The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1914-06-13
STORY OF STARS AND STRIPES.
Its History Can Be Traced Back to 18th
Century.

er than a creation. It's history can be
traced back to the 18th century, or near
ly 800 years prior to the Flag day"
June IA, l777.
During the first crusade in 1875, Pope
Urban ii. assigned to all of the Chris
tian nations as standards crosses vary
ing in color and design, emblematic OF
the warfare in which they were engaged.
To the Scotch troops was assigned the
white satire, known as the white cross
of st. Andrew, on a blue field. The Brit.
ish used yellow cross, but century
and a quarter later they adopted red
cross on white field, known as the red
cross of st. George.
When James VI. of Scotland assembled
the throne of England as James l., he
combined the two flags, and issued a
proclamation requiring all ships to carry
the new flag at their main masts. At
the same time the vessels of south Brit
ain were to carry at their foremasts the
red cross of st. George and the ships of
north Britain to carry the white cross OF
st. Andrew.
The new flag was known as Kings
Colors," the Union Colors," or the
Great Union" and later as the Union
jack" and was the one under which the
British made all their permanent settle
ments in America. 1t was the flag of
Great Britain only by proclamation,
however; not until 1907 did Parliament
pass an act definitely uniting the two
countries and their flags. In the same
year the government issued regulations
requiring the navy to use what was
known as the white ensign; the naval re-
serve, the blue ensign. and the merchant
marine, the red ensign. Owing to the
fact that the British merchant vessels
were everywhere, the colonists in Amer
lea came to look upon this red ensign
as the flag of Great Britain.
The people in the New England col
onies were bitterly opposed to the cross
in the flag. In 1885 some of the troops
in Massachusetts, declined to march I'M
der this flag and the military commits
sioners We're forced to design other flags
for their troops with the cross left out.
The design they adopted has not been
preserved. In 1852 a mint was estab-
lished in Boston. Money coined in this
mint had the pine tree stamped on one
side of 1t. The pine tree design was
also used on New England flags, certain
ly by 1904 and possibly as early as 1885.
At the outbreak of the Revolution the
American colonies had no flag common
to all of them. In many cases the mer-
chant marine flag of England was used
with the pine tree substituted for the
Union Jack Massachusetts adopted the
al
motto: San Appeal to Heaven" Some
of the southern states had the rattle.
snake flag with the motto Don't Tread
on Me-" on q white or yellow field. This
flag had been used by South Carolina
as early as 1894. Benjamin Franklin de-
Tended the rattlesnake device on the
ground that the rattlesnake is found
only in America and that serpent en-
blems were considered by ancients to
be symbols of wisdom.
In September, 1875, there was dis
played in the South what is by many
believed to be the first distinctively
American flag 1t was blue with a white
crescent. and matched the dress Of the
troops, who wore caps inscribed Liberty
or Death"
The colonists desired to adopt com
mon flag; but they had not yet declared
independence and were not at first seek
ing independence. They took the Brit
ish flag as they knew it, and made q
new colonial flag by dividing the red
field with white stripes into 10 alternate
red and white stripes. This is known as
the Cambridge flag, because it was first
unfurled over Washington's headquar-
tiers at Cambridge, Mass, on Jan. |, 1870.
1t complied with the law of 1907 by hav-
ing the Union Jack on it; il also repro.
scented the IL colonies by the - stripes.
As the colonists gradually became con-
verified to the idea that independence
from the mother country was necessary,
they began to modify the flag, first by
leaving off the Union Jack and using
only the l3 horizontal stripes. The
modified flags were not always red and
white but regularly consisted Of combi-
nations OF two eolors selected from red,
white blue and yellow. This fnll modi
fication was the replacement OF the Tn
ion Jack by the white stars on d blue
field.
The stars are the only distinctive feat
ture of the American flag. TIE charm
ing story which credits Betsy Ross with
making the first flag of stars and stripes
is still accepted by historians. When
Washington suggested the sixpointed
star she demonstrated the ease with
which a pointed star could be made
by folding a piece of paper and produc-
ing one with a single clip of the scissors.
Some writer's are of the opinion that |
both stars and stripes in the flag were
derived from the coat Of arms of the |
family, but this theory is
not generally held.
The official adoption of our first flag |
was in l777. On June Ia of that year
the Continental Congress passed an act |
providing that "the flag of the 10 United |
States by l3 stripes, alternate red and
white; that the Union by IL stars, white
on a bluefield, representing a new con-
stellation." The IL stars were arranged /
in circle to symbolic the perpetuity |
of the union of the states.
Vermont was admitted to the Union |
in 1891 and Kentucky in 1892. 1t was |
felt that these two new states ought to I
be recognized on the flag, so in l794 /
Congress passed an act making the flag I
Is stars and Is stripes.
This remained the flag of the United |
States throughout the War of 1872, I'M |
til there were 20 states in the Union. In |
1916, an effort was again made to modify |
the flag so that all the new states would |
be represented on it, 70 be continually |
adding stripes would make the flag very |
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