From the N. Y. Evening Post. Kingston, Feb. 1st, 1850. 593 been behind a counter; but he made no allusion to the other report. IT will be sixteen years next August since this ball, and no other equally favorable opportu Ill-health unfortunately prevented my attending slavery was abolished on this island, and the ap-nity was presented during my stay upon the island prenticeship system, which took its place, was to observe the extent to which, in their social abolished four years later. Since that period, the relations, the prejudices of color have been obliterlaws have recognized no distinctions of color among ated. the inhabitants. The black people have enjoyed the same political privileges as the whites, and with them have shared the honors and the patronage of the mother and the local governments. The effect of this policy upon the people of color may be partially anticipated; but one accustomed to the proscribed condition of the free blacks in the United States, will constantly be startled at the diminished importance attached here to the matter of complexion. Intermarriages are constantly occurring between the white and colored people, and their families associate together within the ranks to which by wealth and culture they respectively belong, and public opinion does not recognize any social distinctions based exclusively upon color. Of course, cultivated or fashionable people will not receive colored persons of inferior culture and worldly resources, but the rule of discrimination is scarcely more rigorous against these than against whites. They are received at the "King's House" -it is thus the governor's residence is styled-and they are invited to his table with fastidious courtesy. The wife of the present mayor of Kingston is a "brown" woman-that is the name given to all the intermediate shades between a decided white and decided black complexion-so also is the wife of the receiver-general himself, one of the most exalted public functionaries upon the island. A circumstance occurred shortly after I arrived, which may be interesting to some in this connection. It was proposed by some of the officers stationed near Kingston, and gentlemen resident in and about the city, to give a public ball. They proceeded to engage the theatre for the occasion. Some Jews, who as a class incline to indemnify themselves for their exclusion from the society of the whites by striking an alliance with the people of color, circulated among the latter a report that the committee on invitations to the ball had resolved that "no colored person, Jew, or dog," should be invited. Of course the story produced considerable excitement among those most concerned. 66 The theatre belongs to the city. The committee on the theatre" in the Common Council, composed of a majority of brown men, quietly turned the key of the theatre, and excluded the artisans sent to arrange it for the festival. The ball had to be postponed in consequence, and finally took place at the Camp, a much more desirable place in every particular. I was assured, by members of the ball committee, that the Jews' report was false altogether --that they had resolved upon no such exclusions. They did not propose to invite Jews, because there had heretofore been no social intercourse between them and their respective families, nor did it appear that either party desired any; but they said that invitations had been sent to the daughters of the receiver-general, and of the mayor-all, as I have before mentioned, browns. Before the ball took place, I believe the colored people became satisfied that they had been deceived, for a brown gentleman spoke to me with some bitterness of a determination formed by the committee on invitations, as he professed to know of his own knowledge, to invite to the ball no persons who had ever VOL. XXIV. 38 CCCVI. LIVING AGE. amalgamation of races has gone here, is constantly One unacquainted with the extent to which the liable to drop remarks in the presence of white perthat may have taken place in some branch of their sons, which, in consequence of the mixture of blood families, are likely to be very offensive. I was only protected from frequent contre temps of this kind, by the timely caution of a lady, who, in explaining its propriety, said that unless one knows the whole collateral kindred of a family in Jamaica he is not safe in assuining that they have not some colored connections. island is a colored man, who was educated at an One of the most distinguished barristers on the English university, and ate his terms at Lincoln's Inn, as must 1 barristers who wish to practise here; the judicial authorities of the island having no power to admit any one to practise the law in any of its departments. This is a circumstance, by the way, which has given to Jamaica a bar of rare culture and talent. in Kingston when I arrived, Sir Joshua Rowe preIt so happened that the Surry Assize was sitting siding. I availed myself of the courtesy of a professional friend, and accompanied him one day to the court, while in session. Though the room contained a crowd of people, there did not appear and bar inclusive. to be twenty white persons among them, the court sitting at the barristers' table, and the jury-box Two colored lawyers were was occupied by twelve men, all but three of whom were colored, and all but two, who were negroes, were Jews. Two witnesses were examined before I left the room, both of whom were colored and both police officers. All the officers of the court, except the clerk, were also colored. I was assured that more than seven tenths of the whole police force of the island, amounting