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PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

IN preparing this book in its permanent form, the errors of the press and of fact inseparable from the first issue of so novel and comprehensive a work have been corrected, much new matter has been added, and some of the original text discarded, in order to keep the book within reasonable limits, while the general plan and arrangement is the same. The colored plates also have been rearranged and changed, and the wood engravings largely increased, while the maps and autographies of national songs and documents are a new and distinct feature.

The aim of the book is to perpetuate and intensify a love for our Union, through the flag which symbolizes it. The story of Our flag and of the Southern flags in the Civil War show graphically the madness of the time, and will, it is hoped, serve to render the crime of secession hideous, and afford a moral aid towards preventing a recurrence of such fratricide against the life of the nation.

To my sensitive Southern friends who have objected to being called 'traitors' and 'rebels' I would say, those words are not intended in an offensive sense; and I respectfully refer them to General Jackson's opinion of nullification,

under his own hand, on page 354, and to the general dictionary definition :- TRAITOR. "One who violates his allegiance;" "one who takes arms and levies war against his country," &c. REBEL. "One who defies and seeks to overthrow the authority to which he is rightfully subject." I think, under these definitions, they must plead guilty to both counts. They were 'bad boys,' who barred themselves out, but, having returned to their allegiance, all that is forgiven; and, having learned by experience, it is hoped they will never again raise a hand to subvert the majesty and authority of the Union.

Although we are comparatively a new nation, our Stars and Stripes may to-day claim antiquity among national flags. They are older than the present flag of Great Britain, established in 1801; than the present flag of Spain, established in 1785; than the French tricolor, decreed in 1794; than the existing flag of Portugal, established in 1830; than the flag of the Empire of Germany, which represents the sovereignty of fourteen distinct flags and States, established in 1870; than the Italian tricolor, established in 1848; the Swedish Norwegian ensign; the recent flags of the old empires of China and Japan; or the flags of all the South American States, which have very generally been modelled from Our Flag.'

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I wish to return my acknowledgments to many old friends for their continued interest in my work, who have given me much valuable aid and information; and I would also thank the Hon. A. R. SPOFFORD, Librarian of Congress, H. A. HOMES, LL.D., Librarian of the New York State Library, Hon. WILLIAM A. COURTENAY, Mayor of Charleston, S. C., Hon. JOHN F. H. CLAIBORNE, of Natchez, ex-Governor of Mississippi, Colonel J. P. NICHOLSON, of

Philadelphia, Miss D. L. DIx, of Washington, D. C., and the authors of our songs who have furnished autograph copies of them, with many others too numerous to name here, but whose favors have been credited elsewhere in the text.

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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

PROUDHON, the French socialist, had a peculiar manner of proceeding in the composition of a work.

"When an idea struck him, he would write it out at length, generally in the shape of a newspaper article; then he would put it in an envelope, and whenever a new idea occurred to him, or he obtained additional information, he would write it on a piece of paper, and add it to the envelope. When a sufficient quantity of material was assembled, he would write an article for some review or magazine. This article he would place in a larger envelope, and add thoughts and information until, at last, the article became a book; and the day after the publication of his book, he would place it in a pasteboard box, and add thoughts and additional information as he came into possession of them."

Very much in the same way have these memoirs grown to the size of this volume. More than twenty years since, their compiler became interested in tracing out the first display of Our Flag on foreign seas, and the notes he then gathered resulted in the preparation of an article entitled "The First Appearance of the Flag of the Free," which was published in the "Portland Daily Advertiser," in 1853, and thence extensively copied into other journals. Around that article from time to time became concreted

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