Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-06-11

cases the merchant marine flag o.
Of England was used with the pine
tree substituted for the Union Jack
Massachusetts adopted the green
pine tree on a white field with the
motto: "An Appeal to Heaven
Some of the Southern States had the
ra%ttlesnake flag With the motto:
Don't Tread on Me" on a white or
yellow field. This flag had been
used by South Carolina as early as
1894. Benjamin Franklin defended
the rattlesnake device on the ground
that the rattlesnake is found only in
America and that serpent emblems
were considered by a%ncients 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" -
Wanted One Flag.
The %colonists desired to adopt a
common flag; but they had not yet
declared independence and were not
at first seeking independence. They
took the British flag as they knew it,
and made a new colonial flag by d.
viding the red field with white stripes.
This is known as the Cambridge flag,
because it was first unfurled over
W~ashington's headquarters at Cam
bridge, Mass, on January 1, 1776. 1t
complied with the law of 1907 by hav-
ing the Union Jack on it; it also
represented the Is colonies by the IL
stripes.
Saw Separation Was Coming.
AS the colonists gradually became
converted to the idea that independ-
from the mother country was
necessary, they began to modify the
flag, first by leaving off the Union
Jack and using only the 13 horizontal
stripes. The modified. flags were not
red and white, but regularly
consisted Of combinations of two col,
ors selected from red, white, blue and
The final modification was
the replacement of the Union Jack
by the white stars on a blue field.
Stars Only Distinctive Feature.
The stars are the only distinctive
of the American flag. The
charming story which credits Betsy
Ross with making the first flag of
stars and stripes is still accepted by
When Washington sug-
the %six-pointed star, she dem
>nstrated the ease with which a five
pointed star could be made by fold
ng a piece of paper and producing
me with a single clip of the scissors.
some writer's are of the opinion that
10Th stars and stripes in the flag We're
from the coat of arms of the
Washington family, but this theory is
lot generally held.
The official adoption of our first flag
vas in TIT. On June IA of that year
he Continental Congress passed an
ct providing that "the flag of the
thirteen United States be thirteen
tripes, alternate red and white: that
he union be thirteen stars, white on
blue field, representing a new con-
tellation.' The 13 stars were ar
anged in a circle to symbolic the
'erpetuity of the union of the states.
New Stars Were Added.
Vermont was admitted to the Union
n 1871 and Kentucky in 1892. It
vas felt that these two new states
ught to be recognized on the flag, so
1894 congress passed an act max
ng the flag IS stars and Is stripes.
This remained the flag of the Unit
d States throughout the wal of 1912,
ntil there were 20 states in the I'm
IN. In 1916, an effort was again made
0 modify the flag 50 that all the new
would be represented on it. To
e continually adding stripes would
lake the flag very awkward in shape
nd appearance, so, after arguing the
latter for two years, congress decid-
d to return to the original 13 stripes