Aberdeen herald. [volume] (Aberdeen, Chehalis County, W.T.) 1886-1917, 1914-07-28
OUR EARLY FLAGS
Colonial Emb|ems That Led Up
to the Stars and Stripes.

Colonial EmbIems That Led Up
to the Stars aid Stripes.
Twice Has.,ths Design Been Changed
Since the oAseiai Adoption 81 Our
First Flag In 177-rhs Starr ths
Distinctive Feature 81 Our Banner.
The American nag 10 q growth
rather than q creation. lts history can
be traced back to the twelfth century.
or nearly 600 yean prior to the arst
lag day." June IA. l777.
During the first crusade IN 1895
Pope Urban II. assigned to an Of the
Christian nations a. standards crosses
varying In color and design. emblem
ATTIC Of the warfare in which they were
engaged To the Scotch troops was
assigned the white satire. known -
the white cross Of 81. Andrew" on .
blue 6eld nThe British used yellow
cross. butsa century and a quarter
later they adopted a red cross on a
white 6eld, known as the red cross Of
st. George.
When James vi. Of Scotland ascend
ed the throne of England as James l.
he combined the two Hags and issued
a prOcla mation requiring all ships 70
carry the new flag at their mainmasts.
At the same time the vessels Of south
Britain were to carry at their fore
masts the red cross Of st. George and
the ships Of north Britain to carry
the white cross Of st. Andrew.
The new Gag was known az king
colors," the union colors." of the
great union" and later as the union
Jack" and was the one under which
the British. made all their permanent
settlements in America.
The people in the New England colo
MES were bitterly opposed to the cross
In the flag. In 1885 some Of the troops
In Massachusetts declined to march
under this flag. and the military COM
missioners were forced to design other
Tags 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 Tags. certainly by 1704 and
possibly as early as 1895.
At the outbreak of the Revolution
the American colonies had no Tag COM
mon to all Of them. In many cases the
merchant marine flag Of England was
used with the pine tree substituted for
the union jack. Massachusetts sdopt-
ed the green pine tree on a white
deid with the motto. IAN Appeal to
Heaven" Some of the southern states
had the rattlesnake Gag with the mot
to Don't Tread on Me" on a white or
yellow field. This Gag had been used
BY South Carolina as early as 1894
In September, 1775. there was dis
played In the south what is by many
believed to he the first distinctively
American flag. 1t was blue with a
white crescent and matched the dress
VA tAC CAOOPVs W uO WOAS (SRS AASCA1O'
ed Liberty or Death"
The colonists desired to adopt a com.
mon flag. but they had not yet declared
independence and were not at first
seeking independence. They took the
British flag as they knew 1t and made
a new colonial flag by dividing the red
Geld with white stripes into thirteen al
ternate red and white stripes. This is
known rs the Cambridge flag, because
It was first unfurled over Washington'a
headquarters at Cambridge, Mass, on
Ian. l, 1776. 1t complied with the law
Of 1907 by having the union jack on
it; It also represented the thirteen col.
onies by the thirteen stripes.
AS the colonists gradually became
converted to the idea that independ.
ence from the mother country was nee.
essary they began to modify the flag,
FIRST by leaving OF the union Jack and
using only the thirteen horizontal
stripes. The modified flags were not al
ways red and white. but regularly con-
sisted Of combinations Of two colors
selected from red. white. blue and yel-
low. The final modification was the re-
placement Of the union Jack by the
white stars on blue field.
The stars are the only distinctive fea.
ture Of the American flag. The 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 six
pointed star she demonstrated the ease
with which a five pointed star could be
made by folding piece Of paper and
producing one with q single clip Of the
scissors.
The official adoption of our first
flag was In 1777. On June IA Of that
year the Continental congress passed
an act providing that 1.-THE flag Of the
thirteen United States be thirteen
stripes, alternate red and white; that
the Union be thirteen stars. white
on blue field. representing a new
The thirteen stars were
arranged In a circle to symbolic the
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 be recognized on the flag, so
in 1894 congress passed an act making
the flag fifteen stars and fifteen stripes.
This rmained the flag Of the United
States throughout the war OF 1912, un-
til there were twenty states in the
Union. In 1916 an effort was again