Adams, John.
Adams, Samuel.
Bartlett, Josiah
Braxton, Carter
Carroll, Charles.
Chase, Samuel
Clark, Abraham
Clymer, George
Ellery, William
Floyd, William
Franklin, Benjamin
Gerry, Elbridge
Gwinnett, Button
Hall, Lyman
Hancock, John
Harrison, Benjamin
Hart, John
Hewes, Joseph
Heyward, Jr., Thomas
Hooper, William
Hopkins, Stephen
Hopkinson, Francis.
Huntington, Samuel.
Jefferson, Thomas.
Lee, Francis Lightfoot.
Lee, Richard Henry.
Lewis, Francis
Livingston, Philip
Lynch, Jr., Thomas
McKean, Thomas
Middleton, Arthur.
Morris, Lewis
Morris, Robert.
Morton, John
Nelson, Jr., Thomas
Paca, William
Paine, Robert Treat.
Penn, John
Read, George
Rodney, Caesar
Ross, George
Rush, Benjamin.
Rutledge, Edward .
Sherman, Roger.
Smith, James
Stockton, Richard
Stone, Thomas
Taylor, George
Thornton, Matthew
Walton, George
Whipple, William
Williams, William
Wilson, James
Witherspoon, John
Wolcott, Oliver
Wythe, George
Henry F. Graff
The great and beautiful Statue of Liberty
Here is another "Liberty
enlightening the world",
raised on Tiananmen
Square in June 1989
The Lady of Liberty is the symbol of freedom and stands high on Liberty
Island in the Bay of New York Harbour. It commemorates the alliance of
1778 between France and the United States.
92 m (302 ft) high with its pedestal, it represents a woman who just
won her freedom, she is holding a torch in her raised right hand and a
book of law bearing the date July 4, 1776, in her left, proclaiming liberty.
Broken shackles lie at her feet as she steps forward to enlighten the world.
On the pedestal a sonnet, "The New Colossus" (1883), by Emma Lazarus
is engraved. Emma Lazarus wrote the poem to raise funds for the pedestal:
The New Collossus
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land
to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall
stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes
command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities
frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!"
cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired,
your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost
to me, 
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi directed a team of sculptors
in France in 1875 to realize the statue, which funds had been contributed
by the French people, on a proposal made after the civil war by a French
historian, Edouard de Laboulaye.
The statue is made of copper sheets and was designed by Eugène-Emmanuel
Viollet-le-Duc and Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel.
In 1885 the completed statue was disassembled and shipped to New York
City on the French ship Isère.
Richard Morris Hunt is the American architect who designed the pedestal
which was completed later. The statue, mounted on its pedestal, was dedicated
by President Cleveland on Oct. 28, 1886.
The statue was declared a national monument by President Calvin Coolidge
in 1924. In 1956 Bedloe's Island was renamed Liberty Island, and in 1965
nearby Ellis Island, once the point of entry for millions of immigrants,
was added, bringing the monument's total area to about 24 ha (58 ac).
The Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor has been for many generations
of immigrants and visitors both the first glimpse of the United States
and an unforgettable vision of what the country stands for.
Liberty is and has always been the symbol
for those yearning to be free.
The American flag is also known as The Old Glory or the
Star-Spangled Banner consisting of white stars (50 from July 4,
1960) on a blue canton, with a field of 13 alternate stripes, 7 red and
6 white. The 50 stars stand for the 50 states of the Union, and the 13
stripes stand for the original 13 states.
On June 14th, 1777, the Continental Congress adopted the first official
American flag. Stars and stripes, with a blue canton meant to receive 13
stars, in an undefined pattern. See below examples of known official flags.
( examples )
In 1818, Congress issued a legislation, which has been ruling
the system ever since : the flag has 13 stripes and the number of stars
always matches the number of states. The new stars are added on the 4th
of July.
In 1912 and 1934, the shapes and colors were standardized to be what
we see today.
Want to know more about the flag? click
here
How to treat the flag
Display of the flag is a sign of respect and love of the nation.
The flag should not be flown in bad weather (unless it is made of all-weather
material) or, in most cases, at night. The flag may be flown at night,
if illuminated, at a sports event or other public assembly.
The flag is also flown at night during wartime by forts, ships, and
forces engaged in battle.
In peacetime the flag of the United States flies at night only at certain
places
designated by Congress. [....]
The flag should be displayed on all days, but especially New Year's
Day, Inauguration Day, Lincoln's Birthday, Washington's Birthday, Easter
Sunday, Mother's Day, Armed Forces Day, Memorial Day (half-staff until
noon), Flag Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Constitution Day,
Columbus Day, Navy Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day,
any other special days proclaimed by the President of the United States,
and the birthdays of states (date of admission) and state holidays.
Flag display should be on or near the main building of all public institutions,
on or near all school buildings on school days, and in or near all polling
places on election days.
When carried in a procession with another flag or flags, the flag of
the United States should be either on the marching right, that is, the
flag's own right, or, if there is a line of other flags, in front of the
center of that line. When on a float in a parade, the flag should be displayed
from a staff.
