History Of American Flag

History of American Flag

The Prize Essay in Ann Arbor Schools

Written By V. B. Guthrie

In the Daughters of the American Revolution Contest--Information All Patriots Should Have

The following History of the American Flag, by V. G. Guthrie, won the first prize in the recent D. A. R. competition in this city.

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

No thoughtful American citizen can look upon his national flag, as it floats above him in the breeze, without a patriotic thrill coursing his veins, as he thinks of the vast army of patriots who have given up their lives that this flag might still float with unsullied honor. The American flag has been successfully carried through five bloody wars and now it is so well known all over the world that an American citizen is safe under its protection no matter in what country he may be.

The history of our flag is very interesting and should be known by every scholar of United States history.

When the colonies in America were first formed they had no flag of their own, but used the flag of England, the mother country. This flag had in the union a representation of St. George's cross, and in 1636 to show his hated to catholicism, Endicott, the Puritan governor of Massachusetts, ordered this cross to be removed and in its place to be substituted the king's arms. But in 1651 parliament ordered the colonists to resume their use of the old English flag. Various modifications were used at different times but in general the same device was maintained.

After this came a period on which each colony had a flag or banner which represented all the colonies. In 1707 the union-jack of King James was adopted as a colonial flag. This served till the first bad feeling broke out with England and then to show their desire for liberty the colonists stamped some patriotic word or motto on the banner, such as "Liberty," "Liberty and Union," etc.

This flag was used only for a short time and then the flag of the American navy took its place. This was a white flag with a green pinetree stamped on it, and was popularly called the pinetree flag.

Up till 1775 the Continental congress had taken not action on the idea of a national flag, but in this year a committee, consisting of Messrs. Franklin, Lynch and Harrison, was appointed to consider the question of a national flag. The result of the work of this committee was a flag consisting of thirteen alternate red and white stripes and a union with St. George's and St. Andrew's cross in it. This flag was adopted by Washington at Cambridge, Jan. 2, 1776.

However, when the colonies declared themselves to be free and independent from all connections with Great Britain, it was thought that this flag was too much like the English flag and so another committee was appointed by congress to model a flag which should be entirely different from that of England. This committee, consisting of George Washington and Robert Morris, made a rough pencil sketch of a flag and then took it to Betsy Ross, a milliner living on Arch street in Philadelphia, and engaged her to make the first flag. This flag was much like the first one except that in place of the crosses a union of thirteen stars was substituted.

The next change made was in 1794, when by an order of congress the number of alternate red and white striped was changed from thirteen to fifteen, but in 1818 it was changed back to the old number in honor of the thirteen original states. This was the last change made, except that for each new state added to the union another star has been added to the flag. There was a time, however, when eleven of the states wished to withdraw their stars and unite them under a new flag. But the states that remained protested against this withdrawal and finally by the force of arms they compelled the eleven seceding states to return to the Union. Since that great war there has been only peace and prosperity in the country over which waves the flag of the stars and stripes.