The Little Book of the Flag Part 2

_Resolved_, That the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.

So much for the share that Congress had in the flag. The story of the making of the first flag with stars and stripes is as follows. Betsy Ross, or, to speak more respectfully, Mrs. Elizabeth Griscom Ross, lived on Arch Street, Philadelphia, in a tiny house of two stories and an attic. She was called the most skillful needlewoman in the city, and there is a tradition that before Was.h.i.+ngton became commander-in-chief, she embroidered ruffles for his s.h.i.+rts--quite an important branch of fine sewing in those days. Whether she ever embroidered the great man's ruffles or not, it is said that, whenever folk wanted any especially fine work done, they always went to "Betsy Ross." She could do more than sew, for she could draw freehand the complicated patterns that were used in quilting, the supreme proof of artistic ability in the household. One day three gentlemen entered her house through its humble doorway. One was her uncle by marriage, Colonel Ross; one is thought to have been Robert Morris; one was General Was.h.i.+ngton. The commander-in-chief told her that they had come from Congress to ask her if she could make a flag. "I don't know," she replied, "but I can try." Then they showed her a rough sketch of a flag and asked what she thought of it. She replied that she thought it ought to be longer, that a flag looked better if the length was one third greater than the width. She ventured to make two more suggestions. One was that the stars which they had scattered irregularly over the blue canton would look better if they were arranged in some regular form, such as a circle or a star or in parallel rows. The second suggestion was that a star with five points was prettier than one with six. Some one seems to have remarked that it would be more difficult to make; and thereupon the skillful little lady folded a bit of paper and with one clip of her scissors produced a star with five points. The three gentlemen saw that her suggestions were good, and General Was.h.i.+ngton drew up his chair to a table and made another sketch according to her ideas.

Mrs. Ross could make wise suggestions about flags, but how to sew them she did not know; so it was arranged that she should call on a s.h.i.+pping merchant and borrow a flag from him. This she soon did. He opened a chest and took out a s.h.i.+p's flag to show her how the sewing was done.

She carried it home to use as a guide, and when she reached the little house on Arch Street, she set to work to make the first flag bearing the stars and stripes. To try the effect, it was run up to the peak of one of the vessels in the Delaware, and the result was so pleasing that it was carried into Congress on the day that it was completed. Congress approved of the work of the little lady. Colonel Ross told her to buy all the material she could and make as many flags as possible. And for more than fifty years she continued to make flags for the Government.

This is the account that has come down to us, not by tradition merely, but by written statements of Mrs. Ross's daughters, grandchildren, and others, to whom she often told the story. Mrs. Ross says that this sample flag was made just before the Declaration of Independence, although the Resolution endorsing it was not pa.s.sed until June 14, 1777. This, however, would not argue to the incorrectness of the account, for Congress had a fas.h.i.+on of writing with the utmost brevity the results of its deliberations, and not putting in a word about the discussions that must have taken place before the pa.s.sing of a resolution. Affairs of the utmost importance were on hand, and after all it was the usefulness and convenience of the flag, rather than its sentiment or the fact of its having congressional authority, that was most in the minds of men, and it is not impossible that this design was in use long before the date of its official recognition by Congress. The one real weakness in the story is its lack of contemporary evidence.

The significance of the new flag no one has expressed better than Was.h.i.+ngton. "We take the star from Heaven," he said, "red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty."

On the day of the pa.s.sing of the resolution about the Stars and Stripes, another one was pa.s.sed, which read as follows:--

_Resolved_, That Captain John Paul Jones be appointed to command the s.h.i.+p Ranger.

"The flag and I are twins, born the same hour," said Captain Jones.

