There is no country in the world less warlike than ours, and no country in the world that more potently argues for universal peace. We have never departed from the spirit of our Declaration of Independence, "that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We put it into our Constitution when we said, "in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity" we "do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Such has been, then, and always must be, our programme--the chart and compass of all our ways.
The American Flag
"A star for every state and a state for every star."
The flag of one's country is its dearest possession--emblem of home, and country, and native land. This is what one thinks and feels when he sees the flag, and this is what it means. Our flag is the emblem of liberty--the emblem of hope--the emblem of peace and good-will toward men.
There is a story, quite generally believed, that the first flag was planned and made in 1776 by Betsy Ross, who kept an upholstery shop on Arch Street, Philadelphia, and that this, a year later, was adopted by Congress. The special committee appointed to design a national flag consisted of George Washington, Robert Morris, and Col. George Ross, uncle of the late husband of Betsy Ross. The star that the committee decided upon had six points, but Mrs. Ross advised the five-pointed star, which has ever since been used in the United States flag. The flag thus designed was colored by a local artist, and from this colored copy Betsy Ross made the first American flag.
When Washington was in command at Cambridge, in January, 1776, the flag used by him consisted of a banner of {340} thirteen red and white stripes with the British Union Jack in the upper left-hand comer.
The Betsy Ross house has been purchased by the American Flag House and Betsy Ross Memorial Association, and is pointed out as one of the interesting historical places in Philadelphia.
The official history of our flag begins on June 14, 1777, when the American Congress adopted the following resolution proposed by John Adams:
Resolved: That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen
stripes, alternate red and white: that the Union be thirteen stars,
white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.
"We take," said Washington, "the star from Heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty."
In designing the flag there was much discussion as to the arrangement of the stars in the field of blue. It was thought at one time that a new stripe as well as a new star should be added for each new state admitted to the Union. Indeed, in 1794, Congress passed an act to the effect that on and after May 1, 1795, "the flag of the United States be fifteen stripes, alternate red and white; and that the union be fifteen stars, white in a field of blue." These additional stars and stripes were for the states of Vermont and Kentucky.