated expedition against Fort Duquesne had been com-
pleted, these companies, and more specifically Capt. Horatio Gates's
company, to which Shuckburgh was attached as surgeon, participated
in the campaign, and after Braddock's famous defeat, July 9, 1755,
did not until well into October, 1755, reach the vicinity of Albany on
their retreat. Now, it is of course possible that Shuckburgh was
detailed to Albany and that only Alexander Colhoun, the other sur-
geon of the independents, was in the wilderness of Virginia in 1755,
hundreds of miles away from Albany, but this possibility is far-
fetched, and the burden of proof is on him who asserts Doctor Shuck-
burgh to have been at Albany in the sunmier of 1755. It may be well
to add here that the only positive reference to Shuckburgh's where-
abouts in 1755 is contained in one of his letters written from New
York on November 27, 1755, to Sir William Johnson about the critical
condition of Baron Dieskau, who had been taken prisoner by Johnson
at the battle of Lake George.
Doctor Shuckburgh's case as composer of "Yankee Doodle" at
Albany, N. Y., in the sunmier of 1755 is further weakened by the
tradition in the very family on whose estate he is reported to have
exercised his musical imagination. A granddaughter of Gen. Robert
Van Rensselaer wrote to Mr. Albert Matthews (see Elson's National
Music of America, p. 140) :
The story of ^'Yankee Doodle" is an authentic tradition in my family. My
grandfather, Brig. (jen. Robert Van Rensselaer, born in the Green Bush Manor
House, was a boy of seventeen at the time when Doctor Shackbeigh, the torUer of
the verses, and General Abercrombie were guests of his Either, Col. Johannes Van
Rensselaer, in June 1768,
We have a picture of the old well, with the high stone curb and well-sweep,
which has always been associated with the lines written while the British surgeon
sat upon the curb . . .
The contradiction between this tradition, which leaves us in the
dark as to which verses are meant, and the accoimt in Farmer &
Moore is striking, and the confusion increases by a quotation of
what a J. F. said in a note on Mrs. Yolkert P. Douw in the Magazine'
of American History, 1884, v. 11, p. 176:
... It was on the isnm of the Douw ftimily that the English army, and the six-
teen Colonial raiments, were encamped in 1755, under General Abercrombie,
previous to the attack on Fort Ticonderoga in the French and Indian war. And
it waa at this historical spot where '^ Yankee Doodle'' was composed by Dr.
Shackleferd, and sung in derision of the four Connecticut regiments, under the
conunand of Col. Thomas Fitch, of Connecticut . . .
Digitized by
Google
Yankee Doodle. 155
This belated tradition has been quoted merely as a matter of rec-
ord. It is clumsily incorrect, because General Abercrombie's ill-
advised attack on Fort Ticonderoga did not take place imtil 1758,
because the general did not set foot on American soil until 1756,
etc., etc. On the other hand, the Van Rensselaer tradition deserves
serious attention, as General Abercrombie actually was at and near
Albany in 1758 supervising the preparations for the attack on Fort
Ticonderoga, as Doctor Shuckburgh had no known reason for being
hundreds of miles away from Albany, and as it is much more plausible
that a witty army surgeon from New York should have written
humorous "Yankee Doodle" verses to an existing familiar and there-
fore effective time, than to have composed such a time himself.
Should the music of the old English tune "Doodle, doodle, doo"
be discovered and found to be identical with our "Yankee Doodle, '*
we might conjecture that the old time, like so many other old English
tunes, was well known in the colonies, and we might then feel inclined
not to doubt the Van Rensselaer tradition that Dr. Richard Shuck-
burgh, in June, 1758, used this tune as an imderstructure for a humor-
ous ballad on the Yankees. But the main problem would still remain
unsolved. What verses did he write? Certainly not the verses,
"Father and I went down to camp," certainly not the "Yankee
Doodle came to town" verses with "Macaroni," "Madam Hancock,"
"John Hancock," certainly not any verses that aUude to General
Amherst's victory at Cape Breton on July 26, 1758, certainly not the
"Doctor Warren" verse, and most assuredly not any verse full of
insulting iU-humored satire against Americans or even New England-
ers, since he would have a difficult task indeed who attempted to
falsify history by asserting that about 1758 iU feeling beyond the
proverbial, but harmless jealousy between regulars and militia,
existed among the British and American troops fighting a common
foe. These considerations narrow the possibilities of the Shuck-
burgh's authorship down either to verses unknown to us or to such
"neutral" ones
Brother Ephiaim sold his cow
And bought him a GommisBioii
And then he went to Canada
To fight for the Nation.
But when Ephraim he came home
He prov'd an arrant coward.
He wouldn't fi^ht the Frencnmen there,
For fear of bemg devoured.
But these belong to ''Yankee Doodle, or (as now christened by the
Saints of New England) the Lexington March," and were not pub-
lished imtil anywhere from 1777 to 1799, and surely will be admitted
to bear the earmarks of an origin later, at any rate, than June, 1758,
Digitized by
Google
156 Yankee Doodle.
and probably after 1770 rather than before. Thus, to sum up, Dr.
Richard Shuckburgh's connection with '' Yankee Doodle" becomes
doubtful again, and indeed the origin of ''Yankee Doodle" remains
as mysterious as ever, imless it be deemed a positive result to have
eliminated definitely almost every theory thus far advanced and thus
by the process of elimination to have paved the way for an eventual
solution of the puzzle.
Digitized by
Google
LITERATURE USED FOR THIS REPORT.
GENERAL.
Banks, Louis Albert: Immortal eongB of camp and field; the story of their inspira-
tion, together with striking anecdotes connected with their history . . . Cleve-
land, The Burrows bros. co., 1899 [1898]. 298 p. illus. S^,
Bbinton, Howakd Futhet: Patriotic songs of the American people. New Haven,
The Tuttle, Morehouse & Taylor co., 1900. Ill p. 12*.
Bbown, James Duff: Characteristic songs and dances of all nations. London,
Beyley & Ferguson, c 1901. 276 p. 4*.
Butter woBTH, Hbzbkiah: The great comixjsers. Rev. and enl. Boston, Lothrop
publishing company, 1894. 5 p. 1., 195 p. incl. plates. 18) cm. pp. 124-160.
ObIiBbrated folksonqb and their true bistort. Metronome, 1903, v. 19, no.
9, p. 9.
Daniell, Carl A.: National airs and who wrote them. Current literature, 1896,
vol. 20, pp. 453-454.
Elson, Louis Charles: Folk songs of many nations, collected and ed., with preface
and annotations. Cincinnati, Chicago [etc.] The J. Church company [1905].
1 p. 1., 171 p. 28 cm.
Elson, Louis Charles: The national music of America and its sources. Boston,
L. C. Page and company, 1900 [1899]. vi, v-viii, 9-326 p. 4 port. (incl. front.).
17) cm. (See aUo his Hist, of Am. Music, 1904, pp. 140-164.)
Ferris, Mary L. D.: Our national songs [illus. feu^-similes, especially of letter by
Rev. S. F. Smith, dated 1889 and narrating origin of ''America '*]. New England
magazine, 1890. new ser. vol. 2, pp. 48^504.
Frrz-OBRALD, S. J. Adair: Stories of famous songs. London, 1898.
Johnson, Helen (Kendrick) '* Mrs. Rossiter Johiuon:" Our familiar songs and those
who made them. More than three hundred standard songs of the English-speaking
race, arranged with piano accompaniment, and preceded by sketches of the writers
and histories of the songs. New York, H. Holt and co. 1881. xiii, 660 p. 4<>.
Johnson, Helen (Kendrick) *' Mrs. Rossiter Johnson:" Our familiar songs and those
who made them; three hundred standard songs of the English speaking race,
arranged with piano accompaniment, and preceded by sketches of the writers and
histories of the songs. New York, H. Holt and company, 1889. xiii, 660 p.
25} cm.
Johnson, Helen Kendrick and Dean, Frederic: Famous songs and those who
made them . . . New York, Bryan, Taylor & co. 1895. 2 v. 4*. [The American
national songs here treated are contained in the first volume.]
KoBB^, Gustav.: Famous American songs. New York, T. Y. Crowell & co. [1906].
xvii, [1], 168, [1] p. incl. front, plates, ports., facsims. 20J cm.
McCarty, William: Songs, odes, and other poems on national subjects. Philadel-
phia, 1842. 3v.
157
Digitized by
Google
158 Literature Used for this Report.
Mbad, Leon: The songs of freedom [includee M. Keller's ''The American h3rmn''
with music]. Ohautauquan, 1900, vol. 31, p. p 574--&84.
MooRB, Fbank: Songs and ballads of the American Revolution. New York. D.
Appleton & CO., 1856.
Nasok, Elias : A monogram on our national song. Albany, J. Munsell, 1869. 69 p. 8^.
National Melodies of America: The poetry by George P. Morris, esq., adapted
and arranged by Ghas. E. Horn. Part I. New York, 1839. [Beview of the col-
lection which does not deal with national melodies but rather with folk melodies
with a leaning towards negro songs.] Southern literary messenger, 1839. vol. 5,
pp. 770-773.
National sonos [merely reprint of two prize poems ''Sons of America '' and "Old
Glory"]. Iowa historical record, 1895, vol. 11, pp. 329-331.
Our National Sonos; with numerous original illustrations by G. T. Tobin. New
York, F. A. Stokes co. [1898]. 128 p. illust. 24° [words only.]
Preble, Henrt Georqe: History of the flag of the United States of America. Sec-
ond revised edition. Boston, A. Williams and co. 1880. 3 p. 715-768. [Chapter
on "National and patriotic songs, ^^ also first edition, 1872, used.]
