Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Remarks at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology.

March 03, 1965

Ladies and gentlemen:

This morning I found a moment to do something that I enjoy doing: to visit with the people that are working with the health, education, and welfare of our Nation, and to come back to this handsome, new museum, this great building I dedicated last year; this Museum of History and Technology, of the Smithsonian Institution, which contains so many treasures of the American heritage.

Some of my most pleasant service in public life was as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Smithsonian Institution.

I think it particularly appropriate today to point out that it was just 34 years ago-on March 3, 1931 that Congress made "The Star-Spangled Banner" the national anthem of the United States.

And here, for all of us to see, is the flag which flew through the bombardment of Baltimore in the War of 1812 and moved Francis Scott Key to write the words of "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Looking at this famous flag, I have a very special feeling, as all of us do whenever we see the Stars and Stripes. The American flag may be only a piece of bunting, sewn by human hands, but it symbolizes the very meaning of this great Nation--our determination to go on developing a free society with abundant opportunities for every citizen and to keep extended the hand of friendship to all peoples everywhere.

Of course an American's spine tingles when he looks at the Stars and Stripes, and when the music begins and "The Star-Spangled Banner" fills the air, there is no one, child or adult or even President, who doesn't feel that same special thrill.

I defy anyone to look at that flag above me and not feel in his bones and in his heart an inexpressible pride and excitement.

Over the years a number of Americans have complained that "The Star-Spangled Banner" is not the easiest song to sing. I must admit that I have had a little trouble with a few parts of it myself. But the sentiments attached to that sturdy old song are overwhelming for all of us. What can say better what we feel than Francis Scott Key's verse:

"O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,

Between their loved home and war's desolation;

....conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto, 'In God is our trust.

And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

We have so much to be proud of, so much to be thankful for, so much to preserve and so much to protect. And I know that each of you, each of us in our own way is going to be true to that trust as long as we are permitted to be here.

Thank you very much.

Note: The President spoke at 12:40 p.m. at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology in commemoration of the 34th anniversary of the designation by Congress of "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the United States national

Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks at the Smithsonian Institution's Museum of History and Technology. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238532

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