[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12724]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           OUR AMERICAN FLAG

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Critz) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CRITZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize this July 4th as 
the 234th anniversary of our great country and also as the 50th 
anniversary of the Stars and Stripes that fly above our Capitol and 
across our Nation today. On July 4, 1960, the red, white, and blue flag 
rose high above our Nation as an emblem of our national pride and 
freedom, representing the now 50 States that came together to form a 
more perfect union.
  Old Glory originally came to be by an act of the Second Continental 
Congress on June 14, 1777. It is marked in the journal of the 
Continental Congress ``that the flag of the United States be made of 13 
stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be 13 stars, white in 
a blue field, representing a new Constellation.''
  From this day forward, the symbol of our great Nation was born. The 
flag itself was not produced until the late 18th century, characterized 
by the famous circle of 13 stars representing the 13 original colonies 
of Delaware, the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
Georgia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maryland, South Carolina, New 
Hampshire, Virginia, New York, North Carolina, and Rhode Island.
  Although not enunciated by any act of Congress, the colors of the 
flag have come to have a special meaning. In a report written by 
Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson, the colors and 
the seal of the United States are defined as: white, signifying purity 
and innocence; red, hardiness and valor; and blue, signifying 
vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
  Through the centuries of its existence, the flag has undergone a 
number of changes. The first went into effect after the signing of the 
Flag Act of 1794 by President George Washington. This act of Congress 
changed the number of stars on the flag to 15 to accommodate for 
Kentucky and Vermont, the newly admitted States into the Union. It also 
called for 15 stripes to go on the flag, the only official flag not to 
possess 13 stripes.
  The Flag Act of 1818, signed into law by President James Monroe, the 
last Founding Father to serve as President, set the common standard for 
today's flag. It pronounced that all official United States flags must 
have 13 stripes to represent the original 13 colonies and one star to 
represent each State in the Union.
  The final change to our Nation's great emblem of freedom came by an 
Executive order issued in 1959 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. It 
announced the addition of Hawaii into the Union and also prescribed the 
arrangement of the stars in nine rows staggered horizontally and 11 
rows of stars staggered vertically.
  More than 1,500 designs for the new flag were submitted to the White 
House. It was a 50-star flag created for a class project by a young man 
named Robert Heft that would become adopted by our country. Young 
Robert, a 17-year-old student from Lancaster, Ohio, originally received 
a B minus for the project. Our Nation received a new symbol of our 
freedom.
  As stated by law, on July 4 of the following year, the flag was 
hoisted up and now stands as the great emblem of our Nation. It is with 
purity in our hearts that every American, especially our valorous 
servicemembers here at home and abroad, look to the red, white, and 
blue for vigilance, perseverance, and justice.
  As we all celebrate our Nation's birth this Fourth of July, I would 
like to reflect upon our independence, our values, and what it means to 
be an American as a fitting tribute to the 50th anniversary of the 
current flag of the United States of America.

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