Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-06-12


X be thirteen stripes, alter
nate red and white; that the
union be thirteen stars,
white in a blue field, representing a
new constellation"
The resolution passed by the Cont
mental Congress on June IA, whose
sAscI.:icentennial is celebrated this
week. ~ $50 years has presented
TWO uuestiu., S-who originated the flag
described and what inspired the poeti-
cal wording. y, new constellation
There have been many claimants Tor
the honor of proposing the design OF
the Stars and Stripes, but it was not
until recently that ai~ real proof or
the authorship of the flag was an
nounced.
In 1917 George Everett Hastings,
now Of the University of Chicago,
while rummaging through certain pa
pers at the Library of Congress came
across a manuscript signed by Fran
els Haukicsnn, member of the THIRD
Continental Congress, which included
a bill for designing the t1as of the
United States of America.
During the past $50 years several
nleasant stories as to the Clrcum
stances attending the adoption of the
flag have been forced to JON company
with other myths of American history.
A bill. however. most people admit. is
something tangible, and Mr.. Hastings
believed that his discovery merited
further investigation and HopkinSon
a better acquaintance with the Ameri-
can public.
In his biography of HopkinsOn, pub
lished last December. the author sums
up the information he has collected
and saws that no evidence has been adj
Vanced, since the dating of the bill
in 1880. which would discredit Fran
els Hopkinson's claim as the designer
of the flag.
Hopkinson has been little known eX-
cept as one of the signers of the Dec
laration of Independence and as the
author of rather famous poem of
Revolutionary times, called THE Bat
tie of the kegs" His son, Joseph Hop
kinson, wrote an even more famous
poem, Hail, Columbia" and his
father was the eminent Judge Thomas
Hopkinson whose portrait has recently
been hung in the NATIONAL Museum.
Francis was born in Philadelphia in
1897 and died there in 1871.
Through the eyes of John Adams
and other contemporaries we see him
as a somewhat dapper young man
he was only SO years old when he died
small of stature, cheerful of counte-
nance and of considerable culture.
The brief biography which is now
placed beneath his picture near the
Declaration of Independence in the
Library of Congress emphasizes his
eminence as a lawyer and patriot, anC
to this should be added the record Ct
his accomplishments as inventor, nd
steal composer and painter. As an IN
ventive genius he should receive ciedit
today, for he shared Benjamin Frank
Inns interest in the development of
the balloon, and we are told that he
anticipated the invention of the dirigi-
BILE.
IN 1888 Hopkinson published a group
of seven songs which he dedi-
Gated to His Excellency. George
Washington. In his reply Wash
ington whimsically says that if his
friends had the smallest reason to
think that he would need any assist
ance to defend his work, what. alas,
can l do to support it? l can neither
sing one of the songs nor raise a sin
gle note on any instrument to con-
vince the unbelieving. But l have,
however. one argument which will
least in AmericaeI can tell them
that it is the production Of Mr.. Hop
The italics are Washing
toms, and they testify eloquently to
the ability of Hopkinson and the es-
TEEN in which he was held. How
much controversy would be at an end
II we had a similar emphatic state
nent concerning his work as a painter
and designer of flags.
His interest in the heraldic art,
as it applied to seals. flags
and coins, he shared with many of
the other patriotic leaders who were
in the establishment of new
national government. Designers and
engravers of seals for the new States
and the different branches of the
Federal Government were in great
demand. A committee consisting of
John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and
Thomas Jefferson was appointed just
after the Declaration of Independence
to select a seal for the United States,
and this seal was supposed to include
! coat of arms for the new Govern
nent.
Just why Congress failed to act upon
the report of this committee lis not
known. but no seal which might have
furnished a design for the new flag
had been adopted when the flag reso-
luton of June Ia, 1777. was presented
with what now seems dramatic sud.
denness. No preliminary reports or
debates are on record.
Francis Hopkinson's claim as de-
signer is supported indirectly by the
fact that this resolution was presented
the business of the marine
and he was member of
the navy board. DIR. Paullin says
that. among their duties, the members
of the naval board were to make pub