We have thus presented the data upon which is based the conclusion that the constellation Lyra was originally proposed for the union of our Flag, in 1777, at the time the circle of thirteen stars was adopted. The reasons for that conclusion are the following:-- [Illustration: Pl. III.] It was a Union flag that was to be altered. The United States having become independent of Great Britain, the British emblem of union was no longer appropriate; some other emblem of union was to be substituted. The constellation Lyra was a time-honored emblem of union. The language of the resolution of June 14, 1777, evidently has reference to such an emblem, representing a constellation. The Lyra was not adopted. A circle of thirteen stars was. At this time, Mr. John Adams was chairman of the Board of War. Mr. John Adams's son became Secretary of State in 1820. Striking out the arms of the United States, he presented on the passport a device, representing the constellation Lyra radiating into a circle of stars--the stars thirteen in number. At this time there were twenty-one States in the Union--hence this circle of thirteen stars referred to an earlier day. The first instance of a circle of thirteen stars being used as a national device, was in the U. S. Flag, and its being presented on the passport must have referred to that use of it, as constituting it a well-known emblem of the United States, indicative of their union, while the constellation Lyra, occupying the centre of this circle, indicates the origin of the circle of stars, as an emblem of union "representing a new constellation," in that time-honored emblem of union. The other circumstances we have adduced point to Mr. John Adams as the source from which his son derived his information. We suppose the circle of stars was preferred to the Lyra because it indicated the perpetuity of the Union, which was distinctly intimated by the Rattlesnake Standard, laid aside when the flag of the United States, commonly called the Stars and Stripes, was adopted. It may not be improper to observe that these deductions are in keeping with the general rules, presented in our Introduction, as deduced from the practices of nations relative to national emblems. Compare Fig. 6, Plate II., the Flag of the United States, as first presented under the resolution of June 14, 1777, with Fig. 1, Plate III., the flag as we suppose it to have been proposed when Mr. John Adams was chairman of the Board of War, and both of the above with the vignette to the title-page, the device introduced into the passport in _lieu_ of the arms of the United States, by Mr. John Q. Adams, when Secretary of State. In making these comparisons, the eagle, only adopted for the arms of the United States in 1782, must be kept out of view, or rather considered as having no part in the question about the stars.