The Ranger was launched in Portsmouth, New Hamps.h.i.+re, and there her captain went to take command. She had no flag, but the captain was a favorite whereever he went, and a group of Portsmouth girls soon held a "quilting party," but made a flag instead of a quilt. Moreover, as silk enough of the proper colors could not be found in the stores of Portsmouth, they made it from breadths of their best silken gowns, red, white, and blue, the story declares. Then Jones sailed away to see how his little Ranger would behave when she met a British man-of-war. He soon found out, for the Ranger and the Drake met in combat, and for the first time a British man-of-war struck her colors to the new flag. This same little silken flag was the first to receive a genuine foreign salute. Early in 1778 the Ranger spoke the French fleet, off Brest Roads. Captain Jones was willing to take chances in a sea fight, but not in the matter of a salute, and he sent a courteous note to the French commander, informing him that the flag worn by the Ranger was the new American standard, which had never yet received a salute from any foreign power. "If I offer a salute, will it be returned gun for gun?" he queried. The reply was that the same salute would be given as to an admiral of Holland, or any other republic; that is, four guns less than the salute given. Captain Jones anch.o.r.ed in the entrance of the bay and sought for further information. He found that the reply of the admiral was correct and according to custom. Therefore, on the following day, he sailed through the French fleet, saluting with thirteen guns, and receiving nine. This was an acknowledgment of American independence, and the first salute ever paid by a foreign naval power to the Stars and Stripes. It is true that a salute had been given to the American brig, the Andrea Doria, before this, by the Governor of one of the West Indian Islands; but a salute which his Government immediately disowned and for which he was called home is rather an individual than a national salute. Then, too, there is no proof that the flag flown by the Andrea Doria was the Stars and Stripes.

After a while Jones was put in command of the Bon Homme Richard, a larger vessel than the Ranger, but she flew the same little silken flag. Off Flamborough Head he came up with the British Serapis. After two hours of fighting, Captain Pearson of the Serapis shouted, in a moment's lull, "Have you struck your colors yet?" "I haven't yet begun to fight," was Jones's reply. The two s.h.i.+ps were lashed together, guns burst, cartridges exploded, wide gaps were torn out of the sides of both vessels. "Have you struck?" cried the British captain. "No!"

thundered Paul Jones. At last the Serapis yielded; but the Bon Homme Richard was fast sinking. Captain Jones left her and took possession of the Serapis. The American vessel rolled and lurched and pitched and plunged. The little silken flag that had never been conquered waved in the morning breeze for the last time, and then went down, "flying on the s.h.i.+p that conquered and captured the s.h.i.+p that sank her."

When Paul Jones returned to America he met one of the young girls who had given him the flag. He told her how eagerly he had longed to give it back into the hands of those who had given it to him four years earlier.

"But, Miss Mary," he said, "I couldn't bear to strip it from the poor old s.h.i.+p in her last agony, nor could I deny to my dead on her decks, who had given their lives to keep it flying, the glory of taking it with them." In his journal he wrote eloquently and almost as simply:--

No one was now left aboard the Richard but her dead. To them I gave the good old s.h.i.+p for their coffin, and in her they found a sublime sepulcher. She rolled heavily in the long swell, her gun-deck awash to the port-sills, settled slowly by the head, and sank peacefully in about forty fathoms. The ensign-gaff, shot away in action, had been fished and put in place, soon after firing ceased, and our torn and tattered flag was left flying when we abandoned her. As she plunged down by the head at the last, her taffrail momentarily rose in the air; so the very last vestige mortal eyes ever saw of the Bon Homme Richard was the defiant waving of her unconquered and unstricken flag as she went down. And as I had given them the good old s.h.i.+p for their sepulcher, I now bequeathed to my immortal dead the flag they had so desperately defended, for their winding sheet!

This is the story of the Portsmouth flag. At first its truth was accepted without a doubt; then it was seriously questioned. Within the last few years, new evidence in the shape of family tradition has strengthened its position.

CHAPTER VIII

FLAGS ONE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO SEE

Probably the flag made by the skillful fingers of Mrs. Elizabeth Griscom Ross was sewed with the tiniest of st.i.tches imaginable; but it is absolutely certain that the flag which made its appearance August 3, 1777, at Fort Schuyler, afterwards Fort Stanwix, was not put together with any such daintiness of workmans.h.i.+p. For twenty days the little fort in the New York wilderness, where Rome now stands, was besieged by British and Indians. Reinforcements brought the news of the adoption of the new flag. The troops within the fort had no flag, and therefore, in true American fas.h.i.+on, they set to work to make one.

There was not even a country store to draw upon for materials, so they made the best of what they had. As the story has been handed down, a white s.h.i.+rt provided the white stripes and the stars, and the petticoat of a soldier's wife the red stripes. As for the blue ground for the stars, it was cut from the cloak of Captain Abram Swartwout.

