Pine Bluff daily graphic. (Pine Bluff, Ark.) 1893-1942, 1914-06-16

u0SlSu OI1oT lldSS LOT luelI lIOop1
with the cross left out The design
they adopted has not been preserved
In 1852 a mint was establishing II
Boston. Money coined in this min
had the pine tree stamped On one side
of it. The pine tree design was also
used on New England flags, certainly
by 1904 and possibly as early as 1885
At the outbreak Of the revolution
the American colonies had no flae
common to all of them. In many cases
tbs merchant marine flag of England
was used with the pine tree substitute
ed for the Union Jack Massachu-
sets adopted the green pine tree on a
white field with the motto: can Ap-
peal to Heaven" Some of the south
ern states had the rattlesnake 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 1854. Benjamin Franklin de-
| Tended the rattlesnake device on the
ground that the rattlasndke emblems
were considered by ancients to be
symbols Of wisdom.
In September, 1775, there was dis
played in the south what is by many
believed to be the first distinctively
white crescent, and matched the dress
of the troops, who wore caps inscrib-
ed Liberty Or death"
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 di-
viding the red field with white stripes
into thirteen alternate red and white
stripes. This is known as the Cam
bridge flag, because it was first un-
furled over Washington's headquar-
tiers at Cambridge, Mass, on. January
l. 1776. 1t complied with the law of
1907 by having the Union Jack on it;
it also represented the thirteen
colonies by the thirteen stripes.
AS the colonists gradually became
converted to the idea that independ-
ence from the mother country was
necessary, they began to modify the
flag, first by leaving off the Union
Jack and using only thirteen horozon-
tai stripes. The modified flags were
not always red and white, but regular
ly consisted of combinations of two
colors selected from red, white, blue
and yellow. The final modification
was the replacement of the Union
Jack by the white stars on blue
field.
The stars are the only distinctive
feature of the American flag. The
charming story which credits Betsy
Ross with making the first flag of
stars and stripes is still accepted by
historians. When Washington sug-
gested the siX-pointed star, she dem
onstrated the ease with which a five
pointed star could be made by, folding
a piece of paper and producing 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 Washington family, but this
theory is not generally held. .
The official adoption OF our first
flag was in 1777. On June IA of that
year the Continental congress passed
an act providing that "the flag of the
thirteen United States be thirteen
stripes, alternate red and white; that
the union be thirteen stars, while on a
blue field, Representing new con-
stellation." The thirteen stars were
arranged in a circle to symbolic the
perpetuity Of the union of the states
Vermont was admitted to the Union
in 1871 and Kentucky in 1892. 1t was
felt that these two new states ought
to be recognized on the flag, so in
1894 congress passed an act making
the flag fifteen stars and fifteen
stripes.
This remained the flag of the United
States throughout the war of 1912
until there were twenty, states in the
union. In 1916, an effort was again
made to modify the flag so that all the
new states would be represented or
it. To be continually adding stripes
would make the flag very awkward il
shape and appearance, so after argu
ing the matter for two years, congress
decided to return to the origina
thirteen stripes and one star for eacf
state. Congress has never determined
the arrangement of the stars nor the
shape and proportions of the flag, and
there has been great variation, espe
cially in the grouping. of the stars
There are still many who believe thai
the symbolic circular grouping Of
| torc CHI bo rOCtOrnd