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Non Traditional work for Mrs. Vincent Media 6th, 7th and 8th gradeCCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.1Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources. HYPERLINK "" \h CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.10By the end of grade 8, read and comprehend history/social studies texts in the grades 6-8 text complexity band independently and proficiently.6th, 7th and 8th gradeDay One - Readworks Article - “January 01, 1789: First U S Presidential Election” - Read the article and answer this question citing evidence from the article. Why is it important that we elect a president by electoral votes instead of the popular vote? Do you agree or disagree with this system of election? Explain.Day Two - Readworks Article - “The First American” - Read the article and answer this question citing evidence from the article. What characteristics did Benjamin Franklin portray? How did these characteristics make him popular? What did people expect from Benjamin Franklin?Day Three - Readworks Article - “Analysis of the Declaration of Independence” - Read the article, look up words and phrases you are unfamiliar with or do not know the meaning of.Day Four - Readworks Article - “Analysis of the Declaration of Independence” - Reread the article and answer the question citing evidence from the article. What is the most important point made in the Declaration of Independence? Why do you think this is the most important point?Day Five - Review the article from yesterday - Write a response using the RACE strategy. How has the Declaration of Independence affected life in the United States in the 21st century?Day Six - Readworks Article - “Jefferson, Church and State” - Read the article, look up words and phrases you are unfamiliar with or do not know the meaning of.Day Seven - Readworks Article - “Jefferson, Church and State” - Reread the article answer questions citing evidence from the text. If religious liberty is a natural right, should there be prayer in schools? Is it right for people to be kept from praying publicly in public settings as sports events, political gatherings, educational events? Why?Day Eight - Using the article “Jefferson, Church and State” Using the RACE strategy. Write how you would change and why you would change the Declaration of Independence. What would you add, take away or not change and why?Day Nine - Readworks Article - “Publius and an American Identity” - Read the article answer questions citing evidence from the text. What were the two different groups the American people were divided into? What were the beliefs of each group? Which group would you identify with and why?Day Ten - Readworks Article - “The Anthems of America” - Read the article answer questions citing evidence from the text. Which American anthem do you like best? Why?January 07, 1789: First U.S. Presidential Election459?wordsThis article is provided courtesy of On this day in 1789, America’s first presidential election was held. Voters cast ballots to choose state electors; only white men who owned property were allowed to vote. As expected, George Washington won the election and was sworn into office on April 30, 1789.As it did in 1789, the United States still uses the Electoral College system, established by the U.S. Constitution, which today gives all American citizens over the age of 18 the right to vote for electors, who in turn vote for the president. The president and vice president are the only elected federal officials chosen by the Electoral College instead of by direct popular vote.Today political parties usually nominate their slate of electors at their state conventions or by a vote of the party’s central state committee, with party loyalists often being picked for the job. Members of the U.S. Congress, though, can’t be electors. Each state is allowed to choose as many electors as it has senators and representatives in Congress. The District of Columbia has three electors. During a presidential election year, on Election Day (the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November), the electors from the party that gets the most popular votes are elected in a winner-take-all system, with the exception of Maine and Nebraska, which allocate electors proportionally. In order to win the presidency, a candidate needs a majority of 270 electoral votes out of a possible 538.On the first Monday after the second Wednesday in December of a presidential election year, each state’s electors meet, usually in their state capitol, and simultaneously cast their ballots nationwide. This is largely ceremonial. Because electors nearly always vote with their party, presidential elections are essentially decided on Election Day. Although electors aren’t constitutionally mandated to vote for the winner of the popular vote in their state, it is demanded by tradition and required by law in 26 states and the District of Columbia (in some states, violating this rule is punishable by a fine of $1,000). Historically, over 99 percent of all electors have cast their ballots in line with the voters. On January 6, as a formality, the electoral votes are counted before Congress and on January 20, the Commander in Chief is sworn into office.Critics of the Electoral College argue that the winner-take-all system makes it possible for a candidate to be elected president even if the candidate gets fewer popular votes than his or her opponent. This happened in the elections of 1876, 1888, and 2000. However, supporters contend that if the Electoral College were done away with, heavily populated states such as California and Texas might decide every election, and issues important to voters in smaller states would be ignored.The First AmericanBy?ReadWorks?