The result was not very elegant, but it was a flag, and it was _the_ flag, and the besieged men were as proud of it and stood for it as bravely as if it had been made of damask with the daintiest of needlework. August 22, 1777, the fort was relieved, and after a few days Captain Swartwout began to be anxious about his blue cloak.

Colonel Peter Gansevoort, who commanded the fort, had promised him a new one to take the place of the one which he had sacrificed for the flag, but it had not arrived. Seven days he waited. At the end of the seventh day he sent a note from Poughkeepsie, where he then was, back to the fort, saying: "You may Remember Agreeable to Your promise, I was to have an Order for Eight Yards of Broad-Cloath, on the Commissary for Cloathing of this State In Lieu of my Blue Cloak, which we Used for Coulours at Fort Schuyler. An opportunity Now presenting itself, I beg You to send me an Order." Broadcloth was broadcloth in those days, and a "Blue Cloak" was not so easily obtained. It is no wonder he wrote it with capitals. It is to be hoped that the good captain received his order; but it must have been a very large cloak to require eight yards of "Broad-Cloath."

Another interesting banner was that borne by Count Pulaski, a gallant Pole, who came to help in the struggle for freedom. He visited Lafayette when the Frenchman was wounded and in the care of the Moravian Sisterhood in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The embroidery of these Sisters was very beautiful, and Pulaski engaged them to make him a banner, which they did. On one side were the letters "U.S.," and on the other the thirteen stars in a circle, surrounding an eye which is rather uncomfortably set in a triangle. They made a mistake in spelling their Latin motto, but the crimson banner, with its silver fringe and its exquisite embroidery, was very handsome. Longfellow's poem about this banner, "Hymn of the Moravian Nuns of Bethlehem," is excellent poetry, but hardly accurate history. It is quite probable that the good women sent the banner forth with their blessing, but it is rather doubtful whether they said anything like the following:--

"Take thy banner, and if e'er Thou shouldst press the soldier's bier, And the m.u.f.fled drums should beat To the tread of mournful feet, Then this crimson flag shall be Martial cloak and shroud for thee";--

for the beautiful little banner was only twenty inches square! When Lafayette visited this country in 1824, this little flag was borne in the procession which welcomed him to Baltimore.

In the midst of the grief and horrors of war, there was one day when all the armed s.h.i.+ps in the Delaware River were ablaze with the colors of the United States in token of rejoicing. It was July 4, 1777, the first anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Thirteen cannon were fired, a great dinner was served to the members of Congress and the officials of the army and of the State. The Hessian band, which had been captured at Trenton six months previously, performed some of their merriest music. Toasts followed the dinner, each one honored by a discharge of artillery and small arms and a piece of music by the Hessians. At night the city was illuminated and the streets resounded with hurrahs and the ringing of bells. Then came fireworks, which began and ended with thirteen rockets in honor of the thirteen United States.

"Thirteen" appeared not only as the number of stars on the flag, but everywhere else, and at Valley Forge, in the rejoicing over the new alliance with France, the officers marched up to the place of entertainment thirteen abreast and with arm linked in arm. A disrespectful English paper declared that the "rebels" ate thirteen dried clams a day, that it took thirteen "Congress paper dollars" to equal one English s.h.i.+lling, that "every well-organized rebel household has thirteen children, all of whom expect to be major-generals or members of the high and mighty congress of the thirteen United States when they attain the age of thirteen years."

When the war had come to an end, the artist Copley was in London working on the portrait of an American, Elkanah Watson. In the background of the portrait was a s.h.i.+p supposed to be bearing to America the news of the acknowledgment of Independence. The rising sun was s.h.i.+ning upon the place where the flag should have been, but no flag was there. Copley's studio was often visited by the royal family, so he waited. But a day came when the artist heard the speech of the King acknowledging the Independence of America. He went straightway to his studio and painted in the flag floating in the rays of the rising sun.

Soon after the close of the war, a wide-awake skipper of Nantucket, who had some whale oil to sell, appeared at London. Nantucket was so helpless for both offense and defense that it had remained neutral, and the captain had received from Admiral Digby a license to go to London. A London magazine of the time said, "This is the first vessel which has displayed the thirteen rebellious stripes of America in any British port." n.o.body knew exactly what to do, but apparently the whale oil was soon sold, for the enterprising whaler returned directly to Nantucket.

