Blessed with victory and peace, may the Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto, “In God is our trust.”

These lines come from the fourth (final) stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Francis Scott Key’s poem written in September 1814 during the War of 1812. Key witnessed the British bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore Harbor while detained aboard a British ship during negotiations for the release of an American prisoner. Seeing the U.S. flag still flying at dawn inspired the poem, first circulated as “Defence of Fort M’Henry” and soon set to the tune of “To Anacreon in Heaven.” The stanza frames the military survival of the young republic as providential and links national perseverance to religious gratitude and moral justification.

The stanza casts American victory and peace not merely as military outcomes but as signs of divine favor: the “Heaven-rescued land” is urged to praise the power that “made and preserved us a nation.” The conditional “Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just” ties conquest to moral legitimacy, implying that force is warranted only under a righteous cause. The closing line—“In God is our trust”—presents faith as a national motto and source of unity, blending civic identity with religious language. In the anthem’s broader arc, this stanza shifts from battlefield imagery to a providential narrative of national purpose and endurance.

1) “And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’”
2) “Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just, / And this be our motto, ‘In God is our trust.’”
3) “Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!”