"If any man attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot," commanded General Dix; but the United States may well be proud of having herself hauled down her flag on one occasion not many years ago. After the Spanish-American War had been fought, the treaty of peace with Spain put Cuba into the hands of the United States, and the star-spangled banner was raised and saluted. This was in 1899. The three years following this act were busy ones with the War Department, for in its control was left the management of all Cuban affairs. Cuba was cleaned up, the yellow fever stamped out, schools were established, peace restored, a constitution adopted by the people, and a president elected. May 20, 1902, was the date set for the sovereignty of Cuba to pass into the hands of the Cubans. The island had been made free, and now she was coming to her own. Havana was in her best. Flags floated from every house. Ships displayed both the American and the Cuban flags. When the moment arrived, General Leonard Wood read the transfer, and the President-elect signed it in the name of the new Republic. To free Cuba from oppression the United States had entered into war. Our country sought nothing for itself, and now the freedom of the island was attained, and the American forces were to be withdrawn.
After the signing of the transfer Governor-General Wood loosened the halyards and the star-spangled banner was lowered, having accomplished nobly that for which it had been raised. As it sank slowly down the Union salute of forty-five guns was fired. Then, by the hands of General Wood, the Cuban flag was hoisted to its position and floated proudly over a free country. A national salute of twenty-one guns was fired in its honor, and the history of the Cuban Republic had begun. As the New York Sun said, "No country ever before conquered a territory at great sacrifice to set up a government other than its own."
In the hands of Admiral Robert E. Peary our flag has won the honors of the Northland. Many others had gone far north; for Peary it was reserved to go farthest north, to the Pole itself. This was no chance success, brought about by fine equipment and favorable weather; it was the fair result of careful preparation and hard work. The Admiral wrote in his journal:—
The Pole at last! The prize of three centuries, my dream and goal for twenty years, mine at last! I cannot bring myself to realize it.
It all seems so simple and commonplace. As Bartlett said when turning back, when speaking of his being in these exclusive regions, which no mortal had ever penetrated before, "It is just like every day!"
A little later, in acknowledging with gratitude the generous aid which he had received, the Admiral wrote:—
Their assistance has enabled me to tell the last of the great earth stories, the story the world has been waiting to hear for three hundred years—the story of the discovery of the North Pole.
Such is the history of the flag of the United States of America from the time when a little group of colonies dared to raise their own standard and oppose their feeble strength and their slender resources to the trained armies and the ample wealth of England.
This was a century and a half ago. The Republic has come of age and has accepted her rightful share of the responsibilities of the world. The mother country rejoiced to do her honor, and on one brilliant April morning in 1917 the cities of England flung out her banner beside their own. In London the Stars and Stripes were everywhere—in the hands of the people in the streets, on private houses, on public buildings, even on the "Victory Tower" of Westminster Palace, where before that day no other flag save the Union Jack or the royal standard had ever been raised. In the historic cathedral of St. Paul four thousand people had come together to thank God for the alliance between the mother country and her eldest child, that in this war of the world "they should go forth and try the matter in fight by the help of God"—to quote the text of the Bishop of London. The two flags, of Great Britain and of the United States of America, hung side by side over the chancel rail. The thousands of people rose with reverence and sang, first, "The Star-Spangled Banner," and then, "God Save the King." And so it was that Great Britain and the United States took their stand shoulder to shoulder in the world-wide struggle to make sure "that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."