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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSiT: 
 
OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 "THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER." 
 
 THE HISTORY OF IT. 
 
 MAJOR GEN'L SCHUYLER HAMILTON. 
 
 NEW- YORK: 
 
 GEO. R. LOCKWOOD & SON, 
 
 812 BROADWAY. 
 
 1887. 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 lor C OMPR ESS 
 
 | WASHINGTON 
 
 n 
 
 Copyright, 1887, by Schuyler Hamilton. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In 1852 the author, by request of General Win- 
 field Scott, prepared with great care a monograph 
 on the National Flag of the United States of North 
 America. 
 
 This history met with general acceptance, but un- 
 fortunately the bulk of the edition was destroyed 
 by fire. The frequent inquiries as to where copies 
 can be procured has induced the preparation of the 
 following condensed accent of our national flag. 
 Every school-boy and school-girl in the land should 
 be familiar with the chief points in the history of 
 their country's ensign. How few of our citizens 
 know them, even among those who by land and sea 
 have periled their lives in defense of it, is matter 
 of surprise. The author vouches, without hesita- 
 tion, the general accuracy of his statements. 
 
 Schuyler Hamilton, 
 
 Major General. 
 
 New York City, October, 1886. 
 
OUR l^ATIO^AL FLAG, 
 
 "THE STAR-SPAJSTG-LED BANNEE." 
 
 THE HISTORY OF IT. 
 
 A mong all the nations of antiquity, especially the 
 II heathen nations, their ensigns (the origin of 
 the word is in signo, " in sign of " ) were in one way 
 or another the effigy of, or something represent- 
 ing, the god or gods they worshiped. It would be 
 idle to attempt to enumerate them. Nor was this 
 practice confined to heathen nations. When the 
 Israelites strove with Amalek and the victory 
 rested with Israel, Moses, in memory of this vic- 
 tory, caused an altar to be built and inscribed 
 upon it, Jehovah nissi, — "The Lord is our ensign, 
 or banner." 
 
 The ensign of each tribe of Israel, it is said, 
 was an illustration upon the tribal banner, — which 
 was of the color of the stone in the breast-plate 
 of the high priest, as an emblem of the tribe, — of 
 the blessing of Jacob to his son, the progenitor of 
 
OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 the tribe. For example : " The Lion of the tribe 
 of Judah," etc. (Genesis, chap, xlix.) 
 
 After the Roman Emperor Constantine was con- 
 verted to Christianity by a cross in the heavens, 
 and the legend or words, In hoc signo vinces 
 ("In this sign conquer "), the cross became a 
 common ensign. The emperors of Rome, however, 
 adhered to the eagle. When the Roman Empire 
 became divided into the Eastern and Western Em- 
 pires, the emperors of each portion claimed the 
 sovereignty of the whole, and to typify it used a 
 double-headed eagle. 
 
 This double-headed eagle became the ensign of 
 Russia, as it is to-day, on the marriage of Ivan I. 
 of Russia to a Grecian princess, heiress of the 
 Eastern Empire. 
 
 With the title of Roman Emperor it passed 
 from the Western Empire to the Emperor of Aus- 
 tria. A double-headed eagle is at present the 
 ensign of Austria. 
 
 The crescent, now the ensign of the Turks, was 
 a Christian symbol, and formed from all antiquity 
 the symbol of Byzantium or Constantinople. On 
 the overthrow of this empire by Mohammed II., 
 the Turks, regarding the crescent, which every- 
 where met their eye on the churches and cathe- 
 drals of Constantinople, as a good omen, adopted 
 it as their chief bearing. 
 
"the star-spangled banner." 7 
 
 Colonel Moultrie, during the struggle between 
 Great Britain and the colonies of North America, 
 caused a blue flag to be made, with a crescent in 
 one corner, to be in uniform with the troops. It 
 was used in the taking of Fort Johnston on James's 
 Island, South Carolina. It was doubtless as an 
 " emblem of sovereignty " it was adopted by Colonel 
 Moultrie. 
 
