moods and passions, of heartbreaks
and tired muscles.

"Sometimes I am strong with pride, when men do an honest work, fitting
the rails together truly.

"Sometimes I droop, for then purpose has gone from me, and cynically I
play the coward.

"Sometimes I am loud, garish and full of that ego that blasts judgment.

"But always I am all that you hope to be, and have the courage to try
for.

"I am song and fear, struggle and panic, and ennobling hope.

"I am the day's work of the weakest man, and the largest dream of the
most daring.

"I am the Constitution and the courts, statutes and the statute makers,
soldier and dreadnaught, drayman and street sweep, cook, counselor, and
clerk.

"I am the battle of yesterday, and the mistake of to-morrow.

"I am the mystery of the men who do without knowing why.

"I am the clutch of an idea, and the reasoned purpose of resolution.

"I am no more than what you believe me to be and I am all that you
believe I can be.

"I am what you make me, nothing more.

"I swing before your eyes as a bright gleam of color, a symbol of
yourself, the pictured suggestion of that big thing which makes this
Nation. My stars and my stripes are your dream and your labors. They are
bright with cheer, brilliant with courage, firm with faith, because you
have made them so out of your hearts. For you are the makers of the flag
and it is well that you glory in the making."

THE FLAG OF THE UNION FOREVER

Speech of General Fitzhugh Lee at a dinner given by the Friendly
Sons of St. Patrick and the Hibernian Society of Philadelphia, at
the city of Philadelphia, September 17, 1887. The occasion of the
dinner was the one hundredth anniversary of the adoption of the
Constitution of the United States. General Lee, then governor of
Virginia, was the guest of Governor Beaver at the dinner. The
Chairman, Hon. Andrew G. Curtin [Pennsylvania's war governor], in
introducing General Lee said: "We have here to-day a gentleman whom
I am glad to call my friend, though during the war he was in
dangerous and unpleasant proximity to me. He once threatened the
capital of this great state. I did not wish him to come in, and was
very glad when he went away. He was then my enemy and I was his.
But, thank God, that is past; and in the enjoyment of the rights
and interests common to all as American citizens, I am his friend
and he is my fr