Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1915-02-18

tain Boys" but the reward was never
called for; and up to this time no de-
scription. representation or definite ref.
erence TO a Vermon flag has been found,
Of earlier date than the Act OF October
81. 1909. This was in the words and fig.
ures following:
at is hereby enacted by the General
Assembly OF the State of Vermont that
from and after the first day Of NAV.
A. D., 1904, the Flag of this STATE he
Seventeen Stripes alternate red and
white: that the Union be Seventeen stars
white on a blue field, with the word
Vermont in capitals above the said
Stripes and Stars
This flag, of seventeen stripes ard
seventeen stars, was the flag of the
United States OF that time. Congress, in
1878, changed the flag to one of thirteen
stripes and twenty stars, with a. pro-
vision that a star should be added to
the blue field for each added State. But
the flag OF Vernon appears to have
remained one of seventeen stars and
seventeen stripes for about twenty years
after, till October 20, 1897, when the Leg
~islature repealed the Act of 1903. and
the following took It's place:
ut is hereby enacted by the General
Assembly of the state of Vermont, that
from and after the passage of this Act,
the flag of this state be thirteen stripes,
alternate red and white; that the Union
be one large star, white in a blue field,
with the Goat Of Arms OF the State of
Vermont therein"
It is to no noted that while this act
recognized the existence of a Vermont
Coat of Arms, there had been up to that
time no legislation authorizing q State
coat Of arms, The coat of arms in use
consisted of an escutcheon taken from
the state Seal. designed by Ira Allen IN
1898. bearing the pine tree, sheaves OF
wheat and COW, to which a stag's head
had been added for the crest, in 1921. hv
Robert Temple, Secretary of the Cover
nor and Council, in a design prepared
by him and engraved for the commits
sions issued by Governor Skinner to the
officers of the State militia.
The state colors carried by tho First
regiment which Vermont sent TO the
front in the war of the Rebellion. bore
the State coat of arms or a white ground.
It was brought back to Vermont. and
Is preserved in the State House at Mont
pelier. The State colors subsequently
carried from 1861 to 1865, by
The heroes of the single star.
The does head and the pine"
bore the State coat of arms on blue
silk, and the names Of the respective
regiments, to which were added, as the
wal went on, the names Of the battles
in which the cgiment or battery had
taken an honorable part. And not one
Of these flags. from first to last, was
yielded in action to the enemy.
The war had been In progress for a
year and a half when a committee Of
the Vermont Historical Society, consist
ing Of George w. Benedict, Norman
Williams and Charles Reed, called the
attention of the Legislature to the fact
that there had been as yet no authori
tative designation of a State Coat of
Arms. In the memorial addressed to
the House OF Representatives, November
81. 1867. the committee said:
THE Investigations Of the society lead
to the belief that the devices Of our Coat
Of Arms and the state Seal rest wholly
upon usage and tradition; and that there
is no law, resolution or order extant
establishing the same.
"Some of the devices now in use ap-
pear in the first Seal of the State, i'm
pressions of which we nave as early as
May. IT'S; since that time the devices
have changed with the fancy of every
officer that had occasion to procure a
new die to impress an official character
upon State documents
The object of your memorialists il,
not to change, but to fix n establish
by law. Their mission Is to ask the
General Assembly that the emblems now
emblazoned upon our state Flag, ans
under which our sons now go forth &c
battle. may be AS constant and unchang.
ing as the mountains they portray; ant
that the devices of the Seal, that attest
the power and the faith of our STATE
upon official papers, may remain for
ever, unfaltered.
we ask that precisely the same en-
blems, reminding of homes among Greer
Hills, and that are already OF histori,
renown, may gladden. the eyes and incit'
the hearts of Vermonters till the las
syllable of recorded time"
The result of this memorial was tn,
enactment of chapter 11 of the Gener
al Statutes of 1862. entitled ''Of tn
State Arms, Seal and Flag This chap
ter. in connection with the State Arm
and Seal ~re-enacted the State Flag. I,
the form and with the description tina
had been given to 1t in the Act of 1887
This remains the law at the presen
time.
And such may the flag remain, un
changed MT u~ntarnished. during tn