Reddall, Henrt Frederic: Songs that never die . . . enriched with valuable his-
torical and biographical sketches . . . Philadelphia National Publishing co.
[cl892]. 615p.8<».
Rdcbault, Edward F.: American national songs [with music]. Leisure hour,1876,
vol. 25, pp. 90-92.
Sapfell, W. T. R. : Hail Columbia, the Flag and Yankee Doodle Dandy. Baltimore,
T. Newton Kurtz, 1864. 123 p. 8<».
Smith, Nicholas: Stories of great national songs. Milwaukee, The Young church-
man CO. [etc. etc., 1899]. 238 p. 2 pL, 18 port. (incl. front.). 19} cm.
SoNNECK, 0. G.: Bibliography of early secular American music. Washington, D. C.
Printed for the author by H. L. McQueen, 1905. x, 194 p. 29 cm.
Spofford, Ains worth R.: The lyric element in American history. Columbia His-
torical Society, Records, 1904, vol. 7. (Same printed separately.)
SousA, John Philip: National, patriotic, and typical airs of all lands, with copious
notes. Philadelphia, H. Coleman [cl890]. 283 p. i^. [Compiled by authority
of the Secretary of the Navy, 1889, for the use of the department.]
Stevenson, E. Irenaeus: Our ''national" songs. Independent, 1897, vol. 49,
noB. 2526-2561.
Wayne, Fltnn: Our national songs and their writers. National magazine, 1899/1900,
vol. 11, pp. 284-296.
White, Richard Grant: National hymns. How they are written and how they are
not written. A lyric and national study for the times. New York, Rudd &
Carleton [etc.], 1861. x, [11H52 p. incl. front. 23 cm.
AMERICA.
The author of "America'': American notes and queries, 1889/90, vol. 4, pp. 283-
284.
Bateman, Stringer: The national anthem: A Jacobite hymn and rebel song [con-
tains also references to earlier articles]. Gentleman's magazine, 1893, vol. 275,
pp. 33-45.
Benson, L. F.: America [and the Episcopal hymnal]. Independent, 1897, vol. 49,
p. 51.
Digitized by
Google
Literature Used for this Report. 159
BouLT, S. H.: God save the Queen. Good words, 1895, vol. 86, pp. 81d--815.
Browne, C. A.: The story of "My country, 'tis of thee." Musician, 1908, vol. 13,
p. 309.
Ghappell, William : Old English popular music. A new ed . with a preface and notes
and the earlier examples entirely revised by H. Ellis Wooldridge. London,
Caiappell <& CO. [etc.]; New York, Novello, Ewer A co., 1893. 2 v. front.
(fiacsim.) 27 cm. Pint pub. 1838-40 as ''A collection of national English airs"
which was afterwards expanded into his "Popular music of the olden time."
(1859. 2 V.) Part of the latter ed. was pub. under title "The ballad literature
and popular music of the olden time." [God save our lord the King, vol. 2,
pp. 194-200.]
Ghbtsander, Friedrich: Henry Oarey und der XJrsprung des KSnigsgesanges God
save the King. JahrbQcher fOr musikalische Wissenschaft, 1863, vol. 1, pp.
287-407.
Clark, Richard, comp. and ed.: An accoimt of the national anthem entitled God
save the kingi . . . Selected, edited, and arranged. London, Printed for W.
Wright, 1822. 1 p. 1., [vi-xxviii, 208 p. plates, ports. 23 cm. "Glees:"
pp. 137-203.
C[rawford], G. a. : God save the King [excellent summing up in favor of the Jacobite
origin]. Julian's dictionary of hymnology, 2d. ed., 1907, pp. 437-440.
OuMMiNQS, William H[atman]: God save the king; the origin and history of the
music and words of the national anthem. London , Novello and company, limited ;
New York, Novello, Ewer and co., 1902. v, 126 p.. incl. music, front., port.
20 cm.
Engbl, Carl: An introduction to the study of national music; comprising researches
into popular songs, traditions, and customs. London, Longmans, Green, Reader,
and Dyer, 1866. [Pp. 13-18, instructive remarks on the origin, etc., of "God
save the King."]
Gauntlett, H. J.: Grod save the King, a hymn of the Chapels Royal. Notes and
queries, Id ser., 1859, vol. 7, pp. 63-64.
God save the Kino. Gentleman's magazine, 1814, vol. 84, 2, p. 42, 99-100, 323-^24,
339, 430, 552.
God save the Kinq [on the origin]. Gentleman's magazine, 1836, new ser., vol. 6,
pp. 141-142.
"God save the Kinq," its authorship [communication from A. W. Thayer, John
Moore, B. D. A., and editorial conmient]. Dwight's journal of music, 1877,
vol. 37, nos. 7, 9, 10.
God save the Queen [origin of the words]. Chambers's journal, 1867, 4th ser., no.
206, pp. 775-778.
God save the Queen. American notes and queries, 1889, vol. 3, pp. 1-3.
Gould, S. Baring: God save our gracious queen [Notes to songs, English Minstrelsie,
vol. 1, pp. xxv-xxvii].
[Grove, Sir George and Kidson, Frank]: God save the King [r^sum^of the whole
controversy]. Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 2d. ed., 1906, vol. 2,
pp. 188-191.
Haddbn, J. Cuthbert.: The "God save the Queen myths." Aigosy (Lond.), 1900»
vol. 72, pp. 93-100.
The international patriotic air America — God save the Queen [with music
and facsimile by Rev. S. F. Smith, 1893 of "America"]. Outlook, 1898, vol.
59, pp. 568-565.
Digitized by
Google
160 Literature Used for this Report.
Mead, Edwin D.: The hymn "America." Boston Evening Transcript, October 19,
1908, p. 10.
Moore, Aubertine Woodward: Popular hymn claimed by all nations. Musical
leader and concert goer, 1904, vol. 8, No. 8, pp. 6-8.
"My country, 'tis op thee " [reprint of an account of its origin in the words of Rev.
B. F. Smith]. Music, 1898, vol. 14, p. 107.
Myers, A. Wallis: God save the Queen. The story of our national hynm. The
Ludgate, 1900/01, vol. 11, pp. 148-154.
N., J. G.: The history of "God save the King." Gentleman's magazine, 1836, new
ser. vol. 6, pp. 369-374.
The national hymn [inconsequential note on the origin of "God save the King"].
Atlantic monthly, 1896. vol. 77, p. 720.
The story of the hymn "America" [condensed from an article in the N. Y. World,
Sunday Jan. 20, 1895]. The Critic, 1895, vol. 26, p. 69.
Tappbrt, Wilhelm: Wandemde melodien. Eine musikalische Studie, 2. verm.
und verb. aufl. Berlin, Brachvogel & Ranft, 1889 [contains interesting remarks
on "God save the King"]. 2 p.L, 95, [1] p. 22i cm.
W., J. R.: Origin of "God save the King." Gentleman's magazine, 1836, new ser.
vol. 5. pp. 594-595.
What is our claim to "God save the Kino?" Musical news, 1908, vol. 35, nos.
920-921.
Where "America" was first suno [two communications from William Copley
Winslow and Edwin D. Mead]. Boston Evening Transcript, 1908, Oct. 27, p. 11.
HAIL COLUMBIA
Facsimile of "Hail Columbia" by Joseph Hopeinson [dated, March 24, 1838].
Henkels' Catalogue of autograph letters, etc., no. 738, p. 48.
Hail Columbia: Moore's complete encyclopaedia of music [1880], pp. 358-359.
Hail Columbia: American notes and queries, 1888/89, vol. 2, p. 18.
[KiBSON, Frank]: Hail Columbia. Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, 2d.
ed., 1906, vol. 2, pp. 271-272.
[McKoY, William]: Origin of "Hail Columbia" [reprint from Poulson's Daily Adver-
tiser, Fhila., 1829, where article appeared under pseudonym "Lang Syne."
(Dawson's) Historical magazine, 1861, vol. 5, pp. 280-282.
Sonnbck, 0. G.: Critical notes on the origin of "Hail Columbia." Sammelbande
d. I. M. G. 1901, vol. 3, pp. 139-166.
STAR SPANGLED BANNER
Applbton, Nathan: The Star Spangled Banner. An address delivered at the Old
South Meeting House, Boston ... on June 14, 1877. Boston, Lockwood,
Brooks & Co., 1877. 8*'. 34p. [on the history of the flag, the song, etc.]
Browne, C. A.: The story of "The Star-Spangled Banner." Musician, 1907, v. 12,
p. 541.
Carpenter, John C: "The Star Spangled Banner" [with port, and facsimile].
Century magazine, 1894, vol. 48, pp. 358-363.
Chappell, Wm.: "The Star-Spangled Banner" and "To Anacreon in Heaven" [on
the authorship of John Stafford Smith]. Notes and Queries (London), 1873,
4th ser., vol. 11, pp. 50-51.
Digitized by
Google
Literature Used for this Report. 161
Dorset, Mrs. Anna H. Origm of the Star Spangled Banner [reprinted from Wash-
ington Sunday Morning Ckronide]. (Dawson's) Historical magazine, 1861, vol. 5f
pp. 282-283.
For a new National Hymn. North American review., 1906, vol. 183, pp. W7-948.
The Francis Scott Ket Memorial. Munsey's magazine, 1898, vol. 20, pp. 325-326.
HiOGiNS, EdwiIy.: The national anthem ''The Star Spangled Banner,'' Francis Scott
Key, and patriotic lines. Baltimore, 1898 [illustrated reprint of the poem with
a brief biographical sketch, 12 p. 16^].
Hill, Marion: The Star Spangled Banner. Does it get weighed? Or yet wade?
Uncertainty of many school children on the subject. McClure's magazine,
1900, vol. 15, pp. 262-267 [not historical].
