[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 79 (Friday, June 14, 2002)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5618-S5619]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           NATIONAL FLAG DAY

  Mr. BYRD. Madam President, the first national observance of Flag Day 
occurred on June 14, 1877, when Congress ordered that the flag be flown 
over public buildings every June 14. June 14 officially became National 
Flag Day when President Truman signed an act of Congress on August 3, 
1949. This year marks the 225th anniversary of the signing of the Flag 
Act resolution on June 14, 1777. What a historic day this is, June 14. 
The resolution was a model of simplicity in just 32 words:

       Resolved that the flag of the United States be made of 13 
     stripes, alternative red and white; that the Union be 13 
     stars, white in a blue field, representing a new 
     constellation.

  Thus, was our national flag established. The last phrase 
``representing a new constellation'' carries tremendous weight in just 
four words. The new United States of America was truly a new 
constellation in the firmament of nation states, and it blazes just as 
brightly today, 225 years later.
  The poet, Joseph Rodman Drake, said it best, in the ``American 
Flag.''

     When freedom from her mountain height
     Unfurled her standard to the air,
     She tore the azure robe of night,
     And set the stars of glory there.
     She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
     The milky baldric of the skies.
     Then from his mansion in the sun
     She called her eagle bearer down,
     And gave into his mighty hand
     The symbol of her chosen land.

  So our flag, our standard, is known throughout the world and beyond. 
No other flag flies on the face of the Moon. Our flag is instantly 
recognizable in every capital and in the emptiest quarters of the 
world. Even those who revile that flag, even those who would attack 
that flag in our Nation, recognize America's dominant, even preeminent, 
role in world affairs, symbolized by that flag.
  There it stands. For over 200 years, the American flag has led the 
way. It took us west to California, a great State--one of whose 
Senators at this moment presides over the Senate with a degree of 
decorum, aplomb and dignity that is so rare as a day in June.
  Yes, it took us west to California, north to Alaska. It led brave men 
to the North and South Poles. It has flown atop Mount Everest. It has 
been emblazoned in the sides of deep-diving submarines. It has led 
charges. It has held fast against terrible odds, and it has risen from 
the ashes to soar over Iwo Jima and the World Trade Towers. In every 
bleak hour, the snap and the crack of that mighty banner has rallied 
our courage and given us hope.
  Without words, the American flag instantly sums up all that is best 
about our Nation: Our courage, our leadership, our generosity, our 
determination, our freedom.
  That first Flag Act forever shaped our flag, but in the early years 
of the Nation, several variations existed for the Flag Act was not 
precise about the exact arrangement of the stars. As new States joined 
the Union, additional stripes, as well as additional stars, were added 
to the flag.
  An act passed in 1794, for example, provided for 15 stripes and 15 
stars after May 1795. By 1818, the flag was growing unwieldy, and a 
subsequent act of April 4, 1818, signed by President Monroe, provided 
for 13 stripes for the original 13 colonies and one star for each State 
to be added to the flag on the 4th of July following admission of each 
new State to the Union.
  Almost a century later on June 24, 1912, which is the year the great 
Titanic went down--1,570 people lost their lives that year on April 15, 
1912--

[[Page S5619]]

an Executive Order of President Taft established the proportion of the 
flag and set the arrangement of the stars in six horizontal rows of 
eight each, a single point of each star to be upward.
  The continued expansion of the United States required further 
modification to the flag, and an Executive Order of President 
Eisenhower, dated January 3, 1959--I was here at that time--provided 
for the arrangement of the stars in seven rows of seven stars each 
staggered horizontally and vertically.
  A quick schoolchild who knows his or her multiplication table, 
sometimes referred to as the times table, knows that 7 times 7 is 49.
  With the addition of Hawaii to the Union in 1959, a further Executive 
Order on August 21, 1959, was required to establish the flag as we know 
it today with the stars in nine rows staggered horizontally, and 11 
rows staggered vertically.
  Will the flag change again as it has in the past? I do not know. But 
some things will never change. The love and respect that patriotic 
Americans have for this chosen symbol of our native land will never 
die, so long as the Government remains true to the spirit and the words 
of this Constitution, which I hold in my hand.

  Equally immutable is the power of our flag to lift our hopes and our 
morale. The blossoming of flags across the Nation on and after 
September 11 has proved that Old Glory, Old Glory, Old Glory, the Stars 
and Stripes, by any name, is our own beloved flag. And there it stands 
in all its glory, beside the Presiding Officer of the Senate.
  Madam President, hats off to the flag! That is the appropriate 
response to the sight of an American flag passing by. To my mind, no 
one has ever said it better than Henry Holcomb Bennett, in his stirring 
poem ``The Flag Goes By.'' Let it be my salute and birthday salutation 
to the American flag. Long my she wave!

                            The Flag Goes By

     Hats off!
     Along the street there comes
     A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums,
     A flash of color beneath the sky:
     Hats off!
     The flag is passing by!

     Blue and crimson and white it shines,
     Over the steel-tipped, ordered lines.
     Hats off!
     The colors before us fly;
     But more than the flag is passing by.

     Sea-fights and land-fights, grim and great,
     Fought to make and save the State:
     Weary marches and sinking ships;
     Cheers of victory on dying lips;

     Days of plenty and years of peace;
     March of a strong land's swift increase;
     Equal justice, right, and law,
     Stately honor and reverend awe;

     Sign of a nation, great and strong
     To ward her people from foreign wrong:
     Pride and glory and honor,--all
     Live in the colors to stand or fall.

     Hats off!
     Along the street there comes
     A blare of bugles, a ruffle of drums;
     And loyal hearts are beating high:
     Hats off!
     The flag is passing by!

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