(516?words)Have you ever wondered what the “united states” in the United States of America is? Originally, the term referred to 13 colonies under the British Empire that overthrew colonial rule and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, forming the United States of America. The men who participated in the revolution, signed the Declaration of Independence, and contributed to drafting the Constitution are known as “founding fathers.” Benjamin Franklin, who is portrayed on the 100-dollar note, was one of the “Committee of Five” men who were appointed to draft the Declaration that was eventually signed by the other founding fathers.Franklin’s Early LifeBenjamin Franklin was born in 1706 in Boston to a soap maker named Josiah Franklin. His father could not afford full schooling for all his children, but Benjamin loved books and worked in his elder brother’s printing business. He worked in the trade for many years before buying the?Pennsylvania Gazette?in 1729, which was a new publication at the time. He also wrote and made cartoons for the newspaper. In addition, he worked toward improving living conditions in the city of Philadelphia: improving the efficiency of street lights, cleaning the roads and starting libraries. In the 1740s, Franklin retired from his printing business and turned to science with great success. He was a very smart man and his work on electricity for instance, such as the “kite experiment” which confirmed the nature of lightning, made him famous all over the American colonies.Benjamin Franklin as the First AmericanNow you might be wondering how this printer and scientist ended up on the $100 bill. Franklin earned the title of the “First American” for his efforts to unite the 13 American colonies, and for his long campaign for American independence from England. This part of the story starts in London. He went to London as a representative of Americans to get the British to keep assisting American colonies. In London, he became a member of the “Club of Honest Whigs” (who also wore wigs!) and began interacting with important political thinkers and activists of the time.When he returned to Pennsylvania, he led a struggle against the powerful Penn family over their control of the colony, and was elected the Speaker of the Pennsylvania House in 1764. In 1765, he opposed the Stamp Act, which was a direct tax by the British Parliament on American colonies. He continued to write and campaign against British injustices in America.When the American War of Independence began in the 1770s and every colony was required to send one delegate to represent its interests in the “Second Continental Congress,” everyone in the Pennsylvania assembly chose Franklin. He was one of five people who wrote the final Declaration of Independence.After the United States of America was established, Franklin held several important positions such as the first United States Postmaster General, Ambassador to France and sixth President of Pennsylvania. He is also famous today for his wise sayings, including “a penny saved is a penny earned” and “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”Analysis of the Declaration of IndependenceBy?W.M. Akers?(1229?words)??"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" and "all men are created equal" are a couple of phrases from the Declaration of Independence that many Americans know by heart. These phrases are parts of philosophies that inspired the very foundation of the American government. A close reading of arguably the most important document in the early history of the United States can tell us more about what kind of government the founding fathers wanted.In a way, the Declaration of Independence is like a break-up letter or an email sent to a boss after a long time working a hated job. "I quit!" it says. "And here's why." The Declaration is an interesting document to read, even more than two centuries after it was written.The intellectual foundation of the Declaration is explained in just a few sentences in the second paragraph. "All men are created equal," writes author Thomas Jefferson. And everyone has basic rights that cannot be taken away, including "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." Any government that tries to deny those rights to its people is a government that should not deserve to exist. Perhaps the most revolutionary idea in this paragraph comes in the statement that a government's power derives "from the consent of the governed." To make such a statement to England's King George III, who believed that his right to rule came from God, was quite a bold move.In the 18th century, this was cutting-edge philosophy, the sort of thing that French intellectuals like Voltaire and Rousseau might have discussed in Parisian coffee houses. However, Jefferson spends a few lines on these matters before moving on to the nitty-gritty: a list of complaints that he refers to as "a history of repeated injuries and usurpations." After decades of monarchical rule, the colonists became angry at how they were being ruled, and they weren't going to take it anymore. These complaints give insight into the sort of things that bothered the colonists by 1776. Let's look at a few specific lines and think a little bit about what they mean.In one of the first complaints, the king is accused of holding legislative meetings "at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant" from their ordinary locations. This is a reference to specific occasions in Massachusetts and Virginia, where regular legislative meeting places were changed to locations so inconvenient that most of the lawmakers could not make the journey. If they did make the long trip, they would be too tired to argue with unjust decision-making. "Fatiguing them into compliance with [the king's] measures," writes Jefferson, was the "sole purpose" for moving these