Key, Francis Scott: Poems . . . with an introductory letter by Chief Justice Taney.
New York, R. Carter & Bros., 1857 [the letter narrates *'the incidents connected
with the origin of the song The Star Spangled Banner" as told the author by
Key].
E[ii>son], Frank: Star Spangled Banner. Grove's dictionary of music and musi-
cians, 2d ed., 1908. vol. 4, pp. 674-675.
Kino, Horatio: The Star Spangled Banner. Magazine of American history, 1883.
Vol. X, pp. 516-617.
LossiNO, Benson John: The pictorial field-book of the war of 1812. Facsimile of
the original manuscript of the first stanza of "The Star Spangled Banner,"
reprinted from Kennedy and Bliss' "Autograph leaves of our country authors;"
origin of the hymn narrated in footnote to pp. 956-958.
McLaughlin, J. Fairfax: "The Star-Spangled Banner 1" who composed the music
for it. It is American, not English. American Art Journal, 1896. vol. 68, No.
13, pp. 194-195.
Mead, Lucia Ames: Our National Anthem [against "The Star Spangled Banner"].
OuUook, 1903. vol. 75, p. 616.
Maryland, Board of public works: The seventh star. Facts and figures about
the State of Maryland. Her past greatness and her present prosperity . . . Pub.
by the board of public works for the Louisiana purchase exposition. Maryland
day, September 12th, 1904. Baltimore, Md. Press of Lucas brothers [1904].
[22] p. front., illus., ports., facsims. 23) cm. Contains facsimiles. Compiled
by [L. H. Dielman].
A MONUifENT TO Francis Scott Ket [by Doyle and port, of K. on p. 128]. The
Critic, 1898. new ser. vol. 30, p. 129.
The National Anthem [on the official adoption of "The Star Spangled Banner"
by the Army and Navy]. Outlook, 1903. vol. 75, p. 245.
National htmnoloot [on our national anthem with special reference to "The Star
Spangled Banner"]. Scribner's magazine, 1907. vol. 42, pp. 380-381.
PiNKBRTON, William: The Star Spangled Banner. Notes & Queries, 1864. 3d ser.
vol. 6, pp. 429-430.
Preble, George Henry: The Star Spangled Banner, autographic copies, additional
verses, etc. (8°. 7p.) published separately in ed. of 100 copies with facsimile.^
Boston, 1876.
Preble, Geo. Henry: The Star Spangled Banner. Autograph copies, additional
verses, etc. Communicated by Rear Admiral . . . [with &csimile of copy dated
Oct. 21, 1840]. New England Historical and Genealogical register, 1877. vol.
31, pp. 28-31.
86480-09 11
Digitized by
Google
162 Literature Used for this Report.
Preble, Geo. Henry: Three historic flags and three September victories [contains
important matter on "The Star Spangled Banner'' especiaUy the different auto-
graphs]. New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 1874. vol. 28, pp.
17-41.
Salisbury, Stephen: The Star Spangled Banner and national songs [Read at a meet-
ing of the American Antiquarian Society, in Worcester, Oct.- 21]. Dwight's
journal of music, 1872. vol. 32, pp. 332-333.
Sausbury, Stephen: The Star Spangled Banner and national aire. [Read before
the American Antiquarian Society, Oct. 21, 1872.] American Historical Rec-
ord, 1872. vol. 1, pp. 660-554.
Salisbury, Stephen: An essay on the Star Spangled Banner and national songs.
Read before the Society, October 21, 1872. Worcester, 1873. 8». 15 p. Re-
printed from the Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society.
Same [second ed.] with additional notes and songs. Worcester, 1873. 8».
24 p. (ed. of 100).
Salisbury, Stephen: The Star Spangled Banner and national songs. American
Antiquarian Society, Proceedings, 1873, pp. 43-53.
SoHBLL, Frank H.: Our great national hymn "The Star Spangled Banner'' and its
origin [inconsequential note]. Leslie's weekly, 1898. vol. 87, p. 85.
[The selection of the musio for the "Star Spangled Banner" by Ferdinand
Durang.] Iowa Historical Record, 1897. vol. 13, p. 144.
Shippen, Rebeoca Lloyd: The original manuscript of "The Star Spangled Banner."
Pennsylvania Magazine of Hist. <& Biogt., 1901. vol. 25, pp. 427-428.
SmTH, F. S. Key: Fort McHenry and the "Star Spangled Banner" [with port, of
Francis Scott Key]. The Republic magazine, 1908. vol. 1, No. 4, pp. 10-20.
The Star Spangled Banner [feicsimile of the handwriting of the author, Francis S.
Key, dated Waahingtoiiy October 21, 1840, formerly in possession of Lewis J. Cist].
Smith's American historiGal and liteiary curiosities, 2d ser. Philadelphia,
PL LV.
The Star Spangled Banner: Dwight's journal of music, 1861. vol. 19, pp. 37,
39, 46.
The Star Spangled Banner: American Historical Record, 1873. vol. 2, pp.
24-26.
Star Spangled Banner [inconsequential note]. American notes and queries, 1888.
vol. 1, pp. 199.
The Star Spangled Banner. [Facsimile of four stanzas in autograph of F. S. Key,
dated Oct. 21, 1840] Henkels' Catalogue of autograph letters, etc. No. 738, p. 50.
''Taney, Roger B.]: ''The Star Spangled Banner" [extract from a letter dated 1856,
written to her giving the origin of the words and] Contributed by Mrs. Rebecca
Lloyd Shipi>en. Pennsylvania magazine of history and biography, 1898/99. Vol.
22, pp. 321-325.
Warner, John L.: The origin of the American National anthem called the Star
Spangled Banner. [Read before the Pennsylvania Historical Society, at its meet-
ing, 1867]. (Dawson's) Historical magazine, 1867. Vol. 11, pp. 279-280.
Wilcox, Marion: America's National song [The Star Spangled Banner] Harper's
weekly, 1905. VoL 49, p. 373.
X. The Star Spangled Banner . . . Musical times, 1896. Vol. 37, pp. 516-519.
Digitized by
Google
Literature Used for this Report. 163
YANKEE DOODLE.
Bansbmer, Oabounb T.: Yankee Doodle. Llppincott's magazine, 1896. Vol. 58,
pp. 138-140.
Bell, Willla.m: Yankee, its origin and meaning. Notes and queries, 1853. Ist ser.,
vol. 7, p. 103.
Boos, J. E.: Where ''Yankee Doodle" was written. American music journal, 1907.
Vol. 6, No. 8, pp. 30-32.
Cabter, N. H.: Origin of Yankee Doodle [repr. without date from the Albany Regi$ter
or New York Statesman] Farmer & Moore's Collections, 1824. Vol. 3, pp. 217-218.
Dear Old Yankee Doodle 1 The song is seven centuries old and four great nations
have owned it. Metronome, 1899. Vol. 15, No. 9, p. 10.
£. W. C: Yankee Doodle. Lippincott's magazine, 1876. Vol. 18, pp. 126-128.
Flood, Wm. H. Grattan: The Irish origin of the time of ''Yankee Doodle." [With
music sheet containing the tune as printed by Aird, 1782, and the tune of "AU
the way to Galway" from a MSS. written 1760]. The Dolphin, 1905. Vol. 8,
pp. 187-193.
J., G. W.: Kitty Fisher. Notes & Queries, 1865. 3d ser., vol. 8, pp. 81-82.
Lossino, Benson J.: The origin of Yankee Doodle [repr. from the Poughkeepsie
Eagle]. Litteirs Living age, 1861, vol. 70, pp. 382-384; Dwight's journal of music,
1861, vol. 19, p. 107.
LossiNG, Benson John. The pictorial field-book of the revolution. New York,
Harper & brothers, 1860. [Yankee Doodle National Song of the Revolution] p. 683.
Moore, Aubertine Woodward: Young America in musical tones [on origin of " Yan-
kee Doodle''] Musical leader and concert goer, 1905. Vol. 10, Nos. 2-^.
Origin of Yankee Doodle. Musical reporter, Boston, 1841. Vol. 1, May, pp. 206-
209.
The Origin of Yankee Doodle. Various theories of the meaning of the words.
Music and literature, 1898. Vol. I, No. 6, p. 10.
PoRSON, JiTNiOR. Original of the national melody "Yankee Doodle" [satire on the
ethymological derivation of the words Yankee Doodle]. Democratic review, 1839.
Vol. 5, pp. 213-221; repr. 1855, vol. 35, pp. 125-131.
RnfBAUiA*, Edward F. Kitty Fisher. Notes <& Queries, 1870. 4th ser., vol. 5, pp.
319-320.
Yankee Doodle [note on 18th cent, broadsides]. Notes and queries (London),
1860. 2d. ed. vol. 10, pp. 426.
Rtder, James F. The painter of "Yankee Doodle" [Archibald M. Willard]. New
England magazine, 1895/96. New ser., vol. 13, pp. 483-494.
SoNNEOK, 0. G. Yankee Doodle nicht "made in Qermany." Allgemeine Musik
Zeitung, 1907. Vol. 34, p. 381.
Sonneck, 0. G. Yankee Doodle (article contributed to new ed. of Grove's
Dictionary, 1909).
S[quire], W. B. Yankee Doodle [comprehensive review of the different theories].
Grove's dictionary of music and musicians, Ist ed., vol. 4, pp. 493-495.
A VERY FUNNY OLD TUNE [Yankee Doodle]. Brainard's musical, 1901. Vol. 3, No. 1,
p. 30.
Westcott, T. Yankee and Yankee Doodle. Notes and queries, 1852. 1st ser., vol.
6, pp. 56-58.
