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3, 1777, after which date it speedily came into general use in both the army and navy, as well as in civil life. It was first raised at sea on a warship when John Paul Jones sailed with the sloop Ranger from Portsmouth, N. H., on a memorable raid upon the coasts of the British Isles. That was on November 1, 1777, and the flag was specially made for Jones by some of the ladies of Portsmouth. Thirty days later he was at Nantes, France, first carrying the flag into a European port and securing for it recognition and a salute from a foreign power.

THE FLAG OF FIFTEEN STRIPES

The flag presently began to increase and multiply. Vermont came into the Union in 1791, and Kentucky in 1792, and wanted some recognition; wherefore on January 13, 1794, it was enacted that the flag should thereafter consist of fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, with the blue canton resting on the fifth red stripe and the stars in three horizontal rows of five each. That was our flag for twentythree years, including some of the most heroic and historic in our national life. When "The Star Spangled Banner" was written, ours was a flag of fifteen stars and fifteen stripes. The painting of Perry's victory, which hangs in the Capitol, shows another anachronism, the flag having only thirteen stripes.

THE FINAL DESIGN OF THE FLAG

But even when that change was made in 1794 there were those who perceived its folly, and protested against it, on the ground that further changes would have to be made, so that for a hundred years the flag would be unsettled and varying. Surely enough, in 1796 Tennessee was admitted to the Union, Ohio in 1803, Louisiana in 1812, Indiana

in 1816, and Mississippi in 1817; so that there were five new states without representation in the flag. That would not do, and so Peter H. Wendover, a Representative of New York, secured the appointment of a committee, which on January 2, 1817, reported a bill for remodeling the flag. This report was based upon suggestions which were made to the committee at Wendover's request by Captain Samuel Chester Reid, of the navy, the commander of the famous privateer General Armstrong in the War of 1812; and it provided for a flag of thirteen stripes, as at first, representing the thirteen original states, and of twenty stars, representing the increased number of states, a new star to be added thereafter for each new state, the star to be added on the Fourth of July following the admission of the state. That was enacted on April 4, 1818, and remains to this day the flag law of the nation.

Thus on July 4, 1818, the flag assumed the form of thirteen stripes and twenty stars. The number of stars thereafter increased automatically on the Fourth of July of each year named, on account of the admission of the states named, as follows: Twenty-one in 1819, for Illinois; 23 in 1820, Alabama and Maine; 24 in 1822, Missouri; 25 in 1836, Arkansas; 26 in 1837, Michigan; 27 in 1845, Florida; 28 in 1846, Texas; 29 in 1847, Iowa; 30 in 1848, Wisconsin; 31 in 1851, California; 32 in 1858, Minnesota; 33 in 1859, Oregon; 34 in 1861, Kansas; 35 in 1863, West Virginia; 36 in 1865, Nevada; 37 in 1867, Nebraska; 38 in 1877, Colorado; 43 in 1890, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington and Idaho; 44 in 1891, Wyoming; 45 in 1896, Utah; 46 in 1908, Oklahoma; 48 in 1912, Arizona and New Mexico. Thus in 140 years the Stars and Stripes has assumed no fewer than twenty-five different forms. As it is today, LONG MAY IT WAVE!

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EPILOGUE

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER

Oh! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and bright stars thro' the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming. And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. Oh! say, does the Star Spangled Banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen thro' the mist of the deep,

Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes. What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses? Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream.

'Tis the Star Spangled Banner, oh! long may it wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the bravel

Oh! thus be it ever when freemen shall stand

Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation, Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n-rescued land Praise the Pow'r that hath made and preserved us a nation. Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,

And this be our motto, "In God is our trust."

And the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

There are 64 pages of illustrations in this book, which, added to the 352 pages of text, make a total of 416 pages.

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