The flag of the United States has not been created by rhetorical sentences in declarations of independence and in bills of rights. It has been created by the experience of a great people, and nothing is written upon it that has not been written by their life. It is the embodiment, not of a sentiment, but of a history...

The Public Papers of Woodrow Wilson: The new democracy; presidential messages, addresses, and other papers (1913-1917) (ed. 1926)