Lyrics to “America” Penned in Andover

Unbeknownst to the writer of the lyrics “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” the 
melody was derived from the British national anthem, “God Save the King.”

Samuel Francis Smith (1808-1895) was asked to translate the words of a 
German patriotic hymn into English, but Smith decided to write an American 
patriotic hymn instead. It would later become known as “America.” A Harvard 
College graduate, Smith was a theology student at the Andover Theological 
Seminary at the time. He did translations from various languages for his 
tuition. He claimed to have never before heard the tune of the British anthem.
	
He gave the lyrics to his friend, Lowell Mason, and the song was first 
performed on July 4, 1831 at a children’s Independence Day celebration at Park 
Street Church in Boston. It was first published entitled, “America,” by Mason 
in “the Choir” in 1832. The house where Smith lived as a student is now a 
Phillips Academy dormitory called American House, or A-House for short.
	
Smith was ordained a Baptist minister and served in Waterville, Maine, 
Newton and Newton Upper Falls. He wrote over 150 other hymns in his lifetime, 
including an additional verse to “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” for the 
centennial of George Washington’s inauguration.  In 1893, Harvard President 
Charles William Eliot declined to award Smith an honorary degree noting that 
“My Country, ‘Tis of Thee,” was better known for its tune. Smith ’s former 
classmate Oliver Wendell Holmes disagreed, stating “his song will be sung for 
centuries from now…”
	
Smith later recalled “America was the work of a brief period at the 
close of a dismal winter afternoon… I did not propose to write a national hymn 
and did not know that I had done so… Yet I always hoped to write that the 
spirit of these simple verses might be the spirit of our people evermore.”

-- Leo Chabot