public meetings around.The right for people to watch their government in action has been an important part of American democracy ever since. This is why local city council meetings are generally open to the public and why even small government decisions—the altering of a school district, for instance—must be preceded by a public hearing. When citizens speak at such a hearing, they are able to do so because of the colonists who demanded that public meetings be held in convenient locations.Most of the first part of the list concerns similar bureaucratic complaints. The king controlled the appointment and payment of judges, making them more likely to rule in his favor. He passed laws making it difficult for new colonists to immigrate. When colonial lawmakers complained about such injustices, the king would dissolve their "Representative Houses…for opposing with manly firmness" his policies. These are all important complaints, but they only make up the first part of the list of complaints. Jefferson then mentions the continued presence of the king's soldiers in the colonies.After the end of the French and Indian War in 1763, the British armies were not dissolved. Instead, they remained in the colonies. A "standing army" was maintained to supposedly guard against French or Indian aggression, though the colonists suspected it was intended to limit their freedom. Several entries in the middle of the list of grievances are taken up by complaints about the presence of these soldiers."He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power," Jefferson writes—a way of saying that it was like the colonies had been converted to a military dictatorship, because the king’s armies were not under the control of local governments. Then, it gets worse. Jefferson blasts the king "for Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us," a reference to the Quartering Acts of 1765 and 1774, which required local governments to house and feed British soldiers.As the colonists saw it, these protections given to the British army were not just a matter of money or privacy, but of justice. Because of the Administration of Justice Act of 1774, popularly known as the "Murder Act," British officials accused of crimes in Massachusetts could be tried in Britain. This meant that a British soldier could kill a colonist and escape trial by local jury, instead being tried in front of a more friendly English court. In his next complaint, Jefferson refers to this as "a mock trial."The colonists were so incensed by the Quartering Act that, after the Revolutionary War was finished, they wrote a special amendment to the new Constitution to prevent such a law from ever being passed in the United States. It read: "No Soldier shall, in time of peace, be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law." This was so important to the founders that they made it the Third Amendment, following only the freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.When the Declaration of Independence was written and ratified in the summer of 1776, the Revolutionary War had already begun. The Battle of Bunker Hill had occurred the year before, upon which the king declared the colonies in open rebellion. He sent his army and navy to contain the revolt and hired Hessian mercenaries from Germany to supplement his forces. The response to these actions concludes Jefferson's list, and it is here his strength as a writer becomes most apparent.He accuses the king of "waging War against us," saying that "he has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of the people." The hiring of the Hessians draws even sharper comment, as Jefferson refers to "large Armies of foreign Mercenaries [coming] to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation."Although a written document, the Declaration of Independence was intended to be read aloud throughout the colonies as a way of inciting frustrated citizens to rebel against their king. For this reason, it makes sense that it starts slowly, introducing the intellectual argument calmly, before steadily rising to a fever pitch of rage and indignation. Even listeners unmoved by the opening paragraphs—the now famous ones—would be excited by this talk of death and destruction and tyranny.The Declaration of Independence was not solely meant to serve as a nation's founding document. It was to be used to raise an army and protect a rebellion that had just barely begun.Jefferson, Church and StateBy?ReadWorks?(1761?words)??Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) was the third president of the United States. He also is commonly remembered for having drafted the Declaration of Independence, but one of his most important works is the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom, otherwise known as the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. The statement, which was introduced into the Virginia General Assembly in 1779 and passed into law in 1786, is one of just three accomplishments that Jefferson asked be included in his epitaph. Not only was its passage in the state a landmark event, which is commemorated annually on January 16th, “Religious Freedom Day”; the statute also set the groundwork for the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.By the time the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom was adopted, religious dissenters in Virginia—primarily Baptists, who were joined by Presbyterians and Methodists—had been petitioning for religious liberty for a decade. The members of these religious groups sought to disestablish the Church of England, which, since the first English settlers arrived in 1607, had been the official state church in colonial Virginia. Before Jefferson’s statute was passed, colonists were legally required to attend Church of England services, have their marriages