Having thus shown how appropriate the constellation Lyra would have been as an emblem of the union of the United States, we proceed to ascertain if the first flag displayed under the resolution of June 14, 1777, bore that constellation. In Trumbull's picture of the surrender of Burgoyne, and Peale's picture of Washington, the thirteen stars are represented as arranged in a circle; it now remains to show the existence of some record exhibiting a connection between the constellation Lyra and the circle of thirteen stars. We find this record on a form for a passport of the United States, prepared under Mr. John Quincy Adams, when Secretary of State, in 1820, which form is now in use. In adopting the form in question, the arms of the United States, previously used on U.S. passports, were replaced by a circle of thirteen stars surrounding an eagle, holding in his beak the constellation Lyra, and the motto, _Nunc sidera ducit_. Mr. W. J. Stone, of Washington City, gives the following account of the preparation of the device above described, and presented in the vignette to the title-page. In it, the constellation Lyra is represented as radiating into a circle of thirteen stars. MOUNT PLEASANT, WASHINGTON CITY, May 8, 1852. MY DEAR SIR: I find, on examination, that on the 25th of August, 1820, I engraved for the Department of State, by order of J. Q. Adams, Secretary of State, a plate for a passport, at the head of which was a spread eagle, drawn to encompass the constellation Lyra. The drawing was made by me, according to particular verbal directions given by Mr. Adams. I have a distinct recollection of having submitted the drawing to Mr. Adams, for approval, previous to engraving. Very respectfully, your obedt. servt. (Signed,) W. J. STONE. Had not this device been substituted, on the form for a United States passport, for the arms of the United States, by Mr. John Quincy Adams, we should not consider the constellation Lyra, radiating into a circle of thirteen stars, as having any special meaning; but as, at the time the circle of thirteen stars was introduced into the flag of the United States as an emblem of union, his father, Mr. John Adams, was chairman of the Board of War, we think it has. On page 6, vol. iii. of the _Life and Writings of John Adams_, we find the following entry in his journal:-- "The duties of this Board kept me in continual employment, not to say drudgery, from the 12th of June 1776, till the 11th of November 1777." Again: "Other gentlemen attended as they pleased, but, as I was chairman, or as they were pleased to call it, president, I must never be absent." A change being contemplated in the emblem of union in the flag, the Board of War would, doubtless, have had charge of the preparation of the substitute; and from the above, we perceive the chairman must have been particularly connected with its preparation.