The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1892-06-29
STARS AND STRIPES.
AN OFFICIAL HISTORY OF THE
AMERICAN FLAG.
Issued by the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
Of the Army--iiow the Stars Are
Arranged.


has been SO bothered with questions re-
garding the American flag that he has is
sued n bulletin which is intended TO meet
the numerous and diversified queries that
come to his Office from the patriotic
curious. The statements are the result of
research on the part of the clerks OF the
department, and may be accepted as ac-
curate, or at least, as official. The bulle-
tin bears the stirring title "The Stars and
Stripes and is as follows:
The American Congress, in session at
Philadelphia, established by its rcsolu-
ton of June Il, l177, national flag for
the United States of America. The reso-
luton was as follows:
Resolved, That the flag of the thirteen
United States be thirteen stripes, alternate
red and white; that the union be thirteen
stars, white in blue field, representing a
new constellation.
Although nearly year previous, July
4, 1i76, those thirteen United States had
been declared independent, this resolu-
ton is the first legislative action recorded
relating to a national flag for the new
sovereignty.
The use Of thirteen stripes was not a
new feature, as they had been introduced
lin alternate white and blaze on the up
per left hand corner OF standard pre-
sented to the Philadelphia Light Horse
by its Captain in the carly part Of 1915,
and moreover the Union flag Of the thir-
teen united colonies raised at Washing
toms Headquarters at Cambridge, Jan.
2, 1916, had the thirteen stripes just as
they are this day, but it also had the
crosses of st. George and St. Andrew on
a blue ground in the corner There is no
satisfactory evidence, however, that any
flag bearing the union of the stars had
been in public use before the resolution
of June, 1177
1t is not known to whom the credit of
designing the Stars and Stripes is due.
1t is claimed that Mrs. John Ross, an
upholsterer who resided an Arch street,
Philadelphia, was the maker of the first
flag combining the stars and stripes. Her
descendants assert that committee of
Congress, accompanied by Gen. Wash
ington, who was in Philadelphia in June,
1916, called upon Mrs Ross and engaged
her to make the flag from rough draw
ing which, at her suggestion, was re-
drawn by Gen. Washington with pencil
in her back parlor, and the flag thus de-
signed was adopted by Congress.
Although the resolution establishing
the flag was not officially promulgated
by the Secretary of Congress until Sept.
3, III, it seems well authenticated that
the Stars and Stripes were carried at the
battle of the Brandywinc, Sept II, 1777,
and thenceforward during all the battles
of the Revolution.
Soon after its adoption the new flag
was hoisted on the naval vessels Of the
United States. The ship Ranger, bear
ing the Stars and Stripes, and COM
handed by Capt. Paul Jones. arrived at
n French port about Dee. /. 1877, and
her flag received on Feb. II, 1918, the
first salute ever paid to the American
flag by foreign naval vessels.
The flag remained unchanged for about
eighteen years after its adoption. By
this time two more States vermont and
Kentucky had been admitted to the
Union, and on Jan. 18th, 1894, Congress
enacted that from and after the 1st day
of May, 1895, the flag of the United
States be fifteen stri pes, alternate req and
white that the Union be fifteen stars,
white in a blue field
This flag was the national banner from
1895 to 1913, during which period oc-
Cared the war of 1912 with Great Britain.
BY 1918 five additional States Tennessee,
Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana and Mississippi
had been admitted into the Union, and
therefore a further change in the flag
seemed to be required. After consider
able discussion in Congress on the subject,
the act of April 4, 1918, was passed,
which provided:
First-"That from and after the 4th
day of July next the flag OF the United
States be thirteen horizontal stripes, al
ternate red and white; that the union
have twenty stars, white in blue field. 50
Second-"That on the admission of
every new State into the Union, one star
be added to the union, of the flag, and
that such addition shall take effect on
the 4th day of July next succeeding such
admission"
The return to the thirteen stripes of
the 1717 flag was due in measure to Il
reverence for the standard of the Revo-
luton, but it was also due to the fact that
a further increase of the number of strips
would have made the width of the flag
out Of proportion to its length unless the
stripes were narrowed, and this would
have impaired their distinctness when
seen from distance. A newspaper of
the time said:
''5y this regulation the thirteen stripes
will resrescnt the number of States whose
valor and resources originally effected
American independence, and the addition
al stars will mark the increase of the
States since the present Constitution"
No act has since been passed by Con.
gress altering this feature of the flag, and
it is the same as originally adopted, ex.
cept as the number of stars in its union.
In the war with Mexico the national FLAG
bore twenty-nine stars in its union, dur
ing the late civil war thirty-fve, and
since July A, 1891, forty-four stars. In
none of the acts of Congress relating to
the flag has the manner of arranging the
stars been prescribed, and in conse-
quence there has been a lack of uniform
ity in the matter, and flags in use of the
public generally may be seen with the
stars arranged i'm various wavs