to about eight hundred men, are colored. Judging from the proportion that fell under my observation, this estimate cannot be far from correct. But what will the southern in the legislative assembly of Jamaica, composed readers of the Evening Post say, when I add, that of fifty-six or fifty-seven British subjects, some ten or a dozen are colored men? Nay more, the public printers of the legislature, Messrs. Jordan & Osborn, are both colored men, and are likewise editors of the leading government paper, the Kingston Journal. acquaintance of one of the most highly cultivated It was my privilege the other day to make the men I ever met, upon whose complexion the accidents of birth had left a tinge which betrayed the African bar on his escutcheon. man, about forty-five years of age, I judged, and He is a brown was educated in one of the English universities, where he enjoyed every advantage which wealth could procure for his improvement. His appear ance and address both indicate superior refinement. He enjoys an enviable reputation as a naturalist, and has published a volume on the birds of Jamaica, illustrated by his own pencil, which displays both literary and scientific merit of a high order. He is one of the stipendiary magistrates of the island; upon a salary of £500 sterling per annum. Mr. Hill-for there can be no impropriety in my mentioning a name which its owner has made so honorable-stated to me an extraordinary fact in the cultivation of the pimento, which is worth repeating, and lest no more favorable opportunity may occur, I will mention it here. empire. They were obliged to abscond, precip itately, to save their lives. Many of them took ref uge in Jamaica. I visited one who cultivates a small plantation of about twenty acres, near Kingston. Nothing about him but his complexion and his hair indicated African blood. He had a fine, intelligent counte admirable culture, and displayed skill, industry and thrift. His tobacco beds were his pride, but around them the rarest tropical fruits and vegetables to be found upon the island were growing in luxuriant perfection. He had been stripped of most of his property by the emperor, but he was living here in apparent comfort and respectability. Upon the walls of the room in which my companion and The island of Jamaica furnishes nine tenths of all the pimento that is the subject of commerce through-nance, and good address. His grounds were under out the world. And yet, Mr. Hill says, that there is not a pimento walk on the island which has been cultivated from seed planted by human hands. On the contrary, all the seed is scattered about with the rejectamenta of the birds, and when it comes up, the bushes and shrubbery by which it happens to be surrounded, are cut away from about it, and thus the pimento walk is laid out. The same thing, he said, was true of the guava. He inti-myself were shown, were suspended two portraits, mated an impression that a proper analysis of the soil in which the seed germinated would probably reveal the secret, hitherto inviolate, by the aid of which the pimento could be cultivated like other fruit from its seed. one of his wife and the other of his daughter, who, he informed me, is now in Paris, at school. If the likeness be correct, the original must be exceedingly beautiful. The paintings were both of superior merit as works of art. His wife had not been permitted by the emperor This statement becomes the more astonishing when the fact is considered that Jamaica has ex-to join him, nor did he enjoy very frequent opporported over three millions of pounds of this spice in a single year. tunities of hearing from her. He alluded to his domestic sorrows with great feeling, but, with a Frenchman's hopefulness, he looked for a time when justice should be done to him, and to the tyrant through whom he suffered. Spanishtown, Jan. 30, 1850. It is the policy of the present administration, both in Downing street and Spanishtown, to promote intercourse in every possible way between the different races in Jamaica, and throughout the British West India Islands; and to this end the colored people are familiarized as rapidly as possi- St. Jago de la Vega, now and for more than ble with the political duties of the citizen-as John hundred years past called Spanishtown by the Bull understands them. They have certainly a people, is the political centre of the island. It lies fair share of the public patronage; indeed, they are about east of Kingston, and is reached by travers esteemed the favorites of the government; there ing twelve out of the only fourteen miles of railare one or two black regiments here constantly road in Jamaica. The inhabitants do nothing here under pay they furnish nine tenths of the officers in a hurry, and it is not surprising, therefore, that of the penitentiary, and, as I have before said, the average time made by the trains between the almost the entire police force of the island, and two cities is not less than forty-five minutes, or ultimately, I have reason to believe, it is the ex-fifteen miles the hour, for which passengers are expectation of the home government that these islands, without changing their colonial relations, will be substantially abandoned by the white population, and their local interests left to the exclusive management of the people of color. But more of this anon. pected to pay the sum of seventy-five cents. Spanishtown is one of the oldest places on this continent. It is supposed to have been founded by Diego Columbus, the brother of the discoverer, in 1523. No one who visits the place now, will dis pute its antiquity, nor experience