performed by the Church’s ministers, and pay taxes to support its clergymen. Dissenters were actively persecuted.In his statement, Jefferson spoke of an “Almighty God” who “created the mind free,” giving man the autonomy to choose his own way. Jefferson argued that though God is the “Holy author of our religion” and “Lord both of body and mind,” He does not propagate religion or coerce man into particular beliefs. Rather, the rulers and legislators, all of them “fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others,” imposing on people their own opinions, which they consider the only ones that are right and true. Jefferson asked that the General Assembly enact his statute so that no man would be punished for his faith and every man would be able to attend any church he pleases and worship the way he likes. To force someone to support a place of religious worship or institution that propagates opinions he disagrees with, Jefferson called “sinful.”The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom distinguishes between civil rights and religious beliefs, stating that a man should not be judged fit or unfit for a particular office based on his religion. To do so would be to deprive him “injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right.” In it, Jefferson also addressed the “rightful purpose” of a civil government, which, he said, is to intervene only when certain acts disturb the peace and good order of things. He made clear that his statute would not be irreversible, because he did not think that any law should be, including the Constitution; he recognized that people have the right, through their elected assemblies, to change laws. Yet, Jefferson believed that the rights set forth in his statement “are of the natural rights of humankind,” and that any act passed to repeal this one “would be an infringement of natural right.”The law’s language and its ideas changed the course of American history. As a consequence of the statute’s passage, the Church of England was indeed disestablished, or detached, from Virginia. And the Act for Establishing Religious Freedom guaranteed freedom of religious belief and practice to all Virginians—those who had led the charge, but also to Catholics and Jews, and others who were not Protestant Christians. Most importantly, religious disestablishment in the state became the model for freedom of religion at the national level. Congress drew on the Virginia law when drafting the Bill of Rights, a group of 10 amendments to the United States Constitution. Specifically, Jefferson’s statute was a precursor to the First Amendment’s protections for religious freedoms.The principles of religious liberty found in the First Amendment clearly hark back to Jefferson’s document. The amendment opens with two religious clauses, the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause, that are meant to protect religious freedoms. Together, the clauses form a single sentence: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The first clause (the part of the phrase before the “or”) prohibits the American government from advancing or preferring any particular religion over another. It also prohibits the government from favoring religious people over non-religious people. The second clause (the part of the phrase after the “or”) prohibits the government from making a law that would curb the free exercise of religion. In other words, it guarantees Americans the right to freely exercise their religion.The writing of the Establishment Clause was important to members of minority religions who were concerned that the federal government might establish a state religion. For instance, the Baptists in Virginia, who largely inspired Jefferson’s statute and suffered discrimination before the Church of England was disestablished, pointed out that the Constitution had no safeguard against the establishment of a new national church.The words “separation of church and state” do not appear in the First Amendment. The expression “a wall of separation between church and state” can rather be found in a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote as the president of the United States to a group of Baptists assuring that their religious freedoms would be protected. Where exactly most of America’s Founding Fathers stood on the distance in the relationship between organized religion and the state remains unclear, and the subject has developed into a debate that continues to rage.On one side of the debate are those who maintain that the Founders did not intend to build a “wall” between church and state or even to forbid federal support for religious institutions, but that they only wanted to prevent the government from privileging one Christian denomination over the others. On the other side of the debate are those who hold that the Founders did intend for a separation of church and state, and sought to keep the federal government from supporting any particular religion.What is certain is that the First Amendment sought to protect against the creation of a national church and ensure that citizens be free to practice their religion without interference from the government, so long as that practice does not threaten peace or the common good. The United States would not be like other countries in which one’s political rights were only safeguarded if one adhered to the state’s official religion. But this does not necessarily mean the Founders wanted to keep religion out of politics and law entirely. In fact, Jefferson ended his renowned letter to the Baptists in which he wrote of the “wall of separation” in this way: “I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection and blessing of the common Father and Creator of man.”Looking closely at some of the things the Founders did and said in their time can help determine