Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1876-06-23
NO. 25.
Our flag.

our RInE.
Every nation has lis flag. Every ship In
foreign waters is known by the colors she
shows at her peak. The French frigate
hoists her bunting of three vertical 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 len-hand corner; and the
Austrian, double-beade black eagle, on
yellow ground,-every nation with
name and place, having its own appro-
pirate 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 brave man in some hot
skirinish with Indians would have well
coined the sight OF the red flag OF England
1T would mean aid and comfort when
sorely pressed.
But the time was coming when he was 10
hate II as much as he had hated the French
colors. The time was coming when the
sight Of it was to mean oppression and tyr
amy to him, and every feeling Of his ma
ture would be raised against 1t. Every
child knows how we finally rebelled it
was nothing less, and, 10 England, our
George Washington was merely leading
rebel. 1t was 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 public
nod In Auh iO nhl aua
spect from all the great old nations who
were looking on.
OF course we had no flag we had TO earn
that too. For year or so our privateers
carried the Massachusetts State flag. 1t
was better, they thought, than the English
flag, at any rate. The field was of white
bunting; in the middle, green pine-tree,
and on the opposite side the motto, appeal
TO Heaven"
Washington, in his character as General
in-Chief, commissioned several privateer
schooners, and they all carried this flag.
The Alfred was one of the few large ships
we had, and she carried the pine.tree flag.
and beside 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, a peculiar meaning in
this emblem.
In the early part of the Revolution, some
of the South Carolina regiments 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
A.. Al.
metto logs at Fort Moultrie were found
very good things TO receive cannon balls
when that fort was besieged by the British
in June 1776.
There was this multiplicity of flags, be-
cause we did not clearly know what we
were. No nation had acknowledged us as
belonging 10 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 absurd to be under
her colors. In the fight at Bunker Hill,
the flag planted in the corner of that IA
nous redoubt was of blue bunting, with
the cross of st. George in red in the corner,
and pine-tree, that same pine-tree, in the
upper right quarter of the cross.
Our army at Cambridge celebrated New
Years day, Jan. 1st, 1776, not as the Chi
nese, by firing crackers and illuminating
lanterns in the evening, nor yet by making
calls, but by unfurling for The first time in
our American camp the flag of thirteen
stripes. But even then We had not declar-
ed ourselves Independent of Great Britain,
and this flag had the British union in the
corner. and the crosses OF ST. Andrew and
st. George.
Finally, on the 14th of June. l776, Con-
gress, which met then in Philadelphia, set
tied upon our style of flag. at shall
have" said they, 'thirteen stripes, alter
nate red and white, and the union of the
States shall be indicated by thirteen stars,
white, IN blue field, representing a new
constellation"
1t was not until about forty years ago
that it was decided 10 add another star for
every new State as 1t Joined the Union. So
that the constellation as 1t is now, with
nearly forty stars in 1t, has grown a good
deal from the original thirteen. But the
stripes still remain the same in number, 10
remind us of the first little band OF States
who thought it out" against Great Britain.
Kate FOote, 81. Nicholas for July.