Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1916-05-25
Ter Of St. George was white, charged

as early as the first part of
the 14th century. BY a royal procla-
nation, dated April -, 1900. these two
crosses were joined together upon the
same banner, forming the ancient ma
tional flag of England.
1t was not until Ireland, in 1901, was
made a part of Great Britain, that the
present national flag of England. so
we'll known as the Union Jack was
completed. But it was the ancient flag
England hat constituted the basis
of our American banner Various other
had indeed been raised at other
times by our colonial ancestors. But
they We're not particularly associated
with, or at least We're not Incorporated
into n mad a part of the destined
Stars and Stripes"
1t was after Washington had taken
of the first army of the rev.
olution. at Cambridge, that he unfold
ed before them the new flag of 13
stripes of alternate red and white. nav
ing upon one of it's corners the red ana
white crosses of st. George and ST.
Andrew, on a field of blue. And this
the standard which was borne
into the city of Boston when it was
evacuated by the British troops and
was entered by the American army.
Uniting. as it did, the flags of Eng
land and America, it showed that the
%colonists We're not yet prepared 10
sever the tie that bound them to the
mother country. BY that union of
flags. they claimed to be a vital and
substantial part of the empire of Great
Britain, and demanded the rights and
privileges which such a relation i'm
piled. Yet it was by these IS stripes
that they made known the MO also
of the 13 colonies, the stripes of white
declaring the purity and innocence of
their cause, and the stripes of red Civ
ing forth defiance to cruelty and oppo-
sition.
On the 14th day of June, 1877. it was
resolved by congress-, THAT the flag of
the 10 United States be IS stripes, al
ternate red n white, and the union
be 13 white stars in the blue field
This resolution was made public Sep
tember 3, 1877, and the flag that was
first made and used in pursuance of it
was that which led the Americans to
victory at Saratoga. Here the 13 stars
We're arranged in a circle, as we
times see them now in order better to
EXPRESS the union of the states.
In 1894, there having been two more
new states added to the union, it was
voted that the alternate stripes, as well
as the circling stars, be Is in number,
and the flag, as thus altered and en-
larged, was the n which was borne
through all the contests Of the war Of
1912. But it was thought hat the flas
would at length become too large if a
new stripe should be added with Gerry
freshly admitted state. 1t was there
fore enacted, in 1918, that a pernla-
nent return should be made to the or
iginal number of 10 stripes, and the
number of stars should henceforth cor
respond to the growing number of
states.
Thus the flag would symbolic the
union as it might be at any given pc
ROD of its history, and also as it. was
at the very hour of its birth. 1t was
at the same time suggested that these
stars, instead of being arranged in. n
circle, should be formed into a single
star-a suggestion which we occasion
ally see adopted. In fine, no particular
order seems now to be observed with
respect to the arrangement of the con
stellation. 1t is enough if only the
whole number be there upon that azure
field-the blue to be emblematical Of
perseverance. vigilance and Justice,
state it may represent, and the Whole
to be eloquent forever of a union that
must be one ana inseparable."
what precious associations cluster
around our flag! Not alone have our
fathers set up this banner in tho uame
of God over the we'll won battlefelds
OF the revolution, and over the cities
and towns which they rescued from
despotic rule; but think where also
their descendants have carried it, and
raised 1t in conquest or protection!
Through what clouds of dust and
smoke has it passed-what storms of
shot and shell-what scenes of fire and
blood! Not only at Saratoga, at Mon
mouth and at Yorktown, but at Lun-
dy's Lane and New Orleans, at Buena
Vista and Chapultepec. 1t is the same
glorous old flag which. inscribed with
the dying words of Lawrence, Don't
give up the ship" was hoisted on Lake
Erie by Commodore Perry Just on the
eve of his great naval victory-the
same old flag which our great chief
ain bore in triumph to the proud city
of the Aztecs, n planted upon the
heights of her national palace. Brave
hands raised it above the eternal re-
gions of ice in the Arctic seas and have
set it up on the SUBMITS of the lofty
mountains of the distant west.
Where has 1T not gone, the pride OF
its friends and the terror of it's foes ?
what countries and what seas has il
not visited? Where has not the Amer
ican citizen been able to stand beneath
it's guardian folds and defy the world ?
With what joy and eXultation seamen
n tourists have gaZed upon its stars
n stripes, read in it the history OF
their nations glory, received from il
the full sense Of security. and drawn
from 1t the inspirations of patriotism.
BY it. how many have sworn fealty tc
their country!
What bursts of magnificent elo-
quence it has called forth from Web
ster and from Everett! What lyric
strains of poetry from Drake and
Holmes! How many heroes it's folds
have covered in death! How many
have lived for it, and how many have
died for it! How many, living and
dying, have said, in their enthusiastic
devotion to it's honor. like that young
wounded sufferer in the streets Of Bal
timore, oh, the flag? the Stars .and
Stripes!" and. wherever tina flag has
gone it has been the herald of a better
day-it has been the pledge of freedom
of justice. of order. of civilization, and
of Christianity. Tyrants only have
hated it, and the enemies Of mankind
alone ave trampled it to the earth
All who sigh for the triumph of truth
n righteousness love and salute it
Rev. A. P. Putnam.
Our Centennial CeIehrafiop