Digitized by
Google
164 Literature U sed for this Report.
Yankee, Dbbivation of. Notes and queries (Lon.), 1st ser., 1851, vol. 3, pp. 260, 437,
461; vol. 4, pp. 13, 344, 392-393; 1852, vol. 5, pp. 86, 258; 1862, vol. 6, pp. 56-58;
1853, vol. 7, pp. 103, 164.
Yankee Doodle [miscellaneous queries and answers as to derivation, origin, etc.]
Historical magazine, 1857. Vol. I, pp. 26-27, 58-69, 86, 91-92, 124, 156-157, 189,
221, 279, 314, 375; 1858, vol. 2, pp. 214-215, 280; 1859, vol. 3, pp. 22-23, 189; 1861,
vol. 5, p. 123.
Yankee Doodle [miscellaneous information on origin of the term, etc.] Magazine
of American History, 1877. Vol. 1, pp. 390, 452, 576; 1879, vol. 3, p. 265; 1884,
vol. 11, p. 176; 1886, vol. 15, p. 99; 1891, vol. 25, p. 256; 1891, vol. 26, pp. 75, 236.
Yankee Doodle [with the old text and additional stanzas] Farmer and Moore's Col-
lection, historical and miscellaneous, 1824. Vol. 3, pp. 157-160.
Yankee Doodle. Dwight's journal of music, 1853/54. Vol. 4, p. 27.
Yankee Doodle [as a popular air of Biscay and Hungary]. Dwight's Journal of
music, 1858. Vol. 13, p. 133.
Yankee Doodle [notes containing some curious etjrmological information, variants,
etc]. American notes and queries, 1889, vol. 3, pp. 161-162; 1889/90, vol. 4, pp.
72, 142; 1890, vol. 5, p. 225.
Yankee Doodle [brief sketch with the supposed original text from Isaiah Thomas's
collection of broadsides, 1813]. Duycldnck's cyclopsedia of American literature.
Philadelphia, 1875. I, pp. 463-464.
Yankee, its smfOLOOT. Notes and queries, 5th ser., 1877, vol. 7, pp. 126, 337-338;
1878, vol. 10, p. 467; 1879, vol. 11, pp. 18, 38.
Yankee [derivation of the words]. Webster's dictionary; Standard dictionary; Bart-
lett's dictionary of americanisms, etc.a
o These notes on the printed Yankee Doodle literature would be incomplete with-
out reference to the important but unfortunately unprinted essays by Mr. George H.
Moore and Mr. Albert Matthews mentioned thnnjghout these pages.
Digitized by
Google
165
Digitized by
Google
166
^y
16 ]
SONG CL.Wll.
To .^yiacjtnnj in Jicr.v^n, where he fit m faU gli
M^^^^^^^
' a few (un$ of harniony fent a jve - li- tton^ that he
thfJir in-ffif.cr nnd p^itron would be* when this
iiESrpiia^n
■^^m^m
rdtUtip Ttid flute, na longer be miite, ill knd
-T^'*^
ii^^gi^i
yon my name and infpW you to boot ; arJ, bcri'Jci,
SfH
rn inftrud ypa like mc to iiw tvanc the nyrilc of
Vcnui
PLATE l^"TO ANACREON IN HEAVEN." FROI
Digitized by
Google
J>/
C!»o.
ISEBgitJ^
Venus with Bac • chos's vine, and, befldcs. Til
^^ffi^^^ :
inftma you like mc to ihtwiuc the myrtle of Venus
^^^
' ! ■
with Bacchttb's vine*
fe'The news through Olympts immediately flevv; ^ \
•'. When old Thunder pretended to pve hipfolf airs— ^
-•« If thefe mortals are fuffer'd the* Tcheme^^to .jurfue^ •
'« The devil a goddefs will ftay above ftairs, .
•' Hark ! already they;cry . ' , ^
«' In tranrpCrt-ts^fjoy;, J . \,, ^ - ^*
*' Away to the fons of Anat^rcon ^c'll fl>*, ; ,. ,
•« And there, with good fellows^ we'll leain to mlwin?
*' The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus'* vlhe^. ^
I « ThTyellow-hair\d God ;ind.hi3ninp fully maid5,
f «• From Helicon's tanks will incqntincnt Hce,
I ■ .*« Halh \%iirbfpnft bTit^f renantlefs (hacks, .^. ; ' * r;
I- • ««' Artd the te-forked hill a 'mere 4erarl wijl tc> '
m •** ••^' <fy My thunder^ nofear onft, v- ' *
*■ ' . 'C Shallrfobn do i^s ^rau J^ . j^ V
«' AndVdam'met Til (tvinge tTie ringleaders, Twarrant^^
;'/ rirtrim the young. dpgjs,. fof.tUiiiddtii^^Qjwinc-^ .,.
^.,.Tt^.m.jTtleof.Veau5if^:htacchos'ii V^ '• f^
' **v ' t ••-".All
.4^ g 4 !► . 'V '• Apollo
'•.".-* i
t^
167
f0"THE VOCAL ENCHANTRESS," LONDON, 1783.
Digitized by
Google
168
Digitized by
Google
169
Digitized by
Google
170
^
Tbe ANACREONTK
MVTf Kr ^1 fn full f W nlm
To A — , n:if ffnn iri H'*i*i
'***tW
^=?U-u^i . ri -■ i f;;
=?=*::
i jvsN 'H ■^ J^ .^ ^
^, t> '--*^
ffmSrn of haf- mfifiv i rrw*?cm^t/f H;ir -ftKi.nv *p(1I
iSE
H^-irT^
— n
« fir w Son* of h:ir*iTTn,n^ *rTft J
%
fifttfnn woitltl bf
lhi% BTii-pfrf )irri<
^
^H-r^-= F
^
P^iron woitlil bp
PLATE II.— FROM JOHN STAFFORD SMITH'S *
Digitized by
Google
171
: SONG
harmonised hy the Author
35
'^-^-^^-^
=PC|E
•nd patron would' be and
^^ \ J im
^ - ti -tion
i Ti r r D' I ?
and patron wou1<{ V an<1
r ^ti^fion th<it hethciT tn^spi ^ rer
and
this answer ar ^ rivd iVom the jol-ly old Grecian
from the joUlv old Grecirm
this answer ar« rivd from the joUly dU\ Crecian
IFTH BOOK OF CANZONETS." LONDON, CA. 1785.
Digitized by
Google
172
Digitized by
Google
178
Digitized by
Google
174
THE AM ER ICAK
< Vc fons of Co-lum-bi*, who bravely
V bavc foiightiFor thofe righu, whicb unftain'd from
PLATE III.— PAINE'S "AC
Digitized by
Google
175
MUSICAL MlSCEI^LANV.
— 3--*r*-- ^^^'^
?1
^ your Sires !iad dc - fcccd cd,May you
^ long la-le the bU0ir.gi yci»r valour hat
, iiiiliili^il
^ bought, And your fbns reap ihe lbil,whicli ycu
^ fatiiers defended^ Mid the reign of
BAND LIBERTY." 1798.
Digitized by
Google
176
Digitized by
Google
T
177
Digitized by
Google
178
26
Hard, hard is my fate ! oh, how galling my chai:;
My life's stccr'd by misery's chart —
. And \]\o *gainst my tyrants I scorn to comphiin.
Tears gush forth to case my sad heart ;
I disdain e*en to shrink, tho* I feel the sharp lash ;
Yet my breast bleeds for her I adore :
While round me ihc unfeeling billows will dash.
I sigh!
.iid still tug at the oar.
How fortune docel NTS ! — I had pleasure in tow,
The port where she dwelt we'd in view ;
But the wish'd nuptial morn was o'erclouded with
And, dear Anne, I hurried from you. [woe,
Our shallop yas boarded, and I borne away.
To behold my lov'd Anne no more!
But dispair wastes my spirits, my form feels decay-
He sigh'd — and expir'd at the oar!
ANACREON IN HEAVEN.
ipyi^
To Anacreon in Hcav'n where he sat In ful
. glee, A few sons of harmony jjcnt a petition j
PLATE IV.— FROM "BALTIMOW
Digitized by
Google
179
'27
^fmm^^M=
'J'li.il lie tlieir Iiis;)!:cr and pr:iro!i would l>r,
wluMiiliis answer arrivM fro-r. tlui jolly ul:l Circclan:
Voice tuldic an ! il'itc no loMi^rr l».^ in::lj, I*il
lend you my name and inspire you to boot ;
, And besides I*II instruct you IJL? v • : > citwla
iSliliiiilii
'I he Alyitle of Venus with Bacchus'sVine
Til.' news lliroupjli Olympus iinnerliiiuly flfvr, |
Wh<:i old Th'indor pretenicJ to ^;^c hhiif.*:'*^ '^
. "If
: MUSICAL MISCELLANY," 1804.
Digitized by
Google
180
Digitized by
Google
181
\ Digitized by VjOOQ IC
I
182
OL Lo-iy^-.ju^ t>—J> m- ^-*-**-**^ rf-iL*-«^2> ^ ^ i-i.<^ t-<-<^ -vv*; -»-tw-*-X_«_ ? . J
*^^-x---7Zr^*^»-'-rr'^/!2i?/^, .'*v''t.' ^<ih»-»— ^'^■^"^ -V^ix-,
PLATES Y-V1.-THE KEIM AUTOGRAPH (CA. 1842). W'*
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
188
(^'^^^bc^^^.^.^/^^'C^
^'^^^
"^ f^*^ ^tu>K^.
A. ■■ ^^ Hgil J
lESSION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA HISTORICAL SOCIETY.
Digitized by VjOOQ IC
184
Digitized by
Google
185
Digitized by
Google
186
Digitized by
Google
187
1 -v
4 ^H
^
\
.^
X
a
o
ui
u.
