The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1909-08-12
WHAT THE AMERICAN FLAG MEANS.
By Robert G. Inrerson

W,
At the Grand Army of the Republic memo
rial exercises, in the presence Of President
arthur, members of the cabinet Gems. Grant.
Hancock and other noted officers, in the Acad.
envy of Music, New York city, May SO. 1852.
1t means free hands, free Inns self
government, and the sovereignty of the
individual.
1t means that this continent has heen
dedicated to freedom.
1t means universal education-ipht for
every mind, knowledge for every child
1t means that the schoolhouse is the
fortress of liberty. ''
1t means that governments derive
their just powers from the consent of the
governed" that each man is accountable
to and for the government; that respon-
sibility goes hand in hand with liberty.
1t means that it is the duty of every
citizen to bear his share of the pubjic
burden-to take part in the affairs of
his town, his county, his State and his
country.
1t means that the ballot box is the ark
of the covenant; that the source of au-
thority must not be poisoned.
1t means the perpetual right of peace
full revolution.
1t means that every citizen of the re-
public native or acknowledgements be
protected; at home, in every State
abroad, in every land, on every sea.
1t means that all distinctions based on
birth or blood, have persisted from our
laws; that our government shall stand
between labor and capital, between the
weak and the strong, between the indi-
vidual and the corporation, between
want and wealth, and give and guarantee
simple justice to each and all.
1t means that there shall be legal
remedy for every wrong.
1t means national hospitality that we
must welcome to our shores the exiles of
the world, and that we may not drive
them back. Some may be deformed by
labor, dwarfed by hunger, broken in
spirit, victims of tyranny and caste-in
whose sad faces may be read the touch
ing record of weary life; and yet their
children, born of liberty and love, will be
symmetrical and fair, intelligent and
free.
That flag is an emblem of supreme
will, of nations power. Beneath its
folds the weakest must be protected and
the strongest must obey. 1t shields and
canopies alike the loftiest mansion and
the rudest hut. The flag was given to
IllS oil III Lllt ISVOlulloIl
1t represents the sutferings of the past,
the glories yet to be; and, like the bow of
heaven, it is the child of storm and sun.
This day is sacred to the great heroic
host who kept this flag above their heads
sacred to the living and the dead
sacred to the scared and the MANNED
sacred to the wives who gave their hus-
bands-to the mothers who gave their
sons.
Here in this peaceful land of ours
here where the sun shines, where flowers
grow, where children play, millions of
armed men battled for the right and
breasted on thousand fields the iron
storms of war.
These brave, these Incompatible men,
founded the first republic. They fulfill
ed the prophecies; they brought to pass
the dreams; they realized the hopes,
that all the great and good and wise and
Just have made and had since man was
man.
But what of those who fell? There is
no language to express the debt we owe,
the love we bear, to all the dead who
died for u.s. Words are but barren
sounds We can but stand beside their
graves and in the hush and silence feel
what speech has never told.
They fought, they died; and for the
first time since man has kept record OF
events, the heavens bent above and
domed a land without a serf, a servant
or slave.