AN ACT to formally adopt and legalize the Maryland Flag.

WHEREAS, It is represented to the General Assembly that the flag
designed and used as the Flag of Maryland, under the Proprietary
Government, and which is still known as the Maryland Flag, has never
been formally adopted by Maryland as a State, its use having been
continued by common consent only; and

WHEREAS, It is not only desirable that the official Flag of Maryland
should be formally adopted and legalized, but it is eminently fitting
that, by reason of its historic interest and meaning, as well as for its
beauty and harmony of colors, the flag adopted should be the one
which, from the earliest settlement of the Province to the present time,
has been known and distinguished as the Flag of Maryland; therefore,

SECTION i. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland,
That the flag heretofore, and now in use, and known as the Maryland
Flag, be and the same is hereby legalized and adopted as the flag of
the State of Maryland, which said flag is particularly described, as to
coloring and arrangement, as follows: Quartered—the first and fourth
quarters being paly of six pieces, or and sable, a bend dexter counter-
changed; the second and third, quarterly, argent and gules, a cross
bottonly countersigned; that is to say, the first and fourth quarters con-
sist of six vertical bars alternately gold and black with a diagonal band
on which the colors are reversed, the second and third consisting of a
quartered field of red and white, charged with a Greek Cross, its arms
terminating in trefoils, with the coloring transposed, red being on the
white ground and white on the red, and all being as represented upon
the escutcheon of the present Great Seal of Maryland.

SEC. 2. And be it enacted, That the Flag of Maryland shall be dis-
played from the State House at Annapolis, Maryland, continuously
during the session of the General Assembly, and on such other public
occasions as the Governor of the State shall order and direct, the flag
always to be so arranged upon the flag-staff as to have the black stripe
on the diagonal bands of the first quartering at the top of the staff as
represented in the illustration of the Maryland Flag in "Chronicles of
Colonial Maryland."

SEC. 3. And be it enacted, That this Act shall take effect from the
date of its passage.

Approved March 9, 1004.