how they thought about the separation of church and state. James Madison, the fourth president of the United States, who was instrumental in the passage of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, said this when arguing that Virginia should ratify the new Constitution: “There is not a shadow of right in the general government to intermeddle with religion.”It should be noted that Founding Father Patrick Henry thought that Jefferson’s Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was too radical and resisted it. He responded by proposing a “general assessment” on all citizens to support Christianity as Virginia’s established religion. Madison’s petition to the Virginia legislature, “A Memorial and Remonstrance,” argued against this suggestion, for, he wrote, “Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity, in exclusion of all other Religions, may establish with the same ease any particular sect of Christians, in exclusion of all other Sects?”Jefferson and Madison shared similar convictions. As Jefferson wrote in “Notes on the State of Virginia” in 1781, “The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say that there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.”In September of 1789, the House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for “a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging, with grateful hearts, the many signal favors of Almighty God.” The resolution was passed on the same day the First Amendment was passed, indicating that Congress did not consider the amendment to conflict with its sanctioning of an official day of thanksgiving to God. Following this, on October 3, 1789, George Washington, the first president of the United States, issued his Proclamation of National Thanksgiving, part of which reads: “Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th?day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”The Founders’ interactions with various Jewish congregations in America serve as an indication of how they viewed religious liberty. In 1790, George Washington wrote a letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island, that said the following: “It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.” Washington stressed that all people possessed the same natural rights, no matter their religion. They had only to be “good citizens.”?Did the Founders believe that Congress could encourage religion so long as it did not disadvantage any religious groups? To what extent could religious ideas and observances play a part in civil life? Even Jefferson, who refused to proclaim national thanksgivings during his presidency, granted financial aid to Protestant missions. Thus, it is difficult to respond to these questions with certainty. The First Amendment is not entirely transparent on the separation of church and state, and the Founders differed in their opinions on the proper role for religion in public life, sometimes even contradicting themselves. What they did do with a single voice is affirm that religious liberty was an absolute, natural right.Publius and an American IdentityBy?Jesse Kohn?(742?words)?the U.S. ConstitutionThe first constitution of the United States, the Articles of Confederation, was ratified in 1781. Still tangled up in war with Great Britain, America was in transition, both literally and symbolically striving to define itself and carve out an independent identity. Under the Articles of Confederation, the thirteen states in the union enjoyed a high level of independence; each functioned like a country of its own. A very weak federal Congress yoked the states together. Though Congress oversaw the country’s foreign affairs and regulated its currency, its power was severely restricted by the fact that it could not enforce its regulations or consign troops. These powers, like most powers in the union, belonged to the state governments, and for this reason the process of acting as one nation in foreign affairs was slow and arduous. The nation was like a body whose left arm wanted one thing and whose right arm wanted another.When the war with Great Britain ended in 1783, the need to construct a national identity that would integrate the different limbs of the national body became pressing. In 1787, delegates from all of the thirteen states were invited to take part in a convention in Philadelphia aimed at developing this identity.Fifty-five delegates convened on May 25, 1787. Only one state failed to send representatives—Rhode Island, which feared interference from a powerful central government in its economy. Although George Washington initially had fears that the convention would not achieve its goals, he eventually agreed to preside over it. It was generally acknowledged by the statesman that things needed to change if the new nation was going to find its place in international affairs.Although Congress had brought together the convention with the intention of adding amendments to the Articles of Confederation, before long the delegates began deliberating a whole new constitution. And after months of debate, a new constitution began to take shape. Under it, the central government would be divided into three branches, each branch checking and balancing the power of the others. There would be an executive branch, a legislative branch, and a judicial branch. By September 17, 1787, the United States Constitution had been drafted, and it was signed by thirty-nine of the fifty-five delegates.Creating the Constitution, however, was only half the battle. In order for it to be ratified, it had to be approved by nine of the thirteen states. James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay collaborated on eighty-five essays, signing them with the pseudonym “Publius.” These essays, known as “The Federalist Papers,” were published in