nd establish
this Constitution for the United States of America." Such has been,
then, and always must be, our programme--the chart and compass of all
our ways.

The American Flag

"_A star for every state and a state for every star_."

The flag of one's country is its dearest possession--emblem of home,
and country, and native land. This is what one thinks and feels when
he sees the flag, and this is what it means. Our flag is the emblem of
liberty--the emblem of hope--the emblem of peace and good-will toward
men.

There is a story, quite generally believed, that the first flag was
planned and made in 1776 by Betsy Ross, who kept an upholstery shop on
Arch Street, Philadelphia, and that this, a year later, was adopted by
Congress. The special committee appointed to design a national flag
consisted of George Washington, Robert Morris, and Col. George Ross,
uncle of the late husband of Betsy Ross. The star that the committee
decided upon had six points, but Mrs. Ross advised the five-pointed
star, which has ever since been used in the United States flag. The
flag thus designed was colored by a local artist, and from this
colored copy Betsy Ross made the first American flag.

When Washington was in command at Cambridge, in January, 1776, the
flag used by him consisted of a banner of {340} thirteen red and white
stripes with the British Union Jack in the upper left-hand comer.

The Betsy Ross house has been purchased by the American Flag House and
Betsy Ross Memorial Association, and is pointed out as one of the
interesting historical places in Philadelphia.

The official history of our flag begins on June 14, 1777, when the
American Congress adopted the following resolution proposed by John
Adams:

Resolved: That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen
stripes, alternate red and white: that the Union be thirteen stars,
white on a blue field, representing a new constellation.

"We take," said Washington, "the star from Heaven, the red from our
mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we
have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to
posterity representing liberty."

In designing the flag there was much discussion as to the arrangement
of the stars in the field of blue. It was thought at one time that a
new stripe as well as a new star should be added for each new state
admitted to the Union. Indeed, in 1794, Congress passed an act to the
effect t