In October, 1783, most of the British troops had sailed away from the United States, but Sir Guy Carleton was delayed in New York waiting for vessels. When the day came for him to leave the city, a strong, determined woman who kept a boarding-house brought out a United States flag and ran it up on a pole in front of her house. Down the street came a British officer with headlong speed. "We do not evacuate this city until noon. Haul down that flag!" he shouted angrily. "That flag went up to stay, and it will not be hauled down!" declared the indignant housekeeper, and went on sweeping in front of her door.

"Then I will pull it down myself," thundered the irate officer, and set to work. But the halyards were entangled, and all the officer's swearing and scolding did not help matters. The militant lady of the broom then applied her weapon to the officer. The powder flew from his wig in a cloud, and at last he himself had to fly, leaving the flag to float serenely on the morning breeze. This encounter has been called the last battle of the Revolution.

Before leaving Fort George, at the foot of Broadway, in New York, the British soldiers mischievously nailed their flag to the top of the pole, took down the halyards, greased the pole from top to bottom, and knocked off the cleats. They did not know how well the American boys could climb; in a very short time new cleats were nailed on, the English flag was pulled down, and the Stars and Stripes floated from the top of the pole.

News of King George's proclamation did not reach the United States till the middle of April, and then there was rejoicing, indeed. It is no wonder that the joy of the country at the closing of the war burst out in celebrations and silken flags. The diary of President Stiles, of Yale, tells what took place in New Haven. It reads as follows:--

_April 24, 1783._ Public rejoicing for the Peace in New Haven.

At sunrise thirteen cannon discharged in the Green, and the continental flag displayed, being a grand silk flag presented by the ladies, cost 120 dollars. The stripes red and white, with an azure field in the upper part charged with thirteen stars. On the same field and among the stars was the arms of the United States, the field of which contained a s.h.i.+p, a plough, and three sheaves of wheat; the crest an eagle volant; the supporters two white horses. The arms were put on with paint and gilding. It took ---- yards. When displayed it appeared well.

The patriotic ladies who presented the flag had taken the arms and motto, "Virtue, Liberty, Independence," from the t.i.tle-page of a family Bible; but unluckily, this Bible, having been published in Philadelphia, displayed the arms and motto, not of the United States, but of Pennsylvania. The moral is, learn the arms of your country.

CHAPTER IX

THE FLAG OF FIFTEEN STRIPES AND FIFTEEN STARS

The worthy fathers of our country were long-sighted men. In many respects they peered far into the future and they laid well the foundations for a great republic. One thing, however, they forgot; when they chose a design for a flag with thirteen stripes and a circle of thirteen stars, they did not realize that the number of States would probably increase, and that these States would wish to be represented on the flag. In 1791 Vermont was admitted as a State, and in 1792 Kentucky also came into the Union. In 1794 the Senate pa.s.sed a bill increasing to fifteen the number of both stripes and stars. This bill was sent to the House, and then came exciting times. Some members thought it of great importance not to offend new States by giving them no recognition on the flag. Others called it dishonorable to waste time over what one man called "a consummate piece of frivolity," when matters "of infinitely greater consequence" ought to be discussed.

Another declared that the Senate sent the bill for the want of something better to do. Yet another honorable member did not think it worth while either to adopt or reject the proposed law, but supposed "the shortest way to get rid of it was to agree to it." Whether to "get rid of it" or not, the bill was pa.s.sed, and went into effect May 1, 1795.

This flag of fifteen stripes and fifteen stars was the one worn by the frigate Const.i.tution, "Old Ironsides." When, in 1830, it was reported that this vessel, with its magnificent record, was to be broken up, Holmes wrote his stirring poem, "Old Ironsides," which ends:--

"Oh, better that her shattered hulk Should sink beneath the wave; Her thunders shook the mighty deep, And there should be her grave; Nail to the mast her holy flag, Set every threadbare sail, And give her to the G.o.d of storms, The lightning and the gale!"

