rcuit and receive the
current of electricity through your body.

From American Red Cross Text Book on Elementary Hygiene and Home Care of
the Sick.

Part VI

PATRIOTISM

History of the Flag

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. By this the
united colonies dissolved all the ties that bound them to England and
became an independent nation, the United States. It was immediately
necessary to adopt a new flag, as the new nation would not use the union
jack. Congress appointed a committee, consisting of George Washington,
Robert Morris, and Colonel Ross, to design a flag. They got Mrs. Betsey
Ross, who kept an upholstery shop at 239 Arch Street, Philadelphia, to
help plan and to make the new flag. They kept the thirteen stripes of
the colonies' flag, and replaced the union jack by a blue field bearing
thirteen stars, arranged in a circle. On June 14, 1777, Congress passed
the resolution adopting this flag.

Resolved: That the flag of the thirteen United States be
thirteen stripes, alternate red and white: that the Union be
thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new
constellation.

George Washington said: "We take the star from Heaven, the red from our
mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we
have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to
posterity representing liberty."

This new flag was first carried into battle at Port Stanwix, in August,
1777.

At first when new States came into the Union, a new stripe and a new
star were added to the flag, but it was soon evident that the added
stripes would make it very unwieldy. So on April 4, 1818, Congress
passed this act, to establish the flag of the United States.

SEC. 1. Be it enacted, etc. That from and after the fourth day
of July next, the flag of the United States be thirteen
horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; that the Union
have twenty stars, white in a blue field.

SEC. 2. Be it further enacted, that, on the admission of every
new State into the Union, one star be added to the Union of the
flag; and that such addition shall take effect on the fourth
day of July succeeding such admission.

In our flag today the thirteen stripes symbolize the thirteen original
States, and the blue field bears forty-eight stars, one for each State
in the Union. The five-pointed star is used, it is said, at Betse