newspapers across the states. They detailed how the new government would function, and they argued for the people’s support. The American people were split between the Federalists, who supported the Constitution, and the Anti-Federalists, who opposed the Constitution because they thought it gave too much power to a central government.Before the year ended, five states had agreed to ratify the Constitution. However, a group of states, led by Massachusetts, was against the new Constitution because, they claimed, it failed to protect certain basic rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. A compromise was thus proposed. The dissenting states would agree to ratify the Constitution if additional amendments would immediately be proposed to address what they felt was lacking. Massachusetts, Maryland, and South Carolina thus ratified the document. And on June 21, 1788, New Hampshire ratified the Constitution as well; it was the ninth state to do so.With the approval of nine states, the Constitution could be ratified officially. The new government began on March 4, 1789, and the following month George Washington became the nation’s first president. The states that hadn’t yet granted their approval gradually submitted, but it wasn’t until May 29, 1790, that Rhode Island, the final state holding out, finally ratified the Constitution.As per the compromise that was struck with several of the states, including Massachusetts, nineteen amendments were proposed in the summer of 1789. Ten of the amendments were adopted by Congress, and they became known as the Bill of Rights. These rights and the Constitution they amended came to represent the identity of the nation. And since the ratification of these ten amendments, seventeen more have been adopted. The Constitution unites and integrates America’s many-minded limbs, and even today, new amendments can be added to it to reflect the ever-changing nation and its people.The Anthems of AmericaBy?ReadWorks?(651?words)sheet music for The Star-Spangled Banner, 1814On July 4th, families all over the United States pull out their red, white, and blue clothing, dust off the grill, and haul their lawn chairs to their town’s main street to watch its Independence Day parade. As people in America congregate to admire the parade floats and wave to the marchers, bands play traditional American songs—”The Star-Spangled Banner,” “America the Beautiful,” the upbeat “You’re a Grand Old Flag.” These anthems aim to instill a feeling of nationalism in their listeners. Parade-goers are likely to feel a sense of pride in America as they listen to the patriotic tunes.But where did these anthems first originate? “The Star-Spangled Banner,” the official national anthem of the United States, tells of America’s triumph over Great Britain during the War of 1812. Although America declared its independence in 1776, Britain still interfered in America’s international trade with other countries and forced American sailors to join British navy troops. America thus declared war on the country in 1812, and the war lasted until 1815. In June of 1813, Major George Armistead was stationed at Fort McHenry in Baltimore, Maryland, to protect the city from enemy invasions. He commissioned Mary Pickersgill, a local flag-maker, to make two flags that would mark the fort as American territory. The larger one became the “Star-Spangled Banner” of the American national anthem. During one of the final battles of the war, in 1814, the British attacked Fort McHenry from their ships, but the American troops refused to surrender and forced their enemies to flee after twenty-five hours of battle. As the British ships finally sailed away, Major Armistead had his men raise the larger American flag high above the fort to mark their victory. The flag could be seen from miles away.Francis Scott Key, an American lawyer, was located on a ship eight miles from the fort during this battle. When he saw the flag waving above the fort in the morning, he knew it had not surrendered, and he was inspired to compose a poem about the victory, titled “The Defence of Fort McHenry.” Eventually, the poem was set to music and the song gained popularity. It was sung whenever one lowered or raised the flag. Now, it is sung before sporting events, political events, and, of course, during American national holidays.But not all of America’s patriotic songs came out of war. Pikes Peak, a mountain in Pike National Forest in Colorado, help to inspire the song “America the Beautiful.” When Katharine Lee Bates, an English literature professor at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, climbed to the top of the mountain in 1893, she was so moved by the view that she wrote a poem that would eventually be set to the tune we know today. It begins: “O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain, for purple mountain majesties, above the fruited plain!”“You’re a Grand Old Flag,” on the other hand, came out of the entertainment industry. The catchy beat and easy-to-memorize lyrics made this song extremely popular in households across America. The Broadway star George M. Cohan originally wrote the tune in the early 1900s for his musical?George Washington, Jr.?(It began as “You’re a Grand Old Rag,” but “Rag” was later changed to “Flag.”) At this time, though the record player had already been invented, not many families had one. The best way to hear a song was to buy the sheet music and play it on a piano or sing it at home. “You’re a Grand Old Flag” was the first song from a musical to sell over a million copies of sheet music.No matter where these songs had their start, they are all now used to bring together Americans and to evoke the same feelings of patriotism that originally inspired these songs.? ................
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