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the bombardment of Fort McHenry -
Mr. Key is aboard His Majesty's Ship
HMS TONNANT (Thunderer)
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As usual, the know-nothings are those who howl the loudest. While my President is not precisely what we would consider "…my cup of tea…", he is at least interesting and accomplished at getting things done that need doing.
He is a bit too inclined to employ a government order to accomplish things that could be done by private and/or local initiatives. But, I am afraid we shall forever have to deal with politicians who like to "give" things to the citizenry. Mr. Trump seems to have more restraint than most of the "overly-generous" politicians, at least.
A few days back, I was trapped by having to talk on the telephone while a television article was busy pointing out more weaknesses among the icons who make up the unique personalities, heroes, and magnates who advanced America into the realm of greatness. There was an image on the television showing the statue of Francis Scott Key being pulled to the ground by people who knew nothing about Key, nor did they care, nor did their action prove anything beyond the existence of their own vituperous uselessness.
People who do not own a particularly valued property have no right to scar, damage, steal, or otherwise nefariously deal with that property. It is against the law, and a long time ago, people who did such things as tear down monuments and other publicly (or privately) owned structures without cause…were thrown in jail, prison, and/or fined heavily. Now mainstream reporters dash to the next incident as if to celebrate of the tumbling down of a monument or statue of some poor dolt of an historical figure such as a Francis Scott Key and many others too numerous to name.
During these hours, lower-case scum is marauding in various cities in the United States, burning, breaking glass show-windows, knocking down doors so as to be able to loot and carry out millions of dollars worth of products that need to be sold to willing buyers, not stolen like sub-human scavengers. Packs of hundreds and even thousands, of mainly rich, lazy, and spoiled young people literally are dedicating their time to full-scale rioting.
Should one inquire, the activists respond they are destroying things to punish the rich people and also to establish of a new order wherein all will be equal. In each case it is apparent that the rioters want to destroy things. Then they want to go back to mommy and daddy and find their marijuana stash, beg some money from big sis or granny, and then go out on the prowl again to burn, destroy, intimidate, steal, and terrorise whole cities in the United States. All of this they do to demonstrate their sense of "democracy".
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In this image, one sees the senseless "Black Lives Matter" hoisted high.
Why senseless? Because if one says, "Yes, and all lives matter," another will
be correcting you almost immediately. You will also, most probably, be called
a racist and Klanner etc.
Please take note above that almost all the "Black Lives Mattering" are
Caucasian, almost all of whom are garnering walking-around-money
from Soros, and shekels from mommy and daddy.
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Folks involved with "Black Lives Matter" are certain that they have the right to essentially expropriate entire blocks of downtown properties…stores, saloons, medical facilities, offices…and chase the owners and patrons out. After two weeks or so of such a "taking", the area is always a mess of waste matter, garbage, drunks and druggies draped over benches or passed out, covered in vomit, with a needle still dangling from the forearm…all in the name of "equality".
It is a kind of equality that makes a civilised person want to puke, barf, and throw up at the same time. Once he takes a whiff of "real democracy" brought to us by the BLM, we know it really means sewer stench and really gross BO.
Your humble commentator is aware of several hundred riots and destructive, frightening episodes brought on by these nouveaux parasites who wish for the destruction of America. He knows of people who have been scared literally to death when people would come into a restaurant and begin to overturn tables, throw chairs into clusters of restaurant patrons, and even stooping to the level of drinking peoples' drinks if they were fresh alcoholic beverages. Free is hard to beat!!
We have watched an elegant old saloon with century-old mirrors cracked and destroyed. The place, in spite of its style of business, had never had a barroom brawl, or even a broken chair…now destroyed by the people who swagger around, chanting and menacing while lending the impression that they are some "new wave' of uniform democracy. Their calling apparently is to forge the establishment of a perfect world where everything is free and where no one has more and no one has less than anyone else.
They would first be well advised to truly understand the basics about the historical figures they are condemning. Francis Scott Key is not simply the fellow who wrote the poem that was a little later turned into…or better stated…adapted to the strains of a British suds-pub anthem. Key was an especially talented, kind, brave, and industrious person…an example of dealing somewhat poorly at times and nearly perfectly on other occasions.
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A Truer Description of Francis Scott Key
While we know that Key wrote a clever and nicely turned poem regarding the intense battle between British Naval and Marine forces and a steely, resolute group of American defenders in Fort McHenry, Maryland, our friend Mr. Key had many other significant accomplishments and characteristics. That battle in 1814 was and is legendary, but there were other interesting things.
