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Show REAL HISTORY OF AMERICAN FLAB Emblem, It Is Declared by Stu-. Stu-. dents, May Be Traced Back as Far as the Twelfth Century. THE American flag is a growth, rather than a creation. Its history his-tory can be traced back to the 12th century, or nearly 600 years prior to the first "Flag Day," June 14, 1777. During the first crusade in 1195, Pope Urban II assigned to all of the Christian nations as standards crosses varying in color and design, emblematic emblem-atic of the warfare in which they were engaged. To the Scotch troops was assigned the white saltire, known as the white cross of St. Andrew, on a blue field. The British used a yellow cross, but a century and a quarter later they adopted a red cross on a white field, known as the red cross of St. George. When James VI of Scotland ascended ascend-ed the throne of England as James I, he combined the two flags, and issued t proclamation requiring all ships to carry the new flag at their main masts. At the same time the vessels of south Britain were to carry at their foremasts the red cross of St. George and the ships of north Britain to carry the white cross of St. , Andrew. An-drew. The new flag was known as "Kings Colors," the "Union Colors," or the "Great Union," and later as the "Union lack," and was the one under which the British made all their permanent settlements in America. It was the flag of Great Britain only by proclama tion, however; not until 1707 did parliament par-liament pass an act definitely uniting the two countries and their flags. In the same year the government issued regulations requiring the navy to use what was known as the white ensign; the naval reserve, the blue ensign; and the merchant marine, the red en-. en-. sign. Owing to the fact that the British Brit-ish merchant vessels were everywhere, the colonists in America came to look upon this red ensign as the flag of Great Britain. The people in the New England colonies col-onies were bitterly opposed to the cross in the flag. In 1C35 some of the troops in Massachusetts declined to march under this flag and the military commissioners were forced to design other flags for their troops with the cross left out. The design they adopted adopt-ed has not been preserved. In 1652 a mint was established in Boston. Money coined in this mint had the pine tree stamped on one side of it. The pine tree design was also used on New England flags, certainly by 1704 and possibly as early as 1G35. At the outbreak of the Revolution the American colonies had no flag common to all of them. In many cases the merchant marine flag of England was used with the pine tree substituted substi-tuted for the Union Jack. Massa-chusetts Massa-chusetts adopted the green pine tree on a white field, with the motto: '"An Appeal to Heaven." Some of the south ern states had the rattlesnake flag with the motto "Don't Tread on Me' on a white or yellow field. This flag had been used by South Carolina ae early as 1764. Benjamin Franklin de fended the rattlesnake device on th i ground that the rattlesnake is found 1 only in America, and that serpent em I blems were considered by ancients l to be symbols of wisdom. In September, 1775, there was dis played in the South what was bj many believed to be the first distinct lvely American flag. It was blue witi 1 a white crescent, and matched thi ' dress of the troops, who wore caps in 1 scribed, "Liberty or Death." The colonists desired to adopt 3 -lmmon flag; but they had not ye declared independence, and were not at first seeking independence. They took the British flag as they knew it, and made a new colonial flag by dividing divid-ing the red field with white stripes into thirteen alternate red and white stripes. This is known as the Cambridge Cam-bridge flag, because it was first unfurled un-furled over Washington's headquarters headquar-ters at Cambridge, Mass., on January 1, 1776. It complied with the law ot 1707 by having the Union Jack on it; it also represented the thirteen colonies colon-ies by the thirteen stripes. As the colonists gradually became converted to the idea that indepeni-ence indepeni-ence from the mother country was necessary, they began to modify the flag, first by leaving off the Union Jack and using only the thirteen horizontal hori-zontal stripes. The modified flags were not always red and white, but regularly consisted ot combinations of two colors selected from red, white, blue and yellow. The final modification modifica-tion was the replacement of the Union Jack by the white stars on a blue field. The stars are the only distinctive feature of the American flag. The charming story which credits Betsy Ross with making the first flag of stars and stripes is still accepted by historians. When Washington suggested sug-gested the six-pointed star, she demonstrated demon-strated the ease with which a five-pointed five-pointed star could be made by folding fold-ing a piece ot paper and producing one with a single clip of the scissors. Some writers are of the opinion that both Btars and stripes in the flag were derived from the coat of arms of the Washington family, but this theory the-ory is not generally held. The official adoption of our first flag was in 1777. On June 14 of that year the Continental congress passed an act providing that "the flag of the thirteen united states be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white on a blue field, representing a new constellation." constel-lation." The thirteen stars were arranged ar-ranged in a circle to symbolize the perpetuity per-petuity of the union of the states. Vermont was admitted to the Union in 1791 and Kentucky in 1792. It was felt that these two new states ought to be recognized on the flag, so in 1794 congress passed an act making the flag fifteen stars and fifteen stripes. This remained the flag of the United States throughout the War ot 1812, until there were twenty states in the Union. In 1816, an effort was again made to modify the flag so that all the new states would be represented on it. To be continually adding stripes would make the flag very awkward in shape and appearance, so after arguing the matter for two years, congress decided to return to the original thirteen stripes and one star for each Btate. Congress has never determined the arrangement ar-rangement of the Btars nor the shape and proportions of the flag, and there has been great variation, especially in the grouping of the stars. There are still many who believe that the symbolic sym-bolic circular grouping of stars should be restored. A REAL PATRIOT i "Wheel I wisht the Fourth of July'i t come every month." |
