Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1877-07-12
DOAEMAN, M. H., THURSDAY, JULY 12 1877
The Hundredlh Anniversary
of the Stars and Stripes.

of the Stars and Stripes.
Thursday, June Nth, was the centen
Inial of the adoption of the American flag
On the 14th day of June, 1777, when fol
more than two years the colonists had
been struggling upon the battlefield with
varying fortunes and the immortal De
claratlon Of Independence had been issued
and been before the people for nearly one
year, the Colonial Congress, feeling that
it was time national emblem Was un-
turled and that the new nation should
have worthy ensign, psssed al act pro
yiding that the flag of the thirteen
United States should be thirteen stripes
alternately red and white, with a union
Iof thirteen stars, white in blue field,
representing new constellation. Some
changes were subsequently made, until by
Act of Congress, April 4, 1918, the flag
was permanently established by the pro
vision that the stripes were to be thirteen
and the stars to represent the number OF
the States, the addition for each new
State to be made on the next 4th Of July
succeeding is admission to the Union.
The royal crosses were done away with
after the Declaration of independence in
1776, and on the 14Ih of June. TIT, Con-
gress resolved THAT the flag of the thir-
teen United States be thirteen stripes, al
ternate red and white; that the Union be
thirteen stars, white IN blue field, rep
r. senting a new constellation" That reso
luton is the first recorded legislation con
cernirg the flag. Paul Jones was the first
person to unfurl the fl e, which he did on
"a gun boat on the day Congress passed
the resolution. Al this time the stars
were put in circle, This flag was I'm
changed until 1894. when Vermont and
Kentucky having been admitted to the
Union, s nator Bradley, of the former
State, introduced resolution that on and
after May 1, 1895, the flag consist of 10
stripes, white and rcd, and the Union of
15 stars. The war of 1912 was fought
under this flag. and it was not changed
until 1913. although several States had
Il1Cd II W uliC UCCu uUtDAitCu
La 1878 the present fas was authorized
by Congress and as the act, by its terms,
went into effect only on July 4, 1918, the
legal stence of the flag of to>day dates
from that time. II is in consequence of
The absence of all legislation regarding the
form of the constellation IN the American
Fla th4. the flag of our War Department
has its union in the form of star, while
that of the Navy Department has its stars
in a parallel form.
Much discussion, especially from 1916
to 1918, was had upon what should be the
design for the flag Of the Republic. The
best of taste and judgment at length pre-
vailed and the "present gorgeous ensign
of lhe Republic" was quite unanimously
agreed upon.
The first one hundred years of the
American Fag have tested the material OF
the Republic of which it is the proud in
sigma, but the old flag has, III every trial,
proved itself triumphant. This country
has passed through all the vIcissitudes-
foreign wars-grave political crises and al
civil war-that ever bcfel any
new nation and the stars and stripes
when thus severely tried, in each and every
instance. have been victorious and to day
stand forth, invinclble, mot a stripe
erased, nor star polluted. Its signiti
canoe. in point of DOMAIN, has strikingly,
increased during the past century. AT
first it was the flag of only 13 t. ebIe, strug-I
Cling States-with an area of 100000
square miles aud with three millions of
it is the flag OF 3S Sover-
eign States-and is the symbol over a
territory of 3,6s2 900 square miles and
protects forty-f five millions of people.
Also, 1t is now the flag of freedom. Not a
slave breathes beneath its folds and it is
yearly seeking to provide ample redress
for every public grievance and every pub
lie wrong. Verify the ''old tlag'' has
become and will continue, as it waves
over the land and over the sea, to symbol
ize in fact as well as in name Union
and Liberty, now and forever, one and
inseparable.