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The hymn was written in 1876 for a cel­e­bra­tion of the Cen­ten­n­i­al Fourth of July, and sung at Bran­don, Ver­mont, to the tune called Russ­ian Hymn! When our Gen­er­al Con­ven­tion ap­point­ed a Com­miss­ion to re­vise the Hymn­al, I sent it, with­out my name, prom­is­ing to send the name if the hymn were ac­cept­ed. It was ac­cept­ed and print­ed anon­y­mous­ly in the re­port of the Com­mis­sion. Be­fore the Hymn­al was print­ed, the Rev­er­end Dr. Tuck­er, late of Troy, ed­it­or of our best mu­sic­al Hymn­al, and Mr. George Will­iam War­ren, or­gan­ist of St. Thom­as’ Church, New York, were ap­point­ed to choose a hymn for the cen­ten­ni­al cel­e­bra­tion of the adopt­ion of the Con­sti­tu­tion. They se­lect­ed this hymn, then anon­y­mous, and want­ing a tune, Mr. War­ren com­posed a tune to which it has since been set in the Tuck­er Hymn­al.

Music: National Hymn, , 1888. War­ren wrote the tune for the cen­ten­ni­al cel­e­bra­tion of the Unit­ed States Con­sti­tu­tion.