Smith entered Andover Theological Seminary in Massachusetts in 1832. Later he was hired by Lowell Mason, the music editor and composer, to translate a collection of German songs brought back from Europe. As he pored over the material, he found one tune, "God Bless Our Native Land" particularly appealing. The melody had been used throughout Europe and had served as the accompaniment to Britain's "God Save the King." Both Beethoven and Haydn had used the tune in striking variations in some of their own compositions.
Earlier, the tune had been used in America for such patriotic anthems as "God Save the President" and "God Save George Washington."
Convinced the country needed its own national anthem, Smith went to work composing lyrics to the melody. He finished it, as he said, "in a brief period of time at the close of a dismal afternoon." Part of the words went this way:
My country 'tis of Thee [God],Five hundred children premiered the piece singing it during a Sunday school celebration at the Park Street Church in Boston on July 4, 1832, and within months it had been performed throughout the country. Knowing many languages, for the rest of his life the Reverend Samuel F. Smith traveled the world over as a Baptist missionary. Living to the ripe old age of eighty-six, he composed well over 150 hymns!
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my fathers died!
Land of the Pilgrims' pride!
From every mountainside,
Let freedom ring!
Our fathers' God to Thee,
Author of Liberty,
To Thee we sing,
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!
