The Republican., 1892-07-01
OUR NATIONAL FLAG.
The Notifications 1t Has Undergone Sine
Its Adoption in 1777.

So many questions have been asked
regarding the American flag that the
quartermaster general of the army has
issued bulletin on the subject. The
title of the bulletin is ''The Stars and
Stripes" 1t follows:
The American congress, in session at
Philadelphia, established by its resolu-
tion of June IA, 1777, national flag for
the United States of America. The
resolution was as follows:
Resolved, That the flag of the thir-
teen 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 a year previous, July
4, 1776, these thirteen United States had
been declared independent, this resolu-
ton is the first legislative action re-
corded relating to national flag for
the new sovereignty.
The use of thirteen stripes was not
new feature, as they had been intro
| duced lin alternate white and blue) on
the upper left hand corner of a standard
presented to the Philadelphia Light
iipioS pN iOS CdpOdih III IlC carly JdIJ
of 1775, and moreover the Union flag of
the thirteen united colonies raised at
Washington's headquarters, at Cam
bridge, January 2, 1776, had the thir-
teen stripes just as they are this day.
but it also had the crosses of St George
and st. Andrew on blue ground in the
corner. There is no satisfactory evi-
| dence, however, that any flag bearing
the union of the stars had been in pub
lie use before the resolution of June, ,1777.
| 1t is not known to whom the credit of
designing the stars and stripes is due.
1t is claimed that a Mrs John Ross, an
upholsterer who resided on Arch street.
Philadelphia, was the maker of the first
flag combining the stars and stripes.
Her descendants assert that commit
tee of congress, accompanied by Gen.
Washington, who was in Philadelphia
in June, 1875, called upon Mrs. Ross and
engaged her to make the flag from a
rough drawing, which, at her sugges-
ton, was redrawn by Gen. Washington
with pencil in her back parlor, and the
flag thus designed was adopted by con-
gress.
Although the resolution establishing
the flag was not offici ally promulgated
by the secretary of congress until Sep
tember B. INT, it seems well authenti-
Gated that the stars and str ipes were
carried at the battle of the Brandy
wine September II, 1777, and thence
forward during all the battles of the
revolution.
Soon flor itC a6nnttar, hn
was hoisted ON the naval vessels of the
United States. The ship Ranger, bear
ing the stars and stripes and COM
mdnded by Capt. Paul Jones, arrived at
French port, December /. 1777, and
her flag received on February IA, 177S,
the first salute ever paid to the Ameri-
can flag by foreign naval vessels
The flag rem aimed unchanged for
about eighteen years after its adoption.
BY this time two more states (Ver-
mont and Kentucky had been admitted
to the Union, and on January 13, 1894,
congress enacted that from and after
the first day of May, 1875, the flag of
the United States be fifteen stripes. al
ternate red and white, and that the
Union be fifteen stars, white in a blue
field.
This flag was the national banner
from 1898 to 1918, during which period
occurred 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 further
change in the flag seemed to be re-
quired. After considerable discussion
In congress on the subject, the act of
April 4, 1918, was passed, which pro-
vided:
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"
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 of July next succeeding such adj
mission"
The return to the thirteen stripes of
the 177T flag was due in measure to a
reverence for the standard of the revo-
tution, but it was also due to the fact
that further increase of the number
Of stripes would have made the width of
she flag out of proportion to its length
anless the stripes were narrowed, and
this would have impaired their distinct
aess when seen from distance. A
newspaper of the time said:
by this regulation the thirteen
stripes will represent the number of
states whose valor and resources orig
nally effected American independence,
and the additional stars will mark the
Increase of the states since the present
constitution.
No act has since been passed by con-
yress altering this feature of the flag,
and it is the same as originally adopted
except as to the number of stars in its
Inion. In the war with Mexico the
national flag bore twenty-nine stars in
its union, during the late civil war
thirty-tive, and since July 4, 1891. forty
four stars. In none of the acts of con-
gress relating to the flag has the man
| uer of arraupinU the stars haa, ,,ra