O
UI
-I
i
of)
O
<
Digitized by
Google
188
Digitized by
Google
1>89
Digitized by
Google
100
1 h H, li rfl rl^ .^
•^
^ I
Digitized by
Google
Ul
rfWfNI
V ^ >, -v ^ f\l4u^
\1
1^ "^^^i
V^\
t 4 TrM.rl lit \
I <^ '^^ ^4 ^
\
<
z
Z
z
z
o
^^
»s
<
s
s
D
O
O
>
Digitized by
Google
tm.
Digitized by
Google
im
Digitized by
Google
194
. d
^ . V^
K\^
> 1 ^U 1^-^
x1i
- "^ ^44^ '^"^
'^i^M"^^
a
^
Digitized by
Google
106
.N.
\
5 \-
I ! I il r^
44'^^
T
z
31
Ul
z
I-
u.
o
z
o
9^
n
o
o
Digitized by
Google
ijflfi:
Digitized by
Google
197
Digitized by
Google
198
.1^
c^ j/if who foughi anrf b^i d in (re ed^m% '»*' »M wSm ^ f tiifm cf irjir wi* ^t^r rnj oj^ ib^^f*.- ^ l^i j-
^ -- —— ^ — ^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
}25^, ^ . _
' *ll»r*wen fti Indf-ijU-Tidmrf !>f>jPb'>»ft rvrj tr/r.ilfiil rh»t It reft #iwr •»>>'
i7'im-rh(Oi»
hQtf
:^=3if
a. m-9j . -^^ :^Z^ ^--
for the pH/^ M iis fdt%f rt-sch ihr glirt Finn ?u(il, .tt-d JH u* b*- rii*!^
^ ^
♦ ♦ ^
^ i^ijndour Ll.b^r. cy ts a iv>1^ Frothy* i^md * [s^^*-/ itrHf^Hi nf
jinirj^nil PttH«i* rlfr mice morr
i)-fe/j<r fO<jf>I|Hi» defffw! /our fbore
^ Ler m nidr Tor Hlh impUu? h»n<1
- Lf* W rude For •Hh i"^p[*ut h&nd
inTadf ibt^ fhrlne wJW-r" facr^ Hrf
Of idl irid ftlood iKf MTfll e^fid prigr
Afi I ^-fi^rj fchfrHir of bcndff** fjlT
wirtg tiifo tlie woHd wkh bit<^ipptauf^
Rfrif thr«'lhf wflrM Willi ioijdiipT.J^nf*'
Ut f Tet7clrmf to Prtr^om dr»r
H* fortrrii In the rf-trfbl^imr
Of horrfd war of |tiTdf f * f tfc rifi^
Thf' kzppt^r timet at hiit.tU ptnt^
PLATES IX-X— "HAIL COLUMBIA." WILUG'J
Digitized by
Google
199
•w -r,:
CcluttbJaDf j^the.^retem
^' tf !<« n^ u? ;»n'ttr doo'^l^ ^w^•/* troijpco»<l yanW '''iftrile* d'ndy d^^'noi ihtn northrRst norboti jxnb^dbafle
. Thf* ofiJj way to kt^'|» off wair, .
An<* guard *g*in{( peKecutfbn^
It always to bt vt^\ prcparV
Vlth h^-arts of rffolutlon
Vankre Poodle JftVcnltp, '' ".
Vankfe roadie Dandj^
At patriotSyftni maintain our right,
Vanl.v Doodle randy ,
A lafiduf^nlh^^ Itt us bt%
'•WhW»* Adamt gtiMea thc^riatfon-
A«H uiil n r dr»r.h»ogh.tVrt^qji^. guard,
tn • /rry (iUiatiofi . ;
Yankee Dm 4flr guard yourcoaft,
Varikf-f poodlf Haridy: v
frar not then nor threa{. ^r boaft^^
Yankee Poodle^ Daodv>^ ,
Hreat Wat^lington^who led \i5 or.
And Libfrty effected, . \
^t\n fee w?!l dle,or ^Ifp bt? free
\ie vlil not be fubjected*
Yankee Poo'^1 r , gtiard yaiir r?.?' t^
Vinkee Poodle i;andy
' Re»r not theti nor threat nor boftft,
Yankee Doodle. I'^ndv .» - *
?V3ay foon the *ifh'd for h^T %rrU^
When 1 ":;iilVrijic|>*n*i^«p'
ArdC'omme , '^-jmltierijpn^t- .^
■ * MaJikinI hTK 5il rialationi*
TheTtYahk( ■- roi^dje^b'^'^^]*'^'*
^Yaqke< no^^le'T'ah'dY ' '
/ teieneath ^^:f\%t^^f^ ^ ^^^ -»*
'.' ' RJJn^ . \^al«e P^V'^^inTirtdy..
• - \^\ '^^^^-^ i . •■
>mON, PUBLISHED BETWEEN 1798 AND 1803.
Digitized by
Google
200
Digitized by
Google
sot
Digitized by
Google
802
PLATE XI.— FROM SHAW AND CAfI
Digitized by
Google
808
S^^
S "GENTLEMAN'S AMUSEMENT.'
Digitized by
Google
2m
Digitized by
Google
S0&
Digitized by
Google
806
Digitized by
Google
207
UJ
00
£
z
o
b
d
Digitized by
Google
aos-
Digitized by
Google
'^m
Digitized by
Google
210
Digitized by
Google
211
<
ca
O
0.
(3
z
o
o
cc
<
111
I
o
o
o
o
u.
o
y-
z
UJ
S
(3
UJ
I-
3
0.
Digitized by
Google
24$
Digitized by
Google
213
i
Digitized by
Google
214
^^rt^=^ m J r I r hpt-^ ^^
. 11 -ion Yankee doodle doodle doo black Neffro he get
^_L^A=^ ^m
m
^ ^^ i_}L^k.r : GTt=i^ i^±^ ^.
1
.J
turn - bi* Aiul when you come Jo our town Well niuke you druikwilih yj^ 1
3^
PLATES XIV-XV.— FROM CHARLES
Digitized by
Google
215
4-,
t
.^lio having taken fack^ and burnt that irery firft of Citi«s>
.Meturnd in triumph while th«? Bards* all ftruck up/amoroos ditties «
';. . . Such a Yankee doodle &c*
.The Cyclops £rft wc vifitcdt Clyfscs made him cry out»
i JPcr he eat his multon.drank his wine, and then , he jjK>k*d his eye out.
* , Yankee doodle &c.
4 .
,'rroin thence we went to Circe's landj.who faith a fprl of ^punk isr
" P« file made us drunk, an changr'd us all to afie/ goats and inonkies.
Yankee doodle &c»
. And then to hcil and hat k again, then where the Syrens Cara
Swell cadence, tril and fliakc.almoft as well as Mail am Mara.
Yankee doodle &c . .
6 ■ ,
ib fell Charyhdis next, and then where yawning Scylla grapples,
,Si» men at once and eats them all. juft like fo many apples.
Yankee doodle tkc*
•■• •
7
.from tbcnc« to where AppoUo'. bulls and fliccp all play and ikip f<.,
.JfjNiBk whence Ulyfsc* went alone to the Ifland of Calypfo.
. - • Yankee doodle &c . .
8
And there he kifs'd and toy'd and play*d,tis true upon my life S.r,
■ Till harmg turn'd his miftrcfs oflF he'« coming to his wife S.r.
Yankee doodle- doodfe doo Wack Negro he get fumbo,
And when you come to our town, we'll make you drunk will, bu,Tn!.o.
^OIBDIN'S " MUSICAL TOUR/' 1788.
Digitized by
Google
216
Digitized by
Google
217
Digitized by
Google
218
^tcr itkk I**
%** ^V'n ik\*M^\ fl^^l)
Tl^^o mhf {lima*! yHtti foi mf f«lM«<
FiiU>i mMUff tutu mir uyt/
PLATE XVI.— FROM DR. ARNOLD
Digitized by
Google
219
tlHf*tp^t (Ivtm^t), uikkc %^iii iJL»iitii», Klib JL^bnTo vnjr nuHd-^i.
Itett fi% 1 ]evP|
I'd rather {give hiin blow^, Sir.
M St. Gileses he \ra* bred,
AhHu* he wcar» goo6 tl»>dth*, Sir,
Noodle, doodle, ii||;ly iniiii\.
HereS a pretty rijj.Sir.
Dagj;cr», piOols, Iword^, and i;uns.
Oh! ru hop the t%iiK>^>r.
S OPERA "TWO TO ONE." 1784.
Digitized by
Google
230
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
223
PLATE XVII.--FROM JAMES «{
Digitized by
Google
Ifl'l^l'fljyilllll^l ^kflJIDl 'l
1^^^
^^pterf^P^
-Ml — ^m^ t rr^ i -i — rr^=w#fi>T^fc=
rtf-^-!:i-^s2^»ZS-'isi sSScrSa
te;i^ia£r:ii%^rr^
L
228
WRD'S "SELECTION," 1782.
Digitized by
Google
^24
Digitized by
Google
226
Digitized by
Google
226
Tkf Severn. St a vs.
-:^g^^3ES
^^
#> [ p Jj-g^MJ* ^ a t
?«s
f-T
To A rm»
PLATE XVIII.— FROM "WHrTi
Digitized by
Google
I IL^tUl^.
w^^^^mi'^^
-jiiil-Jg
^
■^♦-»
('Ji'-'irninv- Fair.
5: tirrttAz:? -% — ::=:.::5^-?-i'-^fe5;
^
a^feg-jEr_:iB=
gff flgfftf f^ ^^
i^
TIER PERKINS' BOOK 1790."
