Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1876-07-12
Our Flag.

Our Flag.
Every nation has its flag. Every ship
in foreign waters is known by the colors
she shows at her peak. The French
frigate hoists her bunting of three yer-
teal stripes, red, white and blue; the
English man-of-war shows a red flag,
with the crosses of St. Andrew and ST..
George on blue union in the upper
left-hand corner; and the Austrian, a
double-headed black eagle, on a yellow
ground every nation with name and
a place, having its own appropriate
symbol.
When we were colonies of England,
we sailed and fought under her flag
Twenty years before the Revolution,
when we were at war with the French
and their allies, the Indians, many a
brave man in some hot skirmish with
Indians would have welcomed the sight
of the red flag of England-it would
mean aid and comfort when sorely
pressed.
But the time was coming when he
was to hate it as much as he had hated
the French colors. The time was COM
ing when the sight of it was to mean
oppression and tyranny to him, and ev-
cry feeling of his nature would be
aroused against it. Every child knows
how we finally rebelled; it was nothing
less, and, to England, our George
Washington was merely leading reb-
ell. 1t was a bold proceeding. We were
thirteen little states, fringed along on
the Atlantic coast, with the unbroken
forest behind us, and among the great
family Of nations we had neither place
nor name. We were like the last new
boy at a public school-we had to fight
to obtain respect from all the great old
nations who were looking on.
Of course we had no flag; we had to
earn that too. For a year or so our
privateers carried the Massachusetts
State flag. It was better, they thought,
than the English flag, at any rate The
field was of white bunting; in the mid
die green pine-tree, and on the OPP
posite side the motto, appeal to
Heaven"
Washington, in his character of
General-in- Chief commissioned several
privateer schooners, and they all car
ried this flag.
The Alfred was one of the few large
ships we had, and she carried the pine
tree flag, and besides that one with
thirteen stripes, in red and white, but
with no stars; while on the stripes was
coiled a rattlesnake, with the motto:
"Don't tread on me-" The rattlesnake
being found only in America, there
was, of course, no particular meaning
In this emblem.
In the early part of the revolution,
some Of the South Corolina regiment
carried the palmetto tree On their flag
That was very good symbol, and the
state yet keeps it on her coat of arms,
though it grows everywhere in the
South. The palmetto logs at Fort
Moultrie were found very good things
to receive cannon balls when the Fort
was besieged by the British in June
1776.
There was this multiplicity of flags,
because we cid not clearly know what
we WERE No nation had acknowledged
us as belonging to their great family
yet; in fact, we had not quite cut loose
from England, yet we were fighting her
with all our might, and it seemed alb
surd to be under her colors, In the
fight of Bunker Hill, the flag planted
In the corner of that famous redoubt
was of blue bunting, with the cross of
ST. George IN red in the corner, and a
pine-tree, that same pine-tree, in the
upper right hand quarter of the cross.
Our army at Cambridge celebrated
New Years Day, Jan. LIST, 1776, not as
the Chinese, by firing crackers and IL
Illuminating lanterns in the evening, nor
yet by making calls, but by unfurling
for the first time in an American camp
the flag of thirteen stripes. But even
then we had not declared ourselves in
dependent of Great Britain, and this
flag had the British union in the cor
ner, and the crosses of St. Andrew and
st. George.
Finally, on the 18th of June, 1875,
Congress, which then met in Philadel-
phia, settled upon our style of flag.
shall have" said they, thirteen
stripes alternate red and white, and
the union of the States shall be indica-
tea by thirteen stars, white in bluef
representing q new constellation.
1t was not until forty years ago that
it was decided to add another star for
every new State as it joined the Union.
So that the constellation as it is now.
with nearly forty stars in it, has grown
a good deal from the original thirteen.
But the stripes still remain the same in
number, to remind us of the first little
band of States who fought it out"