The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1877-07-20
History of Ghe Star -SPanEle- Hammer
How It Came to be Adopted as the
National Emblem


banner inscribed "Come if you dare
When late in 1875 congress prepared to
create a navy nothing seems 10 have
| been done about flag, and commanders
of vessels followed their own devices. A
| favorite one was the rattlesnake, with
| the motto: Don't touch me-" other
| flags carrying a mailed hand clasping
| thirteen arrows. Indeed, the rattlesuake
came near of an election to the Ameri-
can escutcheon in place OF the immortal
CT icken thief, the eagle, one writer-per-
haps Ben Franklin supporting the
choice because the snake WAS purely
American and an emblem of wisdom and
vigilance, because it never attacked first
nor surrendered, being attacked, and be-
cause, while its rattles were distinct,
they were still firmly united and steadily
increased in number. Let us consider
what a fourth of July would have been
with orators condemned to apostrophiZe
the rattlesnake amid the wbizzing of
Catherine wheels.
Late in 1775 Franklin and two other
gentlemen appointed to create a national
flag met at the camp at Cambridge and
adopted the kings colors (the red cross
of St. George on a white field and white
cross of st. Andrew on blue field(, with
thirteen stripes, alternate red and white,
being the flag already adopted by the
East India company. No record is found
of congress having taken any part in this,
nor is it known when the new flag was
adopted by law. The origin Of the
stripes is not satisfactorily explained. 1t
has been held that the new flag may have
been suggested to Washington by the
banner of the Philadelphia Light Horse,
which escorted him hither on his way to
Cambridge. That banner bore a canton
of thirteen stripes. blue and silver; also
that Washington took the idea from his
own ceat-of-arms, as shown in Brighton
church, or from the East India company's
flag aforementioned, or from the tri-color
of the Netherlands. The "grand union ]"
flag was hoisted at the camp at Cambridge
Jan. 2, 1776; it also waved above the Vir-
ginia convention which declared the colo
nies free and independent states.
Paul Jones claims to have been the
first to hoist the flag Of America over a
regular man,of-war, the Alfred, though
John Adams, of course, disputed this,
claiming the honor for a Massachusetts
man. Mr.. Woodman thinks that proba-
bly, this flag of Paul Jones was the new
striped flag, though Cooper leans to the
belief that it was the pine-tree flag with
a rattlesnake and motto. The first naval
victory under tha stripes was certainly
won by Barney, in the Lexington, April
II, 1875, when after q severe fight he
captured a British vessel off the Virginia
shore. In July the brig Andreas Doria
obtained the first salute for the flag at
st. Eustatia. The Dutch governor was
afterward removed for returning her
compliment. In the autumn the Repri-
sal, carrying Franklin to France, first
showed the flag in Europe. A record of
the time speaks of the capture of an
American privateer soon after the loss of
New York which only carried twelve
stripes.
After the declaration of independence,
when the kings arms were taken down
and burned, it was not possible for his
emblems to remain long on the flag, and
ensigns of various devices are described
as in use during the land battles, while
the official banner continued TO be the
"grand union flag" 1t was on the 18th
of June, 1777, more than a century ago,
that congress voted that the American
flag should be thirteen stripes, altern-
ate red and white; that the union be
thirteen stars, white in a blue field, re-
presenting a new constellation" This
flag, however, was not new flag then
designed, but rather the formal adoption
of one already in existence nearly
twelve-month. There is as much per-
plexity as to the origin of the stars as
th9re is concerning that of the stripes.
It has been suggested that they were
taken, as well as the stripes, from the
Washington coat-of-arms, on which they
appear in chief, or from the constellation
lyra, which contains just thirteen stars
and is the symbol of harmony and unity;
but Washington himself makes no men
tion of the matter, and the act speaks
expressly of new constellation" Mira.
Ross, an upholsterer of Philadelphia, is
claimed to have been the first maker of
the stars and stripes, and also its pardal
designer. In June, 1886, a committee
of congress, accompanied by Washington,
called upon her and eugs ged her to make
a flag from a rough drawing they brought
with them. She suggested some changes
in the design, especially that the stars
be made five-pointed instead OF six
pointed, following the French form,
while adoption of the English practice
gave us the six-pointed star on our coin
age), and Washington himself drew the
new sketch in her back parlor. Mrs Ross
afterward was appointed fag-maker to
the government, and she was succeeded
by a relative, who continued IN Office
till about thirty years ago. It is men
toned az a bit of gossip concerning
Washington and the flag, that not alone
were the stars and stripes on his coat-of-
arms, but the colors were all in his
christening robe, now in the possession
of Mrs. Lewis, of Woodlawn, Va, which
Is of white silk, lined with crimson silk,
and decorated with blue ribbons.
The banner did not come Immediately
into general use, for in the middle of
October, I776, Capt. Richards is found
asking the Philadelphia council what
colors should be used by the feet. 1t
was probably flown at Trenton, for Peale's
picture shows it, and the artist COM
manded a company in that battle. 1t
was displayed at the first fourth of July
celebration in Philadelphia, IVY, and in
the February of the following year it
was first saluted by a foreign power.
Paul Jones, in the Ranger, conveying
some vessels into Quiberon and obtaining
a salute from the French admiral. Four
years later he hOisted it over the first
American ship Of the line, the a america,
August 2, I71I, The hrst land victory
was won under the Stars and Stripes on
the occasion of the British attack on
Fort Schuyler, the flag being an extern
porized one, made from the gsrrison's
shirts and from a blue cloak taken at
Peekskill. The homemade banner was
hoisted over FIVE English cOlors captured
in a sally. In January, 1871, Rathburne,
in Providence, with fifty men, swooped
on Nassau, n. P, took the fort, spiked
its guns and boisted the American flag
for the first time over foreign fortress.
Five vessels disputed the homer Of first
giving it to the winds in London. In
1889 90 the Columbia, Capt. Graz, o.
Boston, carried it for the first time around
the world, and planted it on the Pacific
coast, at the mouth of the great river 70
which he gsve the naISe OF his vessel. The
Franklin, Salem vessel. first displayed
| it in japanese waters in 1899 In 1871
congress added two stars and two stripes