Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-05-21
DEDICATING THE FLAG.
Commander Sherman's Eloquent
Speech on the Salem Flag
Raising.

! hdlolnS'
City School Superintendent aud
Gentlemen of the Board of Direc-
tors:-To you, as representatives of
the public schools of Salem, / pre-
sent this flag, which has just been
placed upon your school BUILDING,
on behalf of Sedgwlck Post No. 10,
G. A. r., and its auxiliary, Sedg-
wick Relief Corps No. |, aud to
offer to the assembled pupils OF the
Salem public schools IA few thoughts
upon the origin of that flag aud its
lessons to them and prosperity.
The first thought brought to our
minds is that of people small in
numbers, but great in the courage
Of their conviction, incurring the
dangers, hardships, privations and
terrible sutierings of what appeared
to the on-looking nations IA hopeless
war against great, powerful and
tyranical monarchy to rid them
selves of its expressions aud es-
tablish their independence upon a
basis of the broadest freedom that
had ever been attempted for the
common people in any age of civili-
zatiOn or in any country. The
efforts of that noble band of Ameri-
can revolutionists were crowned
with success and this flag became
pos sibility. But it has II broader
and more sacred meaning now. It's
strip pes and its stars were first of
equal number-thirteen-this repre-
senting the states forming the
union over which it floated, but the
progress and prosperity which the
eternal principles 1t represents have
made possible, have kept add
ing spots upon its field of
blue until now there are
forty-two of these necessary to repre-
sent the family of states forming
one of the most powerful and
wealthy nations of the earth. But
the vicissitudes through which that
flag has passed in the maintenance
of it's entirety and the increasing of
important meaning, cannot fail to
engender even deeper feeling of rev
erence and regard for 1t. Besides
having passed triumphantly through
several struggles of national char
acter in which the commercial life
of the nation was ut stake, its stripes
of red are now of deeper dye, with
the blood of hundreds of thousands
of those who were, and those who
ought To have been, It's devotees, in
an effort on the one had to wipe out
its stars and take away the states
they represented, and on the other
that no stars should be missing from
the field. The result Is known to
all of you who have read the small
est primary history of your country
or listened to the tales of 1861 10
1865, and IA band Of the survivors of
that struggle are here to-day To
place this emblem of national unity
over your temple of education,
that you may look at Il
daily and hourly, and that each
view may add to your love and rev.
erence for il aud increase of your
American patriotism. But the
trouble just spoken of brought To
this flag another glorious lustre not
known before, II is now looked up
10 by race of free nand women,
who for more than two hundred
years suffered under the Vilest sys.
tom that ever cursed civilized ma
tiou. | need not mention what
that Was. Every true American
cannot resist the blush of shame /
when the thought comes To him
that the slavery Of one human being 4
TO another was permitted To so long I
exist, and none can fail Ia have an
increased pride in tlis flag know /
ing that the dlsgraceful blot has |
been obllterated.
Boys, revere this nag, You are
the future law makers, judicial In
terpreters aud executives OF this
great nation, Do not forget that Il
represents nation Que aud invlsi-
ble; that to make Il such cost the
heat blood and treasure Of the Y mon.