Which song should speak for America? The Atlantic’s readers can’t agree, and their argument says plenty about who gets written into the national story.
In the magazine’s October 13, 2026, letters section, Owen Jansson of Ann Arbor, Mich., argued that “America the Beautiful” should be the national anthem because it celebrates the country’s grandeur and evokes the principles of its founding documents. His letter answered Jake Lundberg’s July issue essay, “Never Call Retreat,” about the history and endurance of “Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Lundberg argued that the United States effectively has two national anthems: the official “The Star-Spangled Banner” and the unofficial but sacred “Battle Hymn.”
Whose Song Is Missing?
Donna Jane Krupkin of Nashville, Tenn., said Lundberg’s omission of “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” often called the Black national anthem, surprised her. James Weldon Johnson wrote the poem in 1900, she noted, and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, set it to music. Krupkin said the song makes no mention of war and embraces the sorrow and majesty of shared American life. Her church sings it once a month as an opening hymn.
Jerry Albritton of Brandenburg, Ky., proposed “Amazing Grace” as a spiritual national anthem, one that prompts reflection on the country’s struggle to abolish slavery. John Newton wrote its words in 1772, Albritton said, 42 years before Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner.” He described “Battle Hymn” as a battle cry for abolitionist action and “Amazing Grace” as a soulful anthem for people seeking freedom. He hoped fresh attention to both songs would guide the nation toward “real freedom for all Americans.”
A Hymn With Deep Roots
Other readers described the personal pull of “Battle Hymn.” Laura Cardinal of Hereford, Ariz., said the July cover, featuring the hymn’s sheet music, sat on her piano, where it was played loudly and often. Sandy Shapiro of Washington, D.C., cited Elaine Showalter’s biography of the hymn’s author, “The Civil Wars of Julia Ward Howe,” and quoted Showalter’s inscription: “Julia’s motto was ‘Up to Date!’ Good words for us as well.” Shapiro noted that The Atlantic had celebrated Howe again 164 years after it first published her poem.
Nigel Clements of Mississauga, Canada, remembered first hearing the hymn while watching Winston Churchill’s funeral at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London on January 30, 1965. A huge choir performed it at Churchill’s request. The moment moved him. He called it unforgettable.
Jeanette Condie Pearson of Salt Lake City, Utah, wrote about her father, Richard P. Condie, who directed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from 1957 to 1974. At 2 a.m., he phoned Eugene Ormandy of the Philadelphia Orchestra and asked him to consider the score for a Columbia Records recording. Ormandy initially said he wasn’t “excited” by the idea and doubted it would work, but Condie pressed him until he agreed. The 1959 recording reached No. 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 and stayed there for 16 weeks. Condie won a Grammy for the performance the following year, and the project began a lifelong friendship between the two men.
Condie Pearson said the lyrics speak to eternal truths of the human soul. She urged the nation to follow Howe’s words, overcoming hatred, evil and vengeance with forgiveness, love and charity. “Then, I think, we could say with confidence that ‘His truth is marching on,’” she wrote.
The Author Responds
Lundberg replied that the hymn met the country’s gravest crisis in the dire biblical idiom familiar to many Northerners when Howe wrote it at the end of 1861. Abraham Lincoln gave that idiom its fullest expression in his second inaugural address four years later, he said. Lundberg called the hymn a “capacious vessel for arguments over the American idea.” He acknowledged its stark, violent imagery and the dark interpretations it has drawn. At its best, he wrote, Howe’s words, set to a marching song about the militant abolitionist John Brown, call people to uphold their highest ideals, especially in moments of crisis.
Why This Matters: A national song is more than a tune. It chooses whose experience gets sung at ballgames and funerals. The readers’ letters reveal how contested that choice remains: one points to a song written by Black Americans that the discussion left out, another to a hymn rooted in the fight to end slavery, and a third to a choir’s plea for forgiveness over vengeance. The country’s “Battle Hymn” is now 165 years old, and “Amazing Grace” is 254. Both began in struggles over freedom that Albritton argues remain unfinished. When readers ask whether the nation’s songs reflect all its people, they’re really asking whether its promises do. That debate belongs in public, and it’s happening on the letters page.