(_June 14, 1917_)
My Fellow-citizens,--We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag
which we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our unity,
our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It has no other
character than that which we give it from generation to generation.
The choices are ours. It floats in majestic silence above the hosts
that execute those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet,
though silent, it speaks to us--speaks to us of the past, of the men
and women who went before us and of the records they wrote upon it.
We celebrate the day of its birth; and from its birth until now it
has witnessed a great history, has floated on high the symbol of
great events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great people.
We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it where it will draw
the fire of our enemies. We are about to bid thousands, hundreds of
thousands, it may be millions, of our men--the young, the strong, the
capable men of the nation--to go forth and die beneath it on fields
of blood far away--for what? For some unaccustomed thing? For
something for which it has never sought the fire before? American
armies were never before sent across the seas. Why are they sent now?
For some new purpose, for which this great flag has never been
carried before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for which
it has seen men, its own men, die on every battlefield upon which
Americans have borne arms since the Revolution?
These are questions which must be answered. We are Americans. We in
our turn serve America, and can serve her with no private purpose. We
must use her flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at
the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness what purpose it
is we seek to serve.