much difficulty in believing that all the houses at present standing, were built before Diego left the island, so old and ruinous is their general appearance. While the entente cordiale between the whites and the colored people is apparently strengthening daily, a very different state of feeling exists between the negroes or Africans, and the browns. The The governor's residence is here; here the Par latter shun all connection by marriage with the liament holds its session uniformly, and the supe former, and can experience no more unpardonable rior courts occasionally; and here are the governinsult than to be classified with them in any way.ment offices and public records. The occupants They generally prefer that their daughters should live with a white person upon any terms, than be married to a negro. It is their ambition that their offspring should be light-complexioned, and there are few sacrifices they will not make to accomplish that result, whether married or not. Color, with them, in a measure, marks rank, and they have the same fear of being confounded with what they deem an inferior caste, that is so often exhibited by vulgar people, who have no ascertained or fixed Social position. of these public buildings, and the persons employed about them, represent the wealth, intelligence, and industry of the city. I did not see a store in the place, though there may have been one or two, perhaps; it has not a single respectable hotel, nor did I see a dray-cart, or any similar evidence of activity and thrift, although a population of 5,000 people is said to be lodged within its precincts. The city is supported mainly out of the public treasury. Those that have anything are generally connected in some way, directly or indirectly, with the publie service, and those that have not anything wait It was in consequence of this state of feeling, which I have described, that Soulouque, the Em-upon those who have. peror of Hayti, who is utterly black, recently commenced his terrible system of persecution against the browns. Upon the pretence that they were conspiring against his government, or contemplated other capital offences, he issued warrants for the arrost of all the prominent brown men within his The public buildings form a quadrangle, one side of which is the King's House”—the resi dence of the governor-opposite to it is the Parlia ment House, and the other two sides are devoted to the public offices and courts. This is all of Spanishtown worthy of notice. The present governor of the island is Sir Charles | other brown man, his associate in the editorship of E. Grey, a cousin of Earl Grey, her majesty's the Journal, was speaking. About twenty-five secretary for the colonies. He is about sixty members were present. The room was a plain, years of age, I should judge, and rather stout, but indeed homely, sort of an apartment, competent to vigorous and active. He is far from being hand-hold three or four hundred people, and divided in some, but nature has endowed him with a benevo- two by a bar, within which sat the members. The lent disposition, a rare and genial humor, and more room was entirely without ornament of any kind, than ordinary executive talents, which, with the and resembled a country court-room in the United aid of high culture and rare experience, have made States. Mr. Jordan, who occupied the chair, is a him a decidedly noticeable man. He was educated clear-headed, deliberate, and sagacious man, and is, to the bar, and practised in the courts of West-perhaps as much as any one, the leader of what is minster Hall for some years, not without distinc- called the King's House, or administration party. tion. During my visit in Spanishtown, the British Osborne, who was speaking when I entered, was steamer Teviot arrived, bringing the young Earl of originally a slave. I afterwards had occasion to ob Durham, yet quite a lad, who, for the sake of his serve that he talked more than any other man in health, had chosen this, instead of the more direct the house, though I did not perceive that he had route, to visit his sister, Lady Elgin, in Canada. any particular vocation as an orator. He is not His arrival furnished the governor an occasion for educated; he is, however, rather illiterate than mentioning that the first fee he ever received as a ignorant, and his mind lacks discipline and order, barrister, was two hundred and fifty guineas from but he has an influence with his colleagues which this lad's father, in the case of his contested elec- is not to be despised. He is sanguine and pertination to a seat in Parliament, many years ago. The cious to a degree, and by taking advantage of the result of the contest vindicated Lord Durham's heedlessness or indolence of his colleagues, accomsagacity, and at once gave the young barrister pro- plishes more than many members of superior capacfessional position. His family connection and ser-ity. He and Jordan are the public printers, from viceable talents transferred him, at a comparatively which appointment they derive a profit which is early age, from the bar to the highly important supposed here to exceed thirty thousand dollars a post of judge in India, where he presided with dis- year. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the tinction for many years. He was subsequently Assembly and in their journal they support the pres appointed governor of the island of Barbadoes, ent administration fervently. from whence he was promoted to his present position, which is esteemed the second governorship, in point of dignity, in the gift of the crown-Canada being the first. One of the governor's friends here told me, that if Lord Elgin should retire from Canada, Sir Charles Grey would unquestionably be appointed to his place. A doubt flitted across my mind, which I did not see fit to express then, and which it is unnecessary to suggest now. I may say, however, that if the queen should ever appoint a successor to Lord Elgin, in Canada, Sir Charles The speaker is chosen by the Assembly, subject Grey would compare not unfavorably with any of to the matter-of-course approval of the governor. the distinguished statesmen who have preceded him He is the only member who receives any compenin that colony. Lady Grey resides in England,sation. As speaker, he is allowed £960 per annum, with her daughters. Lieutenant Charles William, their son, is with the governor here, as assistant secretary and aid. The causes of this division of his family there is no occasion to refer to. It is enough to say that in his day the governor has been a "fast man," and is still esteemed a brick." The speaker, Charles M'Larty Morales, is of Jewish descent, and by profession a physician. He contested his present seat successfully with Samuel Jackson Dallas, the previous incumbent, who, I learned to my surprise, is a cousin to our late vicepresident. Mr. Dallas represents Port Royal; he is very tall, quite thin, and gray, and looks like a gentleman, but shares few of the advantages of personal appearance which distinguish his American cousin. nearly $5000; at least that was the sum allowed to Mr. Dallas, by a law passed in 1815, and I think no change has been made in that salary since. I am the more confident of this, from a circumstance which occurred in the house only two or three days ago. Some of the friends of Morales brought forwards a proposition to advance the speaker's salary, The governor is ex officio chancellor, the pre-when a member rose and with crushing effect prosiding officer of the "Court of Ordinary," and duced the journal of the house of some previous presiding officer of the "Court of Appeals under year, in which Morales' vote was recorded against Errors." He is also vested with the powers of the law which advanced the speaker's salary to its a High Court of Admiralty. As governor, he present figure, upon the ground that the old salary receives a salary of $30,000 a year, which is in-was high enough. Of course, the proposition met creased by the fees accruing from his various judi- with no favor. cial offices some eight or ten thousand more. His official income is not over estimated at forty thousand dollars annually: a very pretty sum for a plain man, but not much for a nobleman, they say. Opposite to the governor's residence is the House of Assembly, or Parliament House, where I was impatient to meet the assembled legislative wisdom of the island, and whither I bent my steps as soon after my arrival in town as circumstances would permit. When I entered, the house was "in committee of the whole on the state of the Island," Mr. Jordan, a brown man and one of the editors of the Morning Journal, in the chair. Mr. Osborne, an Had I realized what a set of shadows composed this body, and how utterly destitute they were of the independence and the power which give to political representation all its value, I should have felt less impatience to visit it. I had expected to find there, as in the United States, and as in England, all the troubles of the island finding expres sion. I supposed the reports, debates and legisla tive formulas would have revealed the activity, the tendencies, the grievances, and in general the public sentiment of Jamacia; instead of which I found body of men in no respect representatives of the people, holding legislative office without the vital functions of legislators. I will reserve the evidences of this statement, | for local purposes; it must raise money to pay the and what else I have to say about the politics of Jamaica, for another communication. Spanishtown, Jan. 30, 1850. In my last communication I stated that the local legislature of this island had neither the independence nor the power necessary to make it, to any extent, representative of the people. A few facts will show the truth of what I say. The island is divided up into twenty-two parishes, as they are called, each of which sends two, and Kingston, Spanishtown, and Port Royal, one additional delegate to the Assembly, making the aggregate forty-seven, when the house is full. Every member, before taking his seat, is required to swear that he and his wife together, if he have a wife, are worth a clear income of $900 a year, from real estate, or that they own real estate worth $9,000, or real and personal estate together worth about $15,000; and when he gets his seat he is obliged to discharge its duties without any compensation. This, of course, throws the legislation, not only into the hands of the comparatively rich, but into the hands of the landholders, and excludes the poor. officers sent out to rule over it; it can keep the highways in condition; it must support the established church; it may provide public instruction; it may establish a police; but even these powers it exercises subject to the approval of the queen or of Parliament. The organization of their local government, the appointments to fill the various executive offices, and the taxes payable upon imports and exports, are all matters with which the island legislature have nothing to do. But even in its local legislation I have not exhibited all its impotence. The governor is vested with power to adjourn, prorogue, or dissolve" the Assembly at his pleasure, and is invested with almost the entire