The Morris County chronicle. [volume] (Morristown, N.J.) 1877-1915, 1898-06-10
FLAG DAY-wHAT OF THE FLAesg

see the most significant of the celebrations
of annual Flag Day, first, because the
country, for the first time in seventy four
years, is engaged in foreign war; sec
condly, because few there are who may
live to witness just such another epoch;
thirdly, and best of all, because the Am
erican flag this day symbolizes great
and powerful nationality knit in indivis-
IDLE love and loyalty ana upheld in glory
and triumph by the united strength and
courage of a citizenship and soldiery
that spring from forty-tive equal COM
monwealths peopled by American free
men.
In common with all patriotic hearts,
we hail the anniversary of the day that
gave it inception, and daily we hail the
flag itself, wonderful to love and inyinci-
BILE to defend! May Morristown, Morris
and this whole locality on Tuesday burst
forth in the blazing glory of the Stars
and Stripes!
But, henceforth, what of the flags and
standards captured by the opposing arm
les from each other in the hot and innum
cradle land and naval battles of the civil
war? These, in various parts of the coun-
/ try, and in some places exhibited as the
trophies of victory by the one or the other
side, remain alone today to remind and
mortify the defeated in battle. The time
has come upon us as people to remove
every possible vestige of the last war that
might wound the sensibilities of an Am
erican in any section of these reunited,
loyal and patriotic States. 1t has hap
pened thus far in the progress of the war
that incidents of extraordinary courage
and skill have illumined each separate ma
val undertaking and that the South has
contributed hero whenever Southerner
has been assigned to perilous and i'm
portant exploit. Sharp upon the incom-
parable triumph of Dewey. the gallant
Vermonter, came the heroic attempt at
cable-cutting under storm of shot
in which Ensign Bagley of North Caro-
lima laid upon the altar of his country
the very first life exacted in this conflict.
And now comes the chivalric story of
an unparalleled act of bravery by Con-
structor Hobson Of Alabama, performed
coolly and successfully at Santiago and in
the very teeth of the fates. The record
of the Respondent feat of this young Off
Ger and his associates belongs to the ma
val history of the nation and will be for
all time read and remembered by Amer
leans everywhere. 1t might be added on
this line that the quotas of Southern sol
diers and marines have been more than
promptly supplied, and that not word
of criticism of military conditions or of
the military authorities has been heard
from that quarter.
The war itself inspires sectional rival
ries, but they are of the sort that make
all proud that we are what we are. Mer-
ritz a Northern general, in Manila, with
his New England, Wisconsin, Nebraska,
New Jersey, California, Mississippi and
Texas and other regiments, has marvel
Gus combination of chivalric rivals and
crack troops to hew for him new fame
in the Far off Philippines. Fitzhugh Lee,
Southern general, in Cuba or Porto
Rico, with like command including
fighting battalions from the North, East,
South and West, may rely. from the
very nature of this composition. upon
historic victories wherever he leads his
corps. And there are seven other grand
commands made up just as are Merritt's
and Lees.
Now, does there live truly patriotic
citizen within the expanse of the nation
who would have the captured flags of
the last war fouted in the faces of the
returning veterans of this? Certainly
not. And if not, what then? Shall they
be destroyed? We should oppose that.
AS at present circumstanced, they unav-
oidably testify solely to the defeat of one
or the other party embattled in their de-
Tense; but if released from present Gus
tody and laid upon common altar these
standards, ensigns, battlefags and other
colors become the mutual and enduring
symbols of American valor on thousand
bloody fields!
The Smithsonian Institution at Wash
ington, D. G., is the national repository
of the American people in common. 1t
is the custodian of American historic and
other valuable effects, and it could be
made most appropriate preseryative of
the captured colors of both armies in our
civil war, and they could there beviewed,
all alike, without the intrusion of an I'M
pleasant memory of the past. Can we.
as Americans, rise to this altitude of ma
tional patriotism?