What is your mission now, Old Flag? What but to set all people free, To rid the world of misery, To guard the right, avenge the wrong, And gather in one joyful throng Beneath your folds in close embrace All burdened ones of every race, Old Flag?
Right nobly do you lead the way, Old Flag, Your stars shine out for liberty. Your white stripes stand for purity, Your crimson claims that courage high For Honor's sake to fight and die. Lead on against the alien shore! We'll follow you e'en to Death's door, Old Flag!
What is the voice I hear On the winds of the western sea? Sentinel, listen from out Cape Clear And say what the voice may be. 'Tis a proud free people calling loud to a people proud and free.
And it says to them: "Kinsmen, hail; We severed have been too long. Now let us have done with a worn-out tale-- The tale of an ancient wrong-- And our friendship last long as love doth last and be stronger than death is strong."
Answer them, sons of the self-same race, And blood of the self-same clan; Let us speak with each other face to face And answer as man to man, And loyally love and trust each other as none but free men can.
Now fling them out to the breeze, Shamrock, Thistle, and Rose, And the Star-Spangled Banner unfurl with these-- A message of friends and foes Wherever the sails of peace are seen and wherever the war wind blows--
A message to bond and thrall to wake, For wherever we come, we twain, The throne of the tyrant shall rock and quake, And his menace be void and vain, For you are lords of a strong young land and we are lords of the main.
Yes, this is the voice on the bluff March gale; We severed have been too long, But now we are done with a worn-out tale-- The tale of an ancient wrong-- And our friendship shall last long as love doth last and be stronger than death is strong.
[A portion of an address delivered by the Secretary of the Interior to the employees of the Department of the Interior, on Flag Day, 1914.]
This morning as I passed into the Land Office, The Flag dropped me a most cordial salutation, and from its rippling folds I heard it say: "Good-morning Mr. Flag Maker."
"I beg your pardon, Old Glory," I said, "aren't you mistaken? I am not the President of the United States, nor a member of Congress, nor even a general in the army. I am only a Government clerk."