My Country, 'Tis of Thee

[5] Composer Lowell Mason had requested that Smith translate or provide new lyrics for a collection of German songs, among them one written to this melody.

Smith gave Mason the lyrics he had written, and the song was first performed in public on July 4, 1831,[4] at a children's Independence Day celebration at Park Street Church in Boston.

Let music swell the breeze, and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song: let mortal tongues awake, let all that breathe partake; let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

[8] Martin Luther King Jr. recited the first verse of the song toward the end of his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963.

[9] Crosby, Stills & Nash performed the song on the first episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that aired after the September 11 attacks in 2001.