The flag should never be draped over the hood, top, sides, or back of
a vehicle or of a railroad train or boat. When the flag is displayed on
a motor car, the staff should be fixed firmly to the chassis or clamped
to the right fender. No other flag or pennant should be placed above it,
or, if on the same level, to
the right of it, except during church services conducted by naval chaplains
at sea, when the church pennant may be flown above the flag.
The U.S. flag, when displayed with another flag against a wall from
crossed staffs, should be on the right, the flag's own right, and its staff
should be in front of the other staff.
When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the
union should be uppermost and to the flag's own right, that is, to the
observer's left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed
in the same way.
The U.S. flag should be at the center and at the highest point of the
group, when a number of flags of states, cities, localities, or pennants
of societies are grouped and displayed from staffs.
When flags of states, cities, localities, or pennants of societies
are flown on the same halyard with the U.S. flag, the latter should always
be at the peak.
When the flags are flown from adjacent staffs, the U.S. flag should
be hoisted first and lowered last. No flag or pennant may be placed above
the U.S. flag, or to its right.
When flags of two or more nations are displayed, they are to be flown
from separate staffs of the same height and the flags should be approximately
the same size. International usage forbids the display of the flag of one
nation above that of another nation in time of peace.
When the flag is displayed from a staff projecting horizontally or at
an angle from the windowsill, balcony, or front of a building, the union
of the flag should be placed at the peak of the staff unless the flag is
at half-staff. When the flag is
suspended over a sidewalk from a rope extending from a house to a pole
at the edge of the sidewalk, the flag should be hoisted out, union first,
from the building.
When the flag is displayed otherwise than by being flown from a staff,
it should be displayed flat, whether indoors or out, or so suspended that
its folds fall as free as though the flag were staffed. When the flag is
displayed over the middle of the street, it should be suspended vertically
with the union to the north in an east and west street, or to the east
in a north and south street.
When used on a speaker's platform, the flag, if displayed flat, should
be displayed above and behind the speaker. When displayed from a staff
in a church or public auditorium, the U.S. flag should hold the position
of superior prominence, in advance of the audience, and in the position
of honor at the
clergyman's or speaker's right as he faces the audience. Any other
flag so displayed should be placed on the left of the clergyman or speaker
or to the right of the audience.
The flag should form a distinctive feature of the ceremony of unveiling
a statue or monument, but it should never be used as the covering for the
statue or monument.
The flag, when flown at half-staff, should be first hoisted to the peak
for an instant and then lowered to the half-staff position. The flag should
be again raised to the peak before it is lowered for the day. On Memorial
Day the flag should be displayed at half-staff until noon only, then raised
to the top of the staff.
By "half-staff" is meant lowering the flag to one half the distance
between the top and bottom of the staff. Black crepe streamers may be affixed
to spearheads or flagstaffs in a parade only by the order of the president
of the United States.
When the flag is used to cover a casket, it should be so placed that
the union is at the head and over the left shoulder. The flag should not
be lowered into the grave or allowed to touch the ground.
No disrespect should be shown to the flag; it should not be dipped to
any person or thing. Regimental, state, organization, or institution flags
are dipped as a mark of honor.
The flag should never be displayed with the union down save as a signal
of dire distress, it should never touch anything beneath it, such as the
ground, the floor, water, or merchandise, and it should never be carried
flat or horizontally,
but always aloft and free. The flag should never be used as drapery,
never festooned, drawn back, nor up in folds, but always allowed to fall
free. Instead, bunting of blue, white, and red, arranged with the blue
above, white in the middle, and red below should be used for covering a
speaker's desk, draping
the front of a platform, and for decoration in general. The flag should
never be fastened, displayed, used, or stored in such manner as will permit
it to be easily torn, soiled, or damaged in any way. It should never be
used as a covering for a ceiling. The flag should never have placed upon
it, nor any part of it,
nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design,
picture, or drawing of any nature. It should never be used for receiving,
holding, carrying, or delivering anything.
The flag should never be used for advertising purposes in any manner
whatsoever. It should not be embroidered on such articles as cushions or
handkerchiefs and the like, printed or otherwise impressed on paper napkins
or boxes or anything that is designed for temporary use and discard; or
used as any portion of a costume or athletic uniform. Advertising signs
should not be fastened to a staff or halyard from which the flag is flown.
When the flag is no longer a fitting emblem for display, it should be destroyed
in a dignified way, preferably by burning (privately).
On July 9, 1953, a public law was approved that stated:
No person shall display the Flag of the United Nations or any other
national or international flag equal, above, or in a position of superior
prominence or honor to, or in place of, the Flag of the United States at
any place within the United States or any Territory or possession thereof:
Provided, that nothing shall make unlawful the continuance of the practice
heretofore followed of displaying the Flag of the United Nations in a position
of superior prominence or honor, and other national flags in positions
of equal prominence or honor, with that of the Flag of the United States
at the eadquarters of the United Nations.
Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, gives his idea on the colors of the flag : "White signifies purity and innocence, Red, hardiness & valour, and Blue . . . signifies vigilence, perseverence & justice."
The War of Independence
