1814.061: Oration by Francis Scott Key before Washington Society of Alexandria.
Published: 1814
Full Title: An oration, delivered by Francis S. Key, Esq. at a meeting of the Washington Society of Alexandria, Ca., on Tuesday, the 22d of March [i.e. February], 1814.
Author: Key, Francis Scott (1779-1843).
Place Issued: Alexandria
Issuing Press: Uncertain
Description: 20 pgs.; 20 cm. (12mo).
Notes
Key, of course, would gain greater national fame later in this year as a result of his enforced presence at the British siege of Fort McHenry and their failed assault on Baltimore. Only known copy, held by American Antiquarian Society, carries caption title only, so lacks imprint; that title also corrected in manuscript to proper date of Washington's birthday; this society regularly published the invitational address made at this annual celebration through an Alexandria press, most frequently that of Samuel Snowden, who was also a member of the late president's Masonic lodge; however, this title could just as easily issued from any of the job-presses operating there then, so the indeterminacy reported here. Several transcriptions of the title here mistakenly correct (as a sic) the abbreviation "Ca." as being "Va." even as text is the contemporaneous short-form for "Columbia" (as in District).