227
Digitized by
Google
228
Digitized by
Google
229
Digitized by
Google
230
c^fi/itcA. Od^ ..'X
PLATE XIX.— FROM A MSS. COLLECTION ATTACHED TO AN INCOMPLETE CO
Digitized by
Google
'i~ if^'
i JT^'^^
■Tl:
Ih
281
' OF THOMAS WALTER'S "GROUNDS AND RULES OF MUSICK." BOSTON, 1760.
Digitized by
Google
232
Digitized by
Google
i^
Digitized by
Google
284
Digitized by
Google
286
h.
O
I
O
t
K
Z
X
o
o
K
ui
0.
Digitized by
Google
26^-'
Digitized by
Google
•im
Digitized by
Google
288
Digitized by
Google
289
n im sill in
•8
I
|i fiM-s £*i:- l^si«
llp ,1*^1^ 1-f^ S*i- '-'"^''- ^^
/-9
^
2 ...
<
o
O
ui
z
I-
Digitized by
Google
240
Digitized by
Google
-241
Digitized by
Google
242
ki rsis fi^il If?* s^n «*-w5
I I sit e:-^ illl Si^l i^^iS
.1 i I
fit
* 6 a 9.4 -
ii^
I
t^.f^f}
ts4<ot'«(i-wt*^'<i'-^'-r ^'
Digitized by
Google
243
^-5
3 dx
W
r i^«
r-. 4^ ^ 5
i<
Fa"
I,
S "
5«^
^ ^ V L^ *— a
t c c ^ 1 -tf S"
1
H»<ai*i
§
-- >
vt 2' ^
:4^piXi;»$lS
^id^
i-v ^
p^-^"^
-5IIH
'lie*
< ^
'-5.^ SI
II
i
4
UJ
o
i
UJ
o
tn
o
K
I
UJ
Digitized by
Google
244
Digitized by
Google
245
Digitized by
Google
246
— I
V «
5 a:
< ,\
H 3 -
1^
;« *«i
. e c«!-~-2iia— L^gm-i
J/
o
^ '^"
Digitized by
Google
247
I
€31 ■
,§-
- am ~^- ::?is-t— r« ~^£:wG:fei
C3C — i-aterswi-
^9^>
w
o
^nm
F
O
<
o
o
I-
z
o
o
h-
z
UJ
K
U
I
u.
o
z
o
u
-J
Digitized by
Google
248
Digitized by
Google
INDEX.
A., W. S., 90.
Abercrombie, General, 96, 154, 155.
Adams, John, 46, 52, 69.
"Adams and Liberty," 24, 25, 26, 40, 45.
Aiken, W. H., 41, 71, 73.
Aird, James, 106, 120.
Albany Bister, 152.
Albany Statesman, 96, 152.
Aldennan, L. A., 83.
"All the Way to Galway," 106, 146-150.
"AltpreuBsiches Rondo," 72.
"America," 73-78.
Additional stanzas, 73.
Author, 73.
Autographs, 73-75.
Bibliographical notes, 157-160.
Differences in text and music, 73-75.
Facsimiles, 73, 74.
First sung, 75-76.
God save the King, 75, 77, 78.
Origin, 75-76.
Original text, 74.
American Antiquarian Society, 135.
American musical miscellany, 25, 77.
American origin of "Yankee Doodle,"
100, 128-142, 150-156.
American Songster (1800), 25.
American Naval and Patriotic Songster,
28.
American Republican Harmonist, 25.
American Songster, New York, 28.
Amherst, General, 96, 153.
"Anacreon a poet," 23.
Anacreontic Society, 18-20.
Anburey, 82, 85, 109.
"And now our Senators are gone," 121.
Ame, Th. Aug., 104, 106, 108, 120.
Arnold, Samuel, 18, 19, 23, 120.
Baker, W. S., 53, 62, 63.
Baltimore Musical Miscellany, 26, 40.
Bangs, Edward, 140-142.
Barton, Andrew, 110.
85480—09 ^12
Barton, E. M., 35.
"Battle of the Poets," 95.
Beanes, Dr. and the St. Sp. B., 8-11.
Bell, W., 92.
Bellisle march, 125.
"Best exchange," 143.
Bibliographical notes, 157-164.
"Bird of Birds," 28.
Biscay origin of "Yankee Doodle," 101,
107, 111.
"Blackbird," 135, 138-140.
Bordes, C, 111.
"Boston Patriotic Song." See "Adams
and liberty."
Boyle, C. A., 41, 71, 73.
"Brave Sons of Columbia," 25.
Breck, Samuel, 129.
Brinton, H. F., 54.
"British Grenadiers," 125.
British origin of song "Yankee Doodle,"
96, 99, 103, 105, 107, 110, 128-142.
"Brother Ephraim sold his cow," 131, 133.
"Buckskin," 82.
Buigh's anecdotes of music, 102, 118.
C, J., 60, 54, 63, 102, 118.
QsL ira, 68.
Calliope, 22.
Capron, H., 69.
"Captain Gooding," 135, 137, 141.
"Captain Davis," 135, 141.
"Captain Goodwin," 135, 137, 141.
"Captain Washington," 135, 141.
Carmagnole, 68.
Carr, Benj., 46, 68, 121.
Carr, Joseph, 47, 121.
Carter, N. H., 152.
Chamberlain, J. D., 83.
Chappell, William, 18.
Charles 1 and II and Yankee Doodle, 100,
101, 107, 144-115.
Cherokee origin of the word "Yankee,"
85.
249
Digitized by
Google
250
Index.
Chetwood, 94.
"GhoniB, sung before General Washing-
ton/* 6a-65.
art, L. J., 36.
Columbian Anacreontic Society, 24.
Columbian songster (1797), 25; (1799), 25.
"Columbians all the present hour,'' 122.
' ' Columbians arise, "26.
''Come all ye sons of song," 77.
"Compleat Tutor for the Fife," 67, 122.
"Congress, the," 144.
Connel, 22.
Coverly, Jr., N., 138.
Cromwell and Yankee Doodle, 97, 100,
101, 103, 114-115.
Cummingham, Wm., 125.
Cummings, Wm., 20.
Custis, G. W. P., 50, 64, 61-62.
"Dansvotrelit,"51.
Danza Esparta, 102, 111.
Dawes, Judge, 140.
Dawes, Th., 77.
Dawson's Hist. Mag., 49, 50.
"Death or liberty." See Hail Columbia.
Deane, Silas, 82.
" Defence of Fort McHenry ." See "Star-
Spangled Banner."
"D'Estaing eclipsed, or Yankee Doodle's
defeat," 126, 127.
Dibdin's Return of Ulisses, 119.
Dibdin's songs (1799), 26.
"Did little Dickey," 104, 108, 120.
Dielman, L. H., 29-30.
"Disappointment, the," 110.
Dobbin, R. A., 34.
Doodle, derivation o{ the word, 89-94.
"Doodle doo," 143-146.
Dorsey, A. H., 10.
Douw, Mrs. V. P., 164.
Drummond, 66.
Dunlap, Wm., 49.
Durang (Charles and Ferdinand), 11-17,
33, 49, 59.
Dutch origin of the song "Yankee Doo-
dle," 100, 107, 111-113.
Dutch origin of the words "Yankee Doo-
dle," 91-93.
Dutch Yanky, 93.
Duyckinck, 100, 111.
Duyse, Van, 113.
"Early one morning," 140.
Ebsworth, T. W., 114.
Edes, Benj., 11-12, 13, 16.
Elson, Louis C, 15, 22, 46, 64, 58, 70, 78,
91, 104, 109, 112, 122, 154.
"Embaigo and peace," 26.
Emerick, A. 6., 49.
"Ev'rywhere fine ladies flirting," 143.
Eyster, Mrs. Nellie, 13.
Ezpata dantza. 111.
F., J. T., 84.
"F&rmer (The) and his sons' return from
a visit to the camp," 135, 141.
Farmer & Moore, 96, 133, 135, 150-156.
Famsworth, C. H., 41, 71, 73.
"Father and I went down (up) to camp,"
100, 104, 134-142.
Father's return from camp, 104.
Fayles. See Phile, Philipp.
"Federal March," 68.
"Federal Overture," 68.
Federal song for the anniversary of Ameri-
can independence, 49.
Ferris, Maiy L. D., 35, 53, 69, 74, 75, 153.
Feyles. See Phile, Philipp.
Fielding, H., 94.
Fisher, Lydia (Kitty), 97, 100, 101, 103,
108, 115-117.
Fisher's jig, 101, 103, 117-118.
Fiske, 108.
Flood, W. H. Grattan, 18, 19, 20, 22, 106,
119, 139, 146-150.
"For the Fourth of July," 26.
"For worms when old," 26.
Ford, John, 94.
Ford, P. L., 62.
Ford, W. C, 136.
Foster, William, 25.
"Fourth of July," 26.
Fox, Gilbert, 44, 46, 47.
"Freedom," 26.
"From meanness first," 81.
Fyles. See Phile, Philipp.
G., G. A., 116.
G., M. N., 87.
Gantvoort, A. J., 41, 71, 73.
"General Washington's March," 122.
" Gentleman's Amusement," 66.
Gerald, S. J. A. Fitz, 53.
Glen, 120.
"God Save America," 77.
"God save each female's right," 77.
"God save George Washington," 77.
"God save the King," 75, 77, 78, 126,
157-160.
"God save the President," 77.
Digitized by
Google
Index.
251
''God save the Thirteen States/' 77.
Gordon, Wm., 82, 84, 95, 133.
Gow, 149.
Graupner, Gottlieb, 122.
Greek origin of the words ''Yankee Doo-
dle,'' 94.
Griffin, A. P. C, 73.
Griswold, Rufus W., 43.
Grove's Dictionary, 18, 19, 78, 104, 114,
118.
H., B. H., 81, 89.
**Hail Columbia," 43-72.
Author. See Hopkinson, Jos.