patronage of the island, which is altogether controlling. Some notion of its extent may be formed from the following items, which have fallen under my observation. He appoints the vice-chancellor, with a salary of about $12,500 a year; two assistant judges, with salaries of $10,000 a year each; six chairmen of quarter sessions, at $6,000 a year each; three revising barristers to canvass the votes of the island annually, at $1,000 a year each; a commissioner of stamps, at 2,500 a year: three official assignees Such discriminations, of course, are as perni- of insolvents, at $2,500 a year each; nine water cious as they are absurd, and have resulted, as any bailiffs to regulate the landing and discharge of man of sense could have anticipated, and as was vessels, with salaries at his discretion; seventeen probably designed, in subordinating the interest of health officers and an indefinite number of assistthe commercial, mechanical and industrial classes ants, at undefined salaries; an agent-general of to that of the large landholders. All the energies immigration, at a salary of $1,500 a year; an inof legislation are exerted to promote the growth spector-general of police, at a discretionary comand sale of sugar and rum; but there is no party in pensation; an inspector-general of prisons, at a the Assembly inquiring about the inexhaustible com- salary of $3,000 a year; a superintendent at mercial and manufacturing resources of the island. $1,500; an auditor of accounts at $2,000, and some In spite of these conditions, imposed by law upon fifty subordinate officers; and, finally, he has the candidates applying for seats in the legislature, extraordinary power of suspending any member of they might still possess some of the more important the council, and of appointing a new member in his functions of a representative, if their constituency place. This reminds me that I have not yet said were free, and if the right of suffrage was liberally anything of the third branch of the government. extended. But here again we find a characteristic The Council is the upper house of legislation in distrust of poor men, and a truly English anxiety | Jamaica, and is composed of twelve men appointed to guard the landholders. Every voter must own by the crown, of whom the lieutenant-governor, a freehold estate worth $30, or pay a yearly rent the chief-justice, the attorney-general and the on real estate of not less than $140, or pay yearly bishop are ex officio members. All bills originate taxes to the amount of $15. The first consequence with the lower house, but they must pass the counof these restrictions is, that the people of the island cil before they go to the executive, or can become are not only ineligible to the legislature, but they laws. Of course, nothing can pass this body, thus have nothing to do with making a selection from constituted and appointed, which is not perfectly those who are. I say people, for of course the satisfactory to the colonial minister; nor does anygreat bulk of the adult population are poor; they thing ever pass it against the wishes of the gov are colored people who, only sixteen years ago,ernor. It is nominally a branch of the legislature, were with no considerable exception slaves. Of but in fact is nothing but a cabinet, or sort of privy the 400,000 people who, according to the received council, with which the governor consults, and estimate, constitute the present population of Ja- which he uses as a sort of breakwater between maica, but 16,000 are white. The remaining himself and the lower house. They are an inde384,000 are colored and black people. A census, pendent legislative body upon questions in which taken in 1844, fixed the proportions of these as fol- the governor has no interest, but they are as inlows: colored, 68,529; blacks, 293,128. The av-palpable, for all purposes of resistance to him, as erage vote of this entire population, white and his shadow. black, I understand, has never exceeded 3,000- From the illustrations here presented, it is apor, three-quarters per cent. The city of New parent that the executive patronage reaches every York, with about the same population, usually point of influence and every interest worth concilipolls over 50,000 votes, which is a smaller proporating or promoting on the island, and enables the tion probably than is polled in any other county in governor practically to dictate its legislation. any free state of the Union. I need hardly say that the deliberations of a But this is not all. When the legislature is body thus constituted and crippled, possess but little chosen, it has no control over the questions of fun-interest to strangers, and furnish a very narrow damental interest. The heart of its legislation beats in London, over which it has no more control than the finger nails have over the circulation of the blood. The island legislature can levy taxes theatre for the display of oratory or statesmanship The questions never involve any principle, and the discussions are never elaborate. Though the Assembly contains many gentlemen of talent and high rank in their respective professions, they never find occasion to display it here. Their debates are quite as informal and colloquial as those of your board of aldermen, and their legislation disposes of far less considerable interests in the course of a year. It is difficult to convey any satisfactory idea of the state of political parties here, for they can hardly be said to have any state. They are not arrayed upon any of the issues which classify the inhabitants of the mother country; upon the questions agitated in the