We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity, representing our liberty.

The quotation presents a symbolic explanation of the emerging United States flag: stars taken from “heaven,” red derived from the “mother country” (Britain), and white stripes signifying separation and liberty carried into the future. Read as political iconography, it frames independence as both a break from Britain and a claim to enduring freedom, with the flag functioning as a visual narrative of origins and ideals. However, because this wording is not securely traceable to a contemporary Washington document, it is best treated as a later patriotic gloss rather than a reliable statement of Washington’s own intent.