Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1868-10-01
M1isfeilauepas Attifles.
THE AMERICAN FLAG.


THE AMERICAN FLAG.
The history of our glorious old flag is Of
exceeding interest, and brings back to US
throng of sacred and thrilling associations.
The banner of St. Andrew was blue, char
ged with a white saltier, or cross, IN the
form of the letter K, and was used in Scot,
land IS early as the eleventh century: The
banner Of St. George was white, charged
with the red cross, and was used in England
as early as the first part of the fourteenth
century. By royal proclamation dated
April 18th, i7o6, these two crosses were
Joined together upon the same banner, form
ing the ancient national flag of England.
II was not until Ireland, in 1901, was made
part of Great Britain, that the present
national flag Of England, so well known as
the Union Jack, was completed. But it
was the ancient flag of England that con-
stituted the basis of our own American ban
ner. Various other flags had indeed been
raised at different times by our colonial an
cssters. But they were not particularly
associated with, or at least were not incor-
porated into and made part of the des-
tined 'sstars and stripes" 1t was after
Washington had taken command of the fresh
army of the Revolution, at Cambridge, that,
January 2, 1776, he unfurled before them
the new flag of thirteen stripes of alternate
red and white, and having upon one of its
corners the red and white crosses of St.
George and St. Andrew, on field of blue.
And this was the standard which was borne
into the city of Boston when it was evacu.
ated by the British troops, and was enter
ed by the American army. Uniting, as it
did, the flags of England and America, it
showed that the colonists were not yet pre-
pared to sever the tie that bound them to
the mother country. By that union of flags
they claimed to be vital and substantial
part of the empire of Great Britain, and
demanded the rights and privileges which
such relation implied. Yet it was by
those thirteen stripes that they made known
the union also of the thirteen colonies, the
stripes of white declaring the purity and
ftheir cause, and the stripes of
red giving forth their defiance to cruelty
and oppression >.~s.. ,s....
7 On the 18th day of June, 1777, it was re-
solved by Congress, "That the flag of the
thirteen United States be thirteen stripes,
alternate red and white, and that the union
be thirteen white stars in blue field. -
This resolution was made public, Sept. 3,
1777, and the flag that was first made and
used in pursuance of it, was that which led
the Americans to victory at Saratoga. Here
the thirteen stars were arranged in circle,
as we sometimes see them now, in order
better to express the idea Of the Union Of
the States. In 1894, there having been
two more new States added to the Union,
it was voted that the alternate stripes, as
we'll as the circling stars be fifteen in num-
Der, and the flag, as thus altered and en-
larged, was the one which was borne through
all the contests of the war of 1872. But it
was thought that the flag would at length
become too large if a new stripe should be
added with every freshly admitted State.
1t was therefore enacted, in 1878, that a
-permanent- return should be made to the o.
riginal number of thirteen stripes, and that
the number of stars should henceforth cor
respond to the growing number of States.
Thus the flag would symbolic the Union
as it might be at any given period of its
history, and also as it was at the hour of its
birth. 1t was at the same time suggested
that these stars, instead of being arranged
into circle, be formed into a single star
a suggestion which we OCCASIONAL y see a.
dopted. In fine, no particular order seems
now to be observed with respect to the ar
rangement of the constellation. 1t is E.
noug Oh if only the whole number be there
upon that azure fold-the blue to be emble-
matical of perseverance, vigilance and JUS
tlce, each star to glorify the glory of the
State it may represent, and the whole to be
eloquent, forever, of g Union that must be
tone and inseparable."