Freire to the congress: "The National Constituting Assembly confirms, until future deliberation, the functions of the Executive Power to the Provisional Government of the Republic". Two months later, with the approval of the Political Constitution of the Portuguese Republic and the election of the first constitutional president of the Republic — Manuel de Arriaga — on 24 August, the Provisional Government presented its resignation, which was accepted by the president of the republic on 3 September 1911, marking the end of a government term of more than 10 months and the beginning of the First Portuguese Republic. Modification of national symbols With the establishment of the Republic, the national symbols were modified. By a Provisional Government decree dated 15 October 1910, a committee was appointed to design the new symbols. The modification of national symbols, according to historian Nuno Severiano Teixeira, emerged from the difficulty that republicans faced with representing the Republic: The flag In relation to the flag, there were two inclinations: one of keeping the blue and white colours, traditional of Portuguese flags, and another of using "more republican" colours: green and red. The committee's proposal suffered several alterations, with the final design being rectangular, with the first two-fifths closest to the flagpole to be green, and the three remaining fifths, red. Green was chosen because it was considered the "colour of hope", while red was chosen as a "combative, hot, virile" colour. The project of the flag was approved by the Provisional Government by vote on 19 November 1910. On 1 December was celebrated the Feast of the Flag in front of the Municipal Chamber of Lisbon. The National Constituting Assembly promulgated the adoption of the flag on 19 June 1911. The national anthem On 19 June 1911 the National Constitutional Assembly proclaimed A Portuguesa as the national anthem, replacing the old anthem Hymno da Carta in use since May 1834, and its status as national symbol was included in the new constitution. A Portuguesa was composed in 1890, with music by Alfredo Keil and lyrics by Henrique Lopes de Mendonça, in response to the 1890 British Ultimatum. Because of its patriotic character, it had been used, with slight modifications, by the rebels of the 1891 uprising in a failed attempt at a coup d'état to establish a republic in Portugal, an event which caused the anthem to be forbidden by the monarchic authorities. Hymno da Carta