For instance, one might ask, "Why was Key, an American on a old rebuilt French Third - Rating, Man-o-War (battlewagon) hanging around with a bunch of high-ranking British Admirals? Well, imagine asking to board an enemy ship so as to speak as a civilian American concerning reasonable release terms for a fairly high-ranking American soldier who had been captured in Washington D.C. during the brutal and destructive battles in and around the District of Columbia just a few weeks earlier (Third-class rating for a battleship is nothing negative. It simply means that it is heavily armed with a count of a minimum of 76 to 80 very powerful cannons.)
The Admirals Cochrane and Cockburn, along with a theatre-grade British General Robert Ross had formally received and correctly detained Key and a couple of his buddies during hostilities. They were being held due to the fact that they had seen troops, artillery, Navy ships and coastal boats being loaded and/or repaired while under sail, and would have, therefore, been able to tell the American military critical information about British tactics, conditions, and placement. For the British officers, it would be necessary, then to keep Key and his American friends on board, and not in Baltimore, briefing down the American commandant of Fort McHenry about the size, number, and "etceteras" concerning the British level of strength.
Incredibly enough, the British effort against Fort McHenry wound up being a draw. That meant that the overpowering British might had lost the effort to win and take ground. The defence had won simply because they were still in business and eating breakfast at sunrise that next morning. The British Fleet had to sail out for restocking and repairs. We have been given that an effective prisoner exchange was executed, so Key and his buddies, and the American military fellows got to head for Baltimore, while the British military captured earlier by the American force, were repatriated with their fellows on the HMS Tennant. The British Naval authority would have had every right by military law to have had all taken out and shot after their fine supper at the merest insult or faux pas by a slip of the lip.
This act by Key was fraught with danger. He was a famed attorney, true. But he was also an activated member of the American Army's reserve units. He was involved in active military service…but essentially "disguised" as the sedate, and seemingly dull lawyer he was and could appear to be. The British Naval authority would have had every right by military law to have had him taken out for the merest insult and shot after their fine supper. Sometimes, manners are a pretty cool hand, Luke.
Another worthy adventure was his service as the lead prosecutor of the man who shot twice but luckily both pistols had discharged ineffectively against the American President. It is said that Key was among the number to step up quickly to forcibly restrain Andrew Jackson's assailant. Only slight remarks have been found by this writer concerning this fact.
As a top-off however, Key served as the prosecutor of that man who shot President Jackson. Key told his friend, the President, that he would seek justice in the matter, and did manage a healthy sentence, albeit deferential to the defendant. He was severely mentally ill, and dwelled in delusions.
His name was Richard Lawrence, and he proclaimed himself to be the King of England. He had moved, at the age of twelve, with his family to the United States from England, and established a very good house painting service at a young age. Some thought that the fumes of the oils and mixers may have caused Mr. Lawrence to have brain damage. Key did convince the court that the remainder of Richard's life should be lived in protective asylums. The Judge concurred, and so it was.
Finally, remembering that Francis Scott Key was a man of his times, we must speak to that matter . He was usually straight-laced and well presented, and at times depressed and clouded with the darkness of self-doubt. At other times he stood capable of great oratory, great contribution, and concern for man and beast.
He fathered eleven children during his one marriage. He had only the one wife, a daughter of the wealthiest and most prestigious family in Maryland. Her name was Mary (Polly) Taylor Lloyd.
He father was the wealthiest person in Maryland, and he served a lengthy period as governor of the Colony. Maryland (Mary's Land…named for Mary, Queen of Scots) and the only Colony of the Crown in the New World's thirteen Colonies whose Governor normally would be a Roman Catholic. Francis married into the family of the Lloyds, but he remained a fast and loyal member of the Church of England for his lifetime (Episcopalians of Olde were born, not made).
Key was given life's trials frequently, because of the Negro Situation. He saw the Black Man as inferior, but he endeavoured for their advancement and reasonable placement in society. He was also a strict enforcer of the laws and conditions pertaining to slavery, manumission (award of freedom and full citizenship of a person formerly held in slavery), emancipation, and even of the programme American Colonisation Society, which arranged for free Negroes in the United States to return to Africa and "repatriated" in a place named "Liberia". The name was, obviously, a Latin form for the word Liberty, and the new entity had considerable similarity to the American governance procedures. It was more or less successful, and during these times seems to have begun to enter a fairly good cultural and living-standard situation.
We finish with the simple observation that Francis Scott Key is somewhat overlooked as an historical importance, but he actually was. Wealth, reliable and vigorous legal work, a constant citizen in the truest sense, and even a member of the somewhat surreptitious "Kitchen Cabinet" of President Andrew Jackson.
More of these tales later, and thank one and all for your patience and understanding.
EL GRINGO VIEJO
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