British Parliament, in which they have any interest, they are for the most part agreed. Colonial assistance of any kind all desire, and all are hostile to free trade. The appointees of the present government have prudence enough not to proclaim their sentiments upon the housetops, but even they do not disguise them at the fireside. It is to free trade they ascribe their ruin, not to the abolition of slavery. I did not find a man upon the island, and I was assured by numbers perfectly informed upon the subject, that there was not in their opinion a man residing in Jamaica, who would restore slavery, if it was in his power. They say that if they only had the protection on the staples of the island which they enjoyed with slavery, they would prosper. It was the removal of that protection, added to the advanced price of labor, occasioned by the emancipation of slaves, which compelled them to surrender their accustomed markets to the cheaper slave-grown productions of Cuba and Brazil. ures, was all the satisfaction which the memorialists obtained. The country party then drew up a memorial to Parliament, setting forth the evils incident to the present organization of the council, and requesting that it may be changed in such a way as to prevent those members whose income a retrenchment bill would effect, from having the power to defeat its passage. This memorial has been the prominent party measure of the last session of the Assembly. Of course it was resisted by the administration with all their power. It passed, however, only two or three days since, by a large majority. It is to be sent to Lord Stanley, in the House of Lords, and to Mr. Roebuck, I think, in the House of Commons, who are expected to present it to those bodies, respectively, with a speech. This has been the prominent question of the last session. If they could have carried their retrenchment bill, they would save, perhaps, fifty thousand dollars a year, scarcely more. Rather a small matter, one would suppose, to make such a pother about. And yet it is the most direct mode left to them of promoting their prosperity by legislation. A better illustration could not be desired, to show the utter impotence of this Assembly, and the overshadowing authority of the government. government have felt the necessity of conciliating the colored men in Jamaica in every possible way, and hence it is that this part of the population fill at least nine tenths of all the offices. I think there has been a sincere desire felt by the heads of the government in England to have the blacks prosper and vindicate the philanthropic purpose which secured their liberty. This desire has largely increased the proportion of political appointments to be made from that class. But the political and physical strength of the blacks has become formidable, and if those people were to become thoroughly alienated from their allegiance, the island would very soon become uninhabitable to English people, and its commerce would be ruined. The country party embrace most of the English planters. The colored people generally sup port the government. This surprised me at first, but I soon came to understand it. In the first place, English proprietors are the natural enemies of the The party lines are most distinctly drawn here operatives all the world over; in the next place, the between what are known, the one as the "King's House," and the other, the Country Party-the former being the administration, and the latter the opposition parties. The prominent measure pending before them of a strictly party character is the retrenchment of salaries. The country party is composed mostly of the planters and large proprietors of land, who insist that in the present depressed and impoverished condition of the island it is impossible to pay the enormous salaries which were granted in the days of their prosperity. They say, and with reason, that forty thousand dollars a year is too much for a governor of four hundred thousand people, when the President of the United States, with twenty millions of subjects, receives only twenty-five thousand a year; that fifteen thousand dollars for a chief-justice of Jamaica, and ten thousand for each of his associates, is extravagant, when the chief-justice of the highest tribunal in the United States only gets six thousand dollars; and so on through a succession of salaries all proportionately enormous and equally unnecessary. The administration party, on the other hand, say that none of those holding office find their compensation excessive; that a residence in a hot climate, and distant from home, deserves good salaries; that they accepted office under the present rate, and they have a vested interest in their salaries, which ought not to be violated. The country party, not satisfied with these reasons, introduced their bill. Of course, the council, from four or five of whom it would cut off an important moiety of their income, took good care that the bill did not pass. The country party sent a memorial to the minister for the colonies, requesting that the council might be reconstituted in a way to enable the public sentiment of the island to have fair expression. The memorial was thrown under the minister's table, and a speech about the colories, from the premier ‘in the House of Commons, full of sympathy and fig From Morris and Willis' Home Journal. THE FLAG OF OUR UNION. BY GEORGE P. MORRIS. "A SONG for our banner?"-The watchword recal The union of states none can sever The union of hearts-the union of hands- The Flag of our Union forever! The union of states none can sever- The Flag of our Union forever! |