Other Words from Francis Scott Key

Continuing a series of posts showing the religious beliefs of our Founding Fathers. This is to help answer the voices today who would say that our founders were mostly atheists and deists.

Today we look at Francis Scott Key. Certainly he is best known for writing our National Anthem, the Star Spangled Banner. He is not a member of the most specific group of Founders: those who signed the Declaration or Constitution, or who were a member of the Continental Congress or Constitutional Convention. But he was active during the war of 1812, and as author of our national anthem certainly has a place at the table of those who formed our early country's heritage.

From the book by Hugh A. Garland, The Life of John Randolph of Roanoke (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1853), Vol. II, p. 104, from Francis Scott Key to John Randolph, we find the following:

...may I always hear that you are following the guidance of that blessed Spirit that will lead you into all truth, leaning on that Almighty arm that has been extended to deliver you, trusting only in the only Savior, and going on in your way to Him rejoicing.

No surprise, then, that the last stanza of his Star Spangled Banner has these words:

Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'