Autographs, 69-70.
Bibliographical Notes, 157-158, 160.
Composer. See Phile, Philip, and
Philip Roth.
Differences in text and music, 69-72.
Early editions, 46-47.
Facsimiles, 46, 160.
First sung, 44.
Forerunners, 48-49.
Melody. iS'ee ''President's March."
Origin, 43.
Original manuscripts. 8u Auto-
graphs.
Popularity, early, 44-47.
Hale, Edward £., 76, 140.
Hamilton, Sir F. W., 113.
Hancock, John, 98, 129, 130.
Hancock, Madame, 129, 130.
Hankey, Sir Richard, 18, 24.
Harding, 17.
"Hark, the Trumpet of War," 26.
Hastings, Jonathan, 84.
Heckewelder, 86-89.
Hendon, 13, 15.
Henkel, S. V., 35, 69.
"Here you may see the happy congress,"
144.
Hero (the), 125.
"Hessian Minuet," 125.
Hessian origin of "Yankee Doodle," 106,
107, 110, IIL
Hewitt, James, 122.
Hildebrand, 69.
Hogg, 139, 148.
Holden, Mrs. Austin, 124.
Holmes, O. W., 39.
Hopkinson, Francis, 48, 50.
Hopkinson, Joseph, 43, 46, 47, 48, 53, 69.
Howard, Mrs. Charles, 34.
Howe, Wm., 47.
Howell, Richard, 63, 64.
Hubach, Otto, 72.
Hulbert, J., 124.
Hungarian origin of "Yankee Doodle,"
102, 107, 111.
Hutchinson, 87.
"In Years which are Past," 25.
Indian origin of the word "Yankee,"
85-89.
Irish origin of "Yankee Doodle," 106,
146-150.
Irving, Washington, 86.
"Jefferson and Liberty," 25.
"Jefferson's Election," 26.
Jepeon, B., 41, 71, 73.
Johnson, Sir William, 150-156.
Keim, George, 33, 34, 35, 69.
Kennedy and Bliss, 33.
Key, Francis Scott. 8u "Star-Spangled
Banner;" own account of origin, 8-10.
Kidson, F., 18, 22, 78, 106, 114, 118, 120,
125, 127, 145, 147, 149.
"Kitty Fisher's Jig," 101, 103, 108, 117-
118.
Kobb6, 73, 76, 105.
Kossuth, 102, 111.
L.,T.
Lincolnshire origin of the word Yankee,
91.
Leigh, H., 101.
Lewalter, 106, 107, 111.
Lexington, Battle of, and "Yankee
Doodle," 109.
"Lot I quit my native skies," 47.
Lossing, B. A., 34, 50, 52, 99, 102.
"Lovely Nancy," 125.
"Low song upon a high subject," 143.
Lucy Locket (Lockit), 97, 98, 100, 103,
115.
Lydenbuig, 151.
Lydia Locket, 97, 98, 115.
Macaroni, origin of the word, 126, 127-129.
McCarty, 49.
McFarland, Paddy, 13.
McKoy, Wm., 50, 54, 57, 58.
McLaughlin, J. Fairfax, 18.
McLaughlin-Gilchrist, 41, 71, 73.
M'Lean, J., 55.
McMaster, J. B., 52.
Mahar, James, 35.
"Maid's (The) Lamentation," 139.
"Marblehead's a rocky place," 134.
Marseillaise, 68.
"Martial Music of Cagmp Dupont," 123.
Mason, Lowell, 75, 76.
Digitized by
Google
252
Index.
"Masonic Ode," 22.
Matthews, Albert, 80, 81, 94, 99, 104, 105,
118, 127, 128, 130, 136, 138, 141, 143,
152, 154.
Mead, D., 76.
MoUer, J. C, 69.
Moncrieff, M. T., 102, 113.
Montgomerie, Major, 114.
Mooney, Jamee, 85, 89.
Moore, G. M., 80, 93, 105, 129, ISO.
Morier, J., 91.
Mulso, 19.
"Musical Repository," 26.
Najaf Koolie Merza, 90.
"Nancy Dawson," 97, 115.
"Nankee Doodle," 97, 98, 114.
Nason, E., 52, 91.
National Song Book, 26, 47, 49.
National Songster (1814), 30.
New American Songster, 28.
"New Constitutional March," 68.
"New Fedend song." i8fee"HailColu]n.
bia."
"New Hail Columbia," 47.
"New Yankee Doodle," 122.
"New York Federal song," 46.
New York Remembrancer, 25.
Nicholson, J. H., 11, 17, 30, 31, 32.
"Nightingale," 25.
Nile, H., 153.
"No more shall tyrants here," 74.
Nonsense rhymes and Yankee Doodle,
112.
Norwegian origin of Yankee, 91.
"Not the fictions of Greece," 25.
"Now let rich music sound," 77.
"0! how joyful shall I be," 110.
" 0, say can you see. " See Star-Spangled
Banner.
O'Callaghan, 150, 152.
O'Neill, Flancis, 147, 150.
"Ode for the Fourth of July," 77.
"Of the victory won," 26.
Omrod, J., 47.
"Oppression," 81.
Oriental origin of the words Yankee
Doodle, 89-91.
Oswald, 149.
Otway, T., 94.
"Our joyful hearts to-day," 73.
"Our country's efficiency," 25.
"O'er the forest," 26.
Paine, Thomas (Robert Treat), 24, 25.
Parke, W. T., 18.
"PauwelJonas," 113.
Persian origin of the words "Yankee Doo-
dle," 89-91.
Petersfield, 127.
Petrie, 147.
Pfalz. See Phile, Philip.
Pfyle. See Phile, Philip.
Pfyles. See Phile, Philip.
Phazles. See Phile, Philip.
Pheil. iSee Phile, Philip.
Phile, Philip (Pyles, Pfeil, Phyla, etc.),
49^2, 53-54, 55, 56, 57, 58-61 (bio-
graphical notes), 62, 63, 65, 66, 68-69
(proof as composer of the President's
March).
Phyla. See Phile, Philip.
Phyles. fi^ec Phile, Philip.
Phylo. See Phile, Philip.
Phylz. See Phile, Philip.
Popularity (early) of Yankee Doodle in
America, 108-110.
Porson junior, 94.
Portsmouth Yankee, 81.
Poynton, Thomas, 126, 127.
Pre-revolutionary origin of song Yankee
Doodle, 96, 97, 99, 101, 107, 108, 114,
115, 128-142, 150-156.
Preble, Enoch, 126.
Preble, G. H., 13, 14, 28, 29-30, 33, 34-39,
52, 69, 75, 104, 120, 126.
President's March, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48.
Composer. See Philip Phile and
Philip Roth.
Early editions, 66-70.
Fftosimiles.
First mentioned in print, 68.
History, 49-69.
Prussian march, 72.
Prince Eugene's march, 125.
Ravenscroft, E., 94, 144.
"Recess, The," 121.
Reinagle, A., 59, 63-65.
"Return (The) of Uliases to Ithaca," 119.
Revolutionary origin of song "Yankee
Doodle," 95, 96, 98, 100, 107.
"Rights of woman," 77.
Rimbault, 101, 103, 115, 117-118, 126.
Ripley-Tapper, 41, 71, 73.
Ritchie, jr., John, 127, 131.
Roat. iS'e^ Roth, Philip.
Robinson, Alvan, 124.
Rogers collection of autograph letters,
35, 69.
Rome excis'd, 95.
Roots, Philip. See Roth.
Digitized by
Google
Index.
253
Roth, Philip (Johann), 50, 52, 54, 55,
56-58, 69.
''RoimdheadBand the CaTalieni,'' 97, 114.
"Royal love flODg," 143.
"Rule Britannia," 49.
Ruflsell, Lt. Col., 117.
S, F. B. N., 100, 140.
S, G. W. v., 93.
Sabin, 110.
Saffell, W. T. R., 48, 51.
Sail, 91.
Salisbury, S., 18, 24, 25, 62.
Sands, Samuel, 11, 15, 31.
Saratoga and "Yankee Doodle," 109.
' ' Scaramouch a philosopher, ' ' 144.
Scheurleer, D. F., 93, 113.
Schmidt, John Henry, 121.
Scotch origin of the word Yankee, 91.
"See me just arrived from Francee," 143.
"Seventh star," 29.
Shackburg. See Shuckbuigh.
Shaw and Carr, 66, 121.
Shaw's Flute Preceptor, 67.
Shippen, Mrs. R. L., 17, 30-32.
Shirley, J. B., 41, 71, 73.
Shuckbuigh, Richard, 97, 104, 108, 130,
150-156.
Sicard, 68.
Siefert, H. 0., 41, 71, 73.
"Sing Yankee Doodle," 79.
Skillem, Thomas, 127, 131.
Smith, Buckingham, 102, 111.
Smith, E., 41, 71, 73.
Smith's F. S. Key; account of the St. Sp.
B., 11.
Smith, John Christopher, 102, 108, 118-
119.
Smith, John Stafford, 20, 22, 23, 40.
Smith, Nicholas, 54.
Smith, Samuel F. See America.
Smollett, 93.
"Sonata sung . . . 1789," 63.
Songster's Companion, 28.
Songster's Magazine, 28.
Songster's Miscellany, 28.
Songster's Museum, 28, 79.
"Sons of Columbia." See Adams and
Liberty, 26.
Sousa, J. P., 36, 41, 53, 72, 123.
"Spain," 25.
"Spanish gypsy," 144.
Spo£ford, A. R., 36.
Spowers, Geoige, 38, 39.
Squire, Wm. B., 18, 20, 104, 118, 119, 120,
126.
Stanfield, J. F., 25.
"Star Spangled Banner," song collection,
(Wilmington, 1816), 28.
