The Marietta journal and courier. (Marietta, Ga.) 1909-1918, 1914-05-08
ADDRESS OF COL, BLAIR
BEFORE HIGH SCHOOL

The following speech of Col. D.
w. Blair was made recently upon
the occasion of the presentation of
the American flag to the High School
and is published by request of
number of those who heard it and
wished to have copy to keep.
This is no little event in the his
tory of this school. No American
boy or girl can be educated without
a knowledge of his country's flag
and the principles it represents. 1t
is most appropriate that this dedi-
cation is by the Daughters of the Am
erican Revolution, for this flag is a
product of that Revolution, and if
| remeber history correctly the
first flag was the handiwork of the
Daughters of 1777. 1t is therefore
with supreme qualification that we
accept, in behalf of this student body
and those that may come after them,
this glorious ensign of our coun-
try.
The history of the American flag
is an education within itself It
takes us back to Concord and Lex
ington and Bunker Hill; to Valley
Forge and Trenton; to Eutaw
Springs and the Cowpens; to Sara
toga and Yorktown. 1t tells us of the
heroic struggles, trials, hardships
and sacrifices of Washington and
Green; of Light Horse Harry Lee
and Mad Anthony Wayne; of Fran
els Marion and thousands of others,
who forSaking homes, wives and
children, put their all upon the altar
for their cOuntry's freedom 1t sail
ed with Perry over Lake Erie when
he met and destroyed the enemy's
fleet. 1t was at Decatur's masthead
when he Numbered at Tunis and
Tripoli and humbled the Mediterran-
can pirates into respectful recogni-
ton of this country's prowess. It
witnessed the slaughter of the Brit
ish at New Orleans by Old Hickory.
1t marched with Scott and Taylor
into the land of the Aztecs and stood
sentinel for them on the walls of
the city of the Montezumas. 1t went
with Perry in 1855 on a mission of
peace to Japan and opened the gates
OF that country to all the nations of
the earth. 1t reflected the glories of
the American navy with Dewey at
Manila Bay, and was victorious on
land and sea at Santiago. Its history
is the history of the patriots and
heroes of our country, of it's victor
les and noble achievements, on land
and water, in peace and war. What
a glorious heritage is ours.
But what is more important than
all these is what it stands for
the principles it represents. The
stripes tell us of thirteen struggling
colonies-weak, oppressed, disunited.
The stars point to a galaxy of states.
welded together into a great nation.
The fathers said that the white re-
presented purity of purpose, the red
valor and the blue, Justice. Nav
we not add that to us the red is in
sacred memory of the heroic blood
shed by Montgomery on the Heights
of Abraham, by Pulaski at Savannah,
and by the thousands of other heroes
who gave their lives for the cause
OF their country and it's freedom. 1t
represents the sacred principles
enunciated in the Declaration of In
dependence, and enacted in that still
greater document, the Constitution
of the United States-union, Justice.
liberty and independence 1t repre-
sents more than any flag that floats
"a government by the people and
for the people, with no earthly power
supreme over them. There is not q
nation on the globe but knows that
II 1t should offer an indignity to this
flag today, that before noon to NOR
row the drum beats would sound
from Plymouth Rock all the way to
the Golden Gate.
1t is the exponent of American
manhood and womanhood-thls
country's greatest asset. In every
/ cline, on every sea, it tells of a ma
ton of freemen where civil and re-