FOOTNOTE:
[34] From the "True Grandeur of Nations," delivered in Boston, July 4,
1845.
THE AMERICAN FLAG[35]
HENRY WARD BEECHER
A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag only,
but the nation itself; and whatever may be its symbols, its insignia, he
reads chiefly in the flag the government, the principles, the truths,
the history, which belong to the nation which sets it forth.
When the French tricolor rolls out to the wind, we see France. When the
new-found Italian flag is unfurled, we see resurrected Italy. When the
other three-cornered Hungarian flag shall be lifted to the wind, we
shall see in it the long-buried but never dead principles of Hungarian
liberty. When the united crosses of St. Andrew and St. George on a fiery
ground set forth the banner of Old England, we see not the cloth merely;
there rises up before the mind the noble aspect of that monarchy, which,
more than any other on the globe, has advanced its banner for liberty,
law, and national prosperity. This nation has a banner, too; and
wherever it streamed abroad, men saw daybreak bursting on their eyes,
for the American flag has been the symbol of liberty, and men rejoiced
in it.
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