 It was a very controversial thing. Basically, it was a north-south split with Southerners generally in favor of going to war and Northerners against it. Francis Scott Key was born in the north and grew up there, but you really have to categorize him as a Southerner in outlook. You know, Maryland was a state in which slavery was legal. His family owned slaves. He grew up on a plantation, and he did have a conservative Southern outlook. But he was against the Americans going into the War of 1812.