Star Spangled Banner, 7-42.
Additional stanzas, 38-39.
Air of. See "To Anacreon in
Heaven."
Autographs, Key's of, 12, 17, 31-38.
Baltimore American, 1814 account,
8,14.
Bibliographical notes, 157-158, 160-
162.
Broadsides early, 11, 12, 13, 17, 28,
29, 30, 31, 37, 38.
Chappell, W., 18.
Composer, 20, 22, 23.
Differences in melody, 38-42; in text,
36-38.
Durang (Charles and Ferdinand),
11-17, 33.
Early appearances in song collec-
tions, 28, 29, 30.
Edes, Benj., 11-12, 16, 17.
Eyster, Mrs. Nellie.
Facsimiles, 29, 32-35, 39.
First accounts of, 7-12.
First printed, 10-12, 16.
First sung, 11-17.
First text, 37.
Harding, 17.
Hendon's account, 13, 15.
McFarland, Paddy, 13.
McLaughlin, J. F., 18.
Melody of. See "To Anacreon in
Heaven."
Nicholson, Judge, 11, 17, 30, 31, 32.
Origin of, 7-10.
Original manuscript. See Auto-
graphs.
Popularity, early, 28.
Preble, G.H., 13, 14, 28, 29, 30, 33-39.
Salisbury, S., 18, 24.
Sands, Samuel, 11, 15, 31:
Shippen, Mrs. R. L., 17, 30-32.
Smith, John Stafford, 20, 22, 23.
Smith's, F. S. Key, account, 11.
Taney's account of, 8-10, 17, 32.
"To Anacreon in Heaven," 13, 17-28.
Tune of. See "To Anacreon in
Heaven."
Warner's, J. L., account, 12, 13, 16.
Stevens, G. A., 143, 145.
Stevenson, E. I., 53.
T., J. H.
Taney, R. B., 8-10, 17, 32.
Digitized by
Google
254
Index,
Taylor, Raynor, 123.
'*Temple of Minerva," 48.
Thacher, Jfamee, 82, 96, 99, 109.
Thayer, A. W., 123.
'^The Frenchmaii came upon the coast,'*
143.
"The genius of France,** 25.
"There is a man in our town," 105, 130.
Thomas, Isaiah, 100, 138.
Thompson, C. and S., 127.
Thomson's country dances, 103.
Tohnan, F. L., 153.
Thyla. Set Phile, Philipp.
Ticknor, G., 91.
"To Anacreon in Heaven," 13, 14, 17-28.
America, frequency in, 24-28.
Author of words, 20.
Comi)oeer of, 18, 22-23.
Editions, early, 20-23.
Facsimiles.
History of, 18-24.
Words, 21.
"To Columbia, who gladly," 25, 26.
"To old Hiram," 22.
"To the gods who preside," 25.
Tomlinson, Ralph, 20, 21.
"Trip to Halifax," 125.
Trumball, John, 87, 109.
"Two to one," 106, 120.
Tyler, RoyaU, 133-135, 148.
"Uncle Sam," 136.
"Union and Uberty," 26.
"Union of the gods," 25, 26.
Van Rensselaer, 96, 150, 153, 154.
Vocal companion, Phila., 1796, 24; Bos-
ton, 1802, 25.
Vocal enchantress, 22, 40.
Vocal magazine (1778), 21.
Vocal magazine (1797), 22.
W., T. H., 100.
Walsh's collection of dances, 101, 117-118.
Walters, Henry, 30-33, 37.
Ward, E., 94.
Warner, J. L., 12, 13, 16.
Warren, Dr. Joseph, 132, 133.
Washington, Geoige, 46, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53,
57, 61, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69, 100, 135, 140,
141.
Washington, Mrs. George, 63.
"Washington and the constitution," 46.
"Washington's March," 50, 63, 61, 122.
Watson, J. W., 97, 129.
Webster, 87, 89, 90.
"Welcome, mighty chief," 63-65.
"Well met, fellow-freemen," 25, 26.
Westcott, T., 99.
Wheatley, H. B., 128.
"When Bibo went down," 26.
"When our sky," 26.
"When Yankies skill'd in martial rule,"
110.
White, R. G., 51.
Whiting, C. E., 41, 71, 73.
"Whittier Perkins' book," 124.
"Wild Irishman," 125.
"WiU ye go to Sheriff muir?" 148-149.
Williams, Roger, 88.
Willig, G., 47, 67, 70, 121, 122.
Wilson, J. J., 26, 47, 49.
Winslow, Edward, 89.
Winslow, W. C, 76.
"Witch of Edmonston," 144.
Wolfe, James, 81.
"World turned upside down," 109.
Wyoming Bard, 43.
Yankee Doodle, 68, 78, 79-156.
"All the way to Galway," 106.
American origin of song, 100, 107,
128-142, 150-156.
Analysis of different theories, 107^
156.
Ame, Dr., 104, 108, 120.
Author. See Origin.
Bangs, Edward, author?, 140-142.
Beethoven, Ninth symphony, 78.
Bibliographical notes, 157-158, 163-
164.
Biscay origin, 101, 107, 111.
British origin of song, 96, 97, 98, 99,
103, 105, 107, 110, 128-142.
Broadsides, 100, 121, 135-142.
Bunker Hill, 82, 100, 109.
Cape Breton, 130-133.
Charles I and II, 100, 101, 107, 114-
115.
Characteristics of, 79.
Chorus refrain, 110, 123, 142-145.
Composite tune?, 125.
Cromwell and Yankee Doodle, 97,
101, 103, 107, 114-115.
Danza Esparta, 102, 107, 111.
Differences in text or music, 120,
122-125, 12^142.
"Doodle doo," 143-145.
Dutch origin of the song, 100, 107,
111-113.
Dutch origin of the words, 91-93.
Early use in America, 108-110, 115-
117.
Digitized by
Google
Index,
255
Yankee Doodle— Continued.
Early veraionfl (printed and mss.),
106, 110, 120, 121, 122-125, 129-142.
English origin of the words, 94-95,
107.
Etymology, 82-95.
Facsimiles, 122.
Farmer's (The) and his son's return
from a visit to the camp, 141.
Father and 1 went down to camp, 100,
104, 134-142.
Fis(c)her, Lydia (Kitty), 97, 101, 103,
108, 115-116.
Fife-major, Grenadier guards, 102,113.
Genealogy of accounts of origin, 95-
107.
Greek origin of the words, 94.
Hastings, Jonathan, 84.
Hessian origin, 106, 107, 111.
Hungarian origin, 102, 107, 111.
Indian origin of the word Yankee,
85-89.
Irish origin, 106, 146-150.
Lancashire hornpipe?, 144.
Lincolnshire origin of "Yankee," 91.
Literature, early use of the words in
English, 94-95.
Locket (Lockit), Lydia (Lucy), 97,
98, 100, 103, 115.
"Macaroni " in connection with, 126,
127-129.
Matthews, Alb., 80, 81, 94, 99, 104, 105,
118, 127, 128, 130, 135, 138, 141, 143,
152, 154.
Modem music, use of, in, 79.
Moore, G. H., 80.
Nickname for New Englanders, 80-82.
Norwegian origin of Yankee, 91.
Nursery rhyme, 115.
Objections to, 80.
Oriental origin of the words, 89-91.
Origin of song, di£ferent accounts, 95-
107.
The same analyzed, 107-156.
Origin of the words, 128-142. (See
aUo words sung to the air.)
Persian origin of the words, 89-91.
Popularity (early) in America, 108-
110.
Pre-revolutionary origin, 96, 97, 99,
100, 101, 105, 107, 108, 110, 114-115,
12&-142.
Yankee Doodle— Continued.
Revolutionary origin of song, 95, 96,
99, 100, 107, 128-142.
Roundheads and the Cavaliers, 97,
114.
Savoyard song?, 113.
Scotch origin of the word "Yankee,"
91.
Schuckburgh, Richard, 97, 105, 108,
130, 150-156.
"There is a man in our town, " 105.
Thompson country dances, 103, 117-
118.
Tyler, Royall (The Contrast), 133-
135, 143.
Ulysses (Smith's), 102, 108, 118-119.
Use (early), 108-110.
Walsh's coll. of dances, 101, 117-118.
" WiU ye go to Sheriff Muir," 148-149.
Words sung to the air, 97, 98, 99, 100,
105, 110, 119, 120, 122, 123, 125,
126, 128-142.
"Yankee Doodle came to town," 98,
100, 103, 105, 114, 125, 129-142.
Yankee's (Yankey's) return from
camp, 136-138.
"Yankee Doodle came to town," 98, 100,
103, 105, 114, 125, 12^142.
"Yankee Doodle do," 143-145.
"Yankee Doodle is the tune," 79.
"Yankee Doodle keep it up," 142-145.
"Yankee Doodle, or the Lexington
March," 126, 131-133.
"Yankee Doodle, or the Negroes farewell
to America," 126.
"Yankee Doodle's expedition to Rhode
Island," 143.
Yankee King, 129, 130.
" Yanker didel, doodel down," 100, 112.
Yankey Hastings, 84.
Yankoo, 83.
Yates, R., 81.
"Ye friends to this auspicious day," 49.
"Ye mortals whom trouble," 23.
"Ye sluggards who murder," 56.
"Ye sons of Columbia." See "Adams
and liberty."
Yengee Duniah, 90, 91.
Yengees, 86.
Yorktown, Yankee Doodle played at, 109.
"Young Bibo," 26.
"Younglings fond of female chaces," 143.
Zeiner, E. J. A., 41, 71, 73.
O
Digitized by
Google _
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
Digitized by
Google
ML SSS'I
5^n
Digitized by
Google
r,|, ;„
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11