Flag of the brave! thy folds shall fly, Like shoots of flame on midnight's pall: Flag of the seas! on ocean wave Flag of the free heart's hope and home! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! THE SYMBOL OF OUR NATION1 HENRY WARD BEECHER (1813-1887) A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag but the nation itself. And whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the flag, the government, the principles, the truths, the history, that belong to the nation that sets it forth. When the French tricolor rolls out to the wind, we see France. When the new-found Italian flag is unfurled, we see resurrected Italy. When the united crosses of St. Andrew and St. George, on a fiery ground, set forth the banner of Old England, we see not the cloth merely there rises up before the mind the idea of that great monarchy which, more than any other on the globe, has advanced its banner for liberty, law, and national prosperity. This nation has a banner, too; and until recently, wherever it has streamed abroad, men saw daybreak bursting on their eyes. For until lately the American flag has been the symbol of Liberty, and men rejoiced in it. Not another flag on the globe had such an errand, or 1 Mr. Beecher was the most distinguished and popular preacher of his generation. During the Civil War he represented the spirit of America to England, and in the years following led the religious thought and popular conscience of his own time. From "The National Flag," in "Freedom and War." Published by Ticknor and Field, Boston, 1863. went forth upon the sea, carrying everywhere, the world around, such hope to the captive and such glorious tidings. The stars upon it were to the pining nations like the bright morning stars of God, and the stripes upon it were beams of morning light. As at early dawn the stars shine forth even while it grows light, and then as the sun advances that light breaks into banks and streaming lines of color, the glowing red and intense white striving together and ribbing the horizon with bars effulgent, so on the American flag, stars and beams of many-colored light shine out together. And wherever this flag comes, and men behold it, they see in its sacred emblazonry no ramping lion and no fierce eagle; no embattled castles, or insignia of imperial authority; they see the symbols of light. It is the Banner of Dawn; it means Liberty. Consider the men who devised and set forth this banner; they were men that had taken their lives in their hands and consecrated all their worldly possessions for what? For the doctrines and for the personal fact, of liberty for the right of all men to liberty. If any one, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say to him, It means just what Concord and Lexington meant; what Bunker Hill meant; it means the whole glorious Revolutionary War, which was, in short, the rising up of a valiant young people against an old tyranny to establish the most momentous doctrine that the world had ever known, or has since known, the right of men to their own selves and to their liberties. The history of this banner is all on the side of rational liberty. Under it rode Washington and his armies; before it Burgoyne laid down his arms. It waved on the highlands of West Point; it floated over old Fort Mont gomery. When Arnold would have surrendered these valuable fortresses and precious legacies, his night was turned into day, and his treachery was driven away, by the beams of light from this starry banner. It cheered our army, driven out from around New York, and in their painful pilgrimages through New Jersey. This banner streamed in light over the soldiers' heads at Valley Forge and at Morristown. It crossed the waters rolling with ice at Trenton; and when its stars gleamed in the cold morning with victory, a new day of hope dawned on the despondency of this nation. And when at length the long years of war were drawing to a close, underneath the folds of this immortal banner sat Washington, while Yorktown surrendered its hosts, and our Revolutionary struggle ended with victory. How glorious, then, has been its origin! How glorious has been its history! How divine is its meaning! In all the world is there another banner that carries such hope, such grandeur of spirit, such soul-inspiring truth, as our dear old American flag? made by liberty, made for liberty, nourished in its spirit, carried in its service, and never, not once, in all the earth made to stoop to despotism! Accept it, then, in all its fullness of meaning. It is not a painted rag. It is a whole national history. It is the Constitution. It is the government. It is the free people that stand in the government, on the Constitution. Forget not what it means; and for the sake of its ideas, rather than its mere emblazonry, be true to your country's flag. By your hands lift it; but let your lifting be no holiday display. It must be advanced "because of the truth." A SONG FOR FLAG DAY1 WILBUR DICK NESBIT (1871- ) Your flag and my flag! The stripes forever gleam; The good forefathers' dream; Sky-blue and true blue, with stars to gleam aright – The gloried guidon of the day; a shelter through the night. Your flag and my flag! And oh, how much it holds Your land and my land — Secure within its folds! The one flag the great flag you the flag for me and Glorified all else beside the red and white and blue! Your flag and my flag! To every star and stripe The drums beat as hearts beat And fifers shrilly pipe! 1 From "The Trail to Boyland," by Wilbur D. Nesbit. right, 1904, by The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Indianapolis. Used by special permission of the publishers. Copy |