The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-11-21
AMERICAN FLAG TRACED
BACK 700 YEARS
POPE URBAN II ASSIGNED
CROSSES TO EACH NATION DUR
ING cRUSADES-STARS THE
ONE DISTINCTIVE FEATURE IN
OUR BANNER.

The American flag is a growth,
rather than creation. It's history
can be traced back to the 10Th cen
fury, or nearly 600 years prior to the
first Flag Day." June IA, 1777, writes
Mrs. L. c. HILL
During the first crusade in 1895,
Pope Urban II assigned to all of the
Christian nations as standards crosses
varying in color and design, en-
blematic 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
blue field. The British used yell
low cross, but century and a quar-
ter later they adopted a red cross on
a white field known as the red cross
of st. George.
When James vi of Scotland as
cended the throne of England as
James I, he combined the two flags
and issued proclamation requiring
all ships to carry the new flag at
their mainmasts. At the same time
the vessels of South Britain we're 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 King
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 per-
manent settlements 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 Govern
ment issued regulations requiring the
white ensign; the Naval Reserve, the
blue ensign, and the Merchant Marine,
the red ensign. Owing to the fact that
the British merchant vessels 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 col
onies were bitterly opposed to the
cross in the flag. In 1886 some of
the troops in Massachusetts declined
to march under this flag and the mill
tary commissioners were 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 established in
Boston. Money coined in this mint
had the pine tree stamped on one
side of it. The pine tree design was
also used on New England flags, Ger
tainly by 1904 and possibly as early
as 1886.
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. Mas.
sachusetts adopted the green pine
tree on a white field with the motto:
can Appeal to Heaven" Some OF
the Southern State mad the rattle.
snake 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 1884. Ben.
| jamin Franklin defended the rattle
snake device on the ground that the
rattlesnake is found only in America
and that serpent emblems were con-
sidered 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
American flag. 1t was blue, with a
white crescent, and matched the dress
of the troops, who wore caps in.
scribed Liberty or death"
The colonists desired to adopt a
common flag; but they had not YET
declared independence and were not al
first seeking independence. They took
the British flag as they knew it and
made a new colonial flag by dividing
the red field with white stripes into
13 alternate red and white stripes
| This is known as the Cambridge flag
because it was first unfurled over
Washington's headquarters at Cam
bridge, Mass, on January 1, 1875. II
complied with the law of 1907 by hav
ing the Union Jack on it; it also
represented the 13 colonies by the IL
stripes.
AS the colonies gradually became
converted to tie idea that independ
ence from the mother country was
necessary they began to modify the
flag, first by leaving off the Unior
Jack and using only the Ii horizonta,
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 UnioI
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 thai
both stars and stripes in the fiae
were derived from the coat of arms Of
the Washington family but this theory
| ia not generally held