The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-06-14
THE STORY OF THE STARS AND
STRIPES.

/ STRIPES.
4 The American flag is growth.
rather. than a creation. Its history
can be traced back to the twelfth
century, or nearly 500 years prior 70
the first Flag day." June IA. 17!7.
During the first crusade In l1sS.
Pope Urban II assigned to all OF the
christian nations as standards
crosses varying 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 An
drew, on a blue field. The British
used a yellow cross. but century
and a quarter later they adopted a
red cross on white field, known as
the red cross of ST. George.
When James VI of Scotland as
cended the throne of England as
James /, he combined the two flags
and issued a proclamation requiring
all ships to carry the new Tag al
their main masts. At the same time
the vessels of south Britain 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
coIors." the Union colors." or the
Great union" and later as the I'm
ion Jack and was the one under
which the British made all their per-
manent settlements in America IL
was the flag of Great Britain only oy
proclamation, however; not until
1907 did parliament pass an act denn-
|itely uniting the two countries ana
their flags. In the same year the gov
eminent issued regulations requiring
the navy to use what was known as
the white ensign; the naval reserve.
the blue ensign; and the merchant
marine, the red ensign. Owing to the
fact that the British merchant YES
sells were everywhere, the colonists
in America came to look upon this
red ensign as the flag OF Great
Britain.
The people in the New England
colonies we're bitterly opposed to the
cross in the flag. In 1885 some OF the
troops In Massachusetts declined to
march under this flag and the mill
tary commissioners were forced 10
design other flags for their troops
with the cross left out The design
they adopted has not been preserved.
In 1852 mint was established In
rBoston. 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. GER
tainly by 1704 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 merchant marine flag OF
England was used with the pine tree
substituted for the union jack. Massa-
chusetts adopted the green pine tree
on a white field with the motto: AN
Appeal to Heaven" Some OF the
southern states had the rattlesnake
flag with the motto Don't Tread on
Me-" on white or yellow Held. 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 SER
pent emblems were considered by an
clients to be symbols Of wisdom.
In September ITS 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 a
common flag; but they had not yet de-
clared independence and we're not at
first seeking independence. They
took the English flag as they knew
| it, and made a new colonial flag by
dividing the red field with white
stripes into thirteen alternate red
and white stripes. This is known az
the Cambridge flag, because it was
first unfurled over Washington's
headquarters at Cambridge, Mass, on
January 1, 1776. It complied with
the laws of 1907 by having the union
jack on It; 1t 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 the thirteen hori-
zontal stripes. The modified flags
were not always red and white. but
regularly 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-