The magazine of American history with notes and queries . immense orb of the world in its revolutions.* * The language of the poet Manilius is : At Lyra diductes per coelum Cornibus interSidera conspicitur, qua quondam ceperat OrpheusOmne quod attigerit cantu, manes que ipsosFecit iter, domuit infernas carmine leges, THE STARS IN OUR FLAG I 5 I John Quincy Adams, when Secretary of State in 1820, substituted forthe arms of the United States, on its passports, contrary to the practiceof nations, the device above described of the lyre of Orpheus on theAdams heirloom. Under very special personal s
The magazine of American history with notes and queries . immense orb of the world in its revolutions.* * The language of the poet Manilius is : At Lyra diductes per coelum Cornibus interSidera conspicitur, qua quondam ceperat OrpheusOmne quod attigerit cantu, manes que ipsosFecit iter, domuit infernas carmine leges, THE STARS IN OUR FLAG I 5 I John Quincy Adams, when Secretary of State in 1820, substituted forthe arms of the United States, on its passports, contrary to the practiceof nations, the device above described of the lyre of Orpheus on theAdams heirloom. Under very special personal supervision of John QuincyAdams the lithographic stone for the United States passports bearingthis device was prepared with great care by Mr. Stone of Washington,an eminent graver and lithographer. Mr. Stone informed me that Secre-tary John Quincy Adams would never even hint to him why this changein the passports was made. When we consider the words of the resolve of June 14, 1777, abovequoted, especially the words, representing a new constellation, and. remembering the fact that the drawing of the first flag of the UnitedStates, in the State Department at Washington, represents the thirteenstars in a circle, it would seem to be suggested, that John Quincy Adams,by his new device, meant to preserve a silent record of an historicalfact, of which, as his father was concerned, modesty forbade a more obvi-ous record. If I be not mistaken, John Quincy Adams meant to show,that his father, John Adams, president of the Board of War, underwhose consideration the subject of the flag necessarily came—which per-force had to be made distinctive, as the colonies had become, or atleast had declared themselves, independent states—had proposed, that the Hinc celestis honos, similisque potentia causae :Tunc silvas et saxa trahens nunc sidera ducitEt rapidi immansam mundi revolubilis orbem. II., 331-337- I52 THE STARS IN OUR FLAG old constellation of the lyre of Orpheus, of thirteen stars, awa
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