It was this flag under which we went forth to three wars, each one fought to uphold the rights of American citizens. The first was with France, the second with Tripoli, and the third with Great Britain. It had long been the custom for nations using the Mediterranean Sea to pay tribute to the pirates of Tripoli. In 1800 Captain Bainbridge carried the annual tribute to Algiers. It seemed that the Dey wished to send an amba.s.sador to Constantinople, and under threat of capture Captain Bainbridge was ordered to carry him there. The captain obeyed, but very unwillingly. When the new flag appeared at Constantinople, it was reported to the Sultan that a s.h.i.+p from the United States of America was in the harbor. "What's that?" he demanded. "I never heard of that nation." "They live in the New World which Columbus discovered," was the reply. The Sultan had heard of Columbus, and he sent to the frigate a bouquet of flowers in welcome, and a lamp in token of friends.h.i.+p.

The Dey of Algiers became dissatisfied with the tribute paid by America, and declared haughtily that if he did not receive from our country a handsome present within six months, he should declare war. This he did, but to his great surprise a small American fleet, under the fifteen stars and stripes, sailed up to his city and began to bombard it. It was not long before he became the very picture of meekness. He freed all his American captives, paid well for all the property that he had destroyed, and the Mediterranean Sea became safe for commerce.

In 1803 the United States purchased from France the immense Louisiana Territory. The French flag was hauled down and the flag of the United States was raised in token of the change of owners.h.i.+p. This country had first been in the hands of Spain, and the Spaniards had presented flags to various Indians. When Lieutenant Z. M. Pike made a journey of exploration in the new territory, he came to an Indian village where there was quite a display of Spanish banners. The Lieutenant made a little speech to the Indians, and said among other things that the Spanish flag at the chief's door ought to be given up to him and the flag of the United States put in its place. The Indians listened, but made no reply. Lieutenant Pike spoke again to the same effect. "Your nation cannot have two fathers," he said. "You must be the children of the Spaniards or else of the Americans." The red men sat in silence awhile, then an old man arose, walked slowly to the door, took the Spanish flag down, and put the American in its place. Then he gave the flag of Spain to his followers, bidding them, "Never hoist this again--while the Americans are here." Surely, the old chief must have been akin to Dr. John Cotton of Colonial fame. This scene occurred in what is now Kansas, and is thought to have been the first raising of the United States flag in that State.

The banner of fifteen stripes and fifteen stars has a proud record, for this was the flag that inspired Francis Scott Key to write "The Star-Spangled Banner." Every one knows the story of the poem, how the author and an agent for the exchange of prisoners went on board a British vessel in 1814 to try to secure the release of a physician who had been captured. The English admiral granted their request, but as he was about to attack Fort McHenry, he told them that they would not be permitted to return at once, but must remain on their own vessel, with a British guard, until the fort was reduced. If this order had been carried out, they would have been on board to-day, for the fort never was reduced. All day the Americans could see the Stars and Stripes flying over its ramparts, in spite of attacks by sea and by land. Night came, and it was only by "the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air," that they knew whether the fort yet stood. At length the firing ceased, and all was darkness. They could do nothing but wait for the first rays of morning in the hope that "by the dawn's early light" they could catch a glimpse of the flag and know that the fort had not yielded, that "our flag was still there," and that the British were retreating. Then it was that Key wrote, on the back of an old envelope, "The Star-Spangled Banner," and put into it such a thrill of sincerity that it is just as throbbing with life and patriotism as it was on that September dawn a century ago. The banner that inspired the poem is in the National Museum in Was.h.i.+ngton.

Francis Scott Key died in Baltimore in 1843, and is buried in Frederick, Maryland. Over his grave a large national flag flies day and night, never removed save when wear and tear make a new flag necessary. In Baltimore a n.o.ble monument has been reared in his honor.

It is surmounted by the figure of the poet, who waves his hat with one hand and with the other points joyfully toward the fort. The figure is so life-like that one almost expects it to cry,--

"And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave."

A few months after "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written, a plan was formed to rear in the city of Baltimore a monument in honor of George Was.h.i.+ngton. It was fitting that the place of his birth should also be marked, and a few days before the laying of the corner-stone of the monument, a little company sailed from Alexandria, Virginia, to Pope's Creek, Westmoreland County, where Was.h.i.+ngton was born. With them they carried a simple freestone slab on which was chiseled his name and the date of his birth. Wrapped in the banner of fifteen stars, it was borne reverently to its resting-place by the hands of the descendants of four Revolutionary patriots.