OUR NATIONAL FLAG

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Aug 19, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 32.

OUR NATIONAL FLAG.

THE history of the origin of the national flag is not fully known. In June of 1777 the American Congress voted "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." Some time elapsed before the resolution was visible in a flag. We know that in 1783 the first national flag was thrown to the breeze in New York City, and that a British officer tried to take it down from the building on which it floated, and was so severely beaten with a broomstick by the wife of the owner that he was compelled to give it up. Now, as I look across at the very place where this incident took place, a half-dozen English flags are floating beside our national flag from the masts of the same vessels.

The first American flag seen in China was from the mast of the ship Empress, Captain Green commanding. This was in 1784, one year after the flag was floated in New York. The people in China were so impressed with the beauty of the flag that they said: "A ship has arrived from the other end of the world, bearing a flag as beautiful as a flower." In China, now, America is known as the flower-flag country. As originally designed, the stars and stripes were uniform in number, and no provision was made for the representation of new States when admitted to the Union. Vermont was admitted in 1791, and Kentucky in 1792. Two stripes and two stars were added to the flag in 1795 by a resolution of Congress, which created a bitter dispute, one member saying: "We may go on adding and altering for a hundred years to come. It is very likely that before fifteen years elapse we shall consist of twenty States. The flag ought to be permanent." In 1819, after several new States were admitted, a resolution was offered in Congress by a member from New York: "That a committee be appointed to inquire into the expediency of altering the flag of the United States." The result of this was that the number of stripes was reduced to the original number, thirteen, and stars were to be added for each new State admitted. The stars were to be added to the flag the Fourth of July following the addition of the State. The original design seems to have been to form the stars in a circle, but later they formed a great star. From this freedom of design confusion has arisen, and now we see flags with the stars formed in squares, some with the stars forming circles, some with the stars forming a great star. This so confused Germany, where everything relating to the government is managed with military precision, that she asked, "What is the American flag?"

Mr. Alfred B. Street, in an address given on the battle of Saratoga, gave the following as the significance of the design of the American flag:—

"The stars of the new flag represent a constellation of States rising in the west. The idea was taken from the constellation Lyra, which, in the hands of Orpheus, signified harmony. The blue of the field was taken from the edges of the Covenanters' banner in Scotland, significant also of the league and covenant of the united Colonies against oppression, incidentally involving the virtues of vigilance, perseverance, and justice. The stars were disposed in a circle, symbolizing the perpetuity of the Union, the ring, like the circling serpent of the Egyptians, signifying eternity. The thirteen stripes showed, with the stars, the number of the united Colonies, and denoted the subordination of the States to the Union, as well as equality among themselves. The whole was a blending of the various flags previous to the Union flag; namely, the red flag of the army and the white ones of the floating batteries. The red color, which in Roman days was the signal of defiance, denotes daring, and the white purity."—Christian Union.