"Hail Columbia."

The nationalist impulses at work in the early republican era achieved their clearest expression in patriotic songs, which in turn furthered a sense of unity among Americans. One of the best-known patriotic songs from this period was "Hail Columbia," by Philadelphian Joseph Hopkinson, the son of Francis Hopkinson, a composer and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. The younger Hopkinson wrote the words to this song at the request of singer Gilbert Fox, who performed it on 25 April 1798, to the music of the President's March by Philip Phile. This song was motivated by tensions between the United States and France that had brought the two nations to the brink of war. With France and Great Britain already at war, Americans were deeply divided, with Federalists in favor of war with France and Republicans deeply hostile to England.Partisan Patriotism. As...