 At the time of the Crusades, the Pope gave to 
 each nation a special cross. To the English a red 
 cross on a white banner, the standard of the cross 
 vertical, the cross piece horizontal, called the Cross 
 of St. George, and their war cry was " St. G-eorge 
 and Merry England." To the Scots was assigned 
 the Cross of St. Andrew, a peculiar cross called a 
 "saltire" or "saltier," white on a blue ground, 
 extending from corner to corner of the square blue 
 banner and crossing at the center. On a similar 
 cross St. Andrew is supposed to have been cruci- 
 fied. The cross of St. Patrick is also a saltier, 
 but red on a white ground. On January 1, 1801, 
 on the union of Great Britain and Ireland, the 
 cross of St. Patrick was introduced into the great 
 union ensign of Great Britain by laying upon the 
 white saltier of St. Andrew the red saltier of St. 
 Patrick. The white banner from which it came and 
 the white saltier of St. Andrew, upon which it was 
 as it were overlaid, are preserved by the white 
 
margin, according to the rules of heraldry, as may 
 be seen by examining any ensign of Great Britain 
 and Ireland of the present day. The national flag 
 of Ireland, according to "Chambers's Encyclope- 
 dia/ 7 exhibits a golden harp with silver strings on 
 a green field. The origin of the harp seems to be 
 lost in the mazes of antiquity. 
 
 The Scots and English, constantly at war with 
 each other, were jealous to the last degree of their 
 respective banners. A banner, by the way, is 
 always square. A knight or knight bachelor, as 
 he was called, carried a pennon or guidon with an 
 indent similar to the tail of a swallow. The word 
 guidon is a corruption of the Norman French words 
 guyd-Jiomme (" guide-man "). In the United States 
 service every company of cavalry has its guidon. 
 
 When a knight bachelor distinguished himself, 
 especially in battle, he was summoned before the 
 king, and in the presence of the troops the indent 
 was cut from his pennon or guidon, thus transform- 
 ing it into a square banner, and from thenceforth 
 he was styled a knight banneret, or knight bearing 
 a banner. 
 
 It has been said above the Scots and English 
 were excessively jealous of their respective ban- 
 ners. When James VI. of Scotland became also 
 James I. of England, his subjects of North and 
 South Britain, as they were called, had frequent 
 
"the star-spangled banner." 9 
 
 fights on the high seas, even cannonading each 
 other, because each claimed the other should first 
 lower his colors in salutation. 
 
 To put a stop to such disorders, King James 
 ordered his heralds to prepare a flag, a union of 
 the two flags, and called the " king's colors." This 
 flag all his subjects, both Scotch and English, were 
 ordered to wear on their ships, on their maintop ; 
 and on their foretop, those of South Britain or 
 England, the red cross, as they were wont ; and the 
 subjects of North Britain or of Scotland, on their 
 foretop the white cross, as they were accustomed. 
 
 It was the custom for soldiers marching under a 
 banner such as above described to wear a short 
 shirt over their armor with the cross of their ban- 
 ner inscribed upon it, before and behind, or else 
 upon the shoulders. From this came our term cru- 
 saders, in French croise, or "cross-bearer." This 
 shirt was usually the color of the banner. Hence 
 the red coats of the British soldiery, and the blue 
 bonnets, blue coats, and blue ribbons of the lowland 
 Scotch. The Highlanders wore the plaid of their 
 clan. The pretty nursery ballad, — 
 
 " Oh, dear ! what can the matter be ? 
 
 Dear! dear! what can the matter be? 
 
 Oh, dear! what can the matter be, 
 
 Johnny 's so long at the fair? 
 lA 
 
10 OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 He promised to bring me a bunch of blue ribbons 
 
 To tie up my bonny brown hair. 
 
 He promised to bring me a basket of posies, 
 
 A garland of lilies, a garland of roses ; 
 
 A little straw hat to set off: the blue ribbons 
 
 That tie up my bonny brown hair," — 
 
 arose from the pride of the Scotch maidens in their 
 national color. 
 
 The shirts worn over the armor were called 
 Jacques or jackets, and hence the flags bearing the 
 crosses were called jacks. We hear to-day of St. 
 George's jacks, St. Andrew's jacks, and union 
 jacks. The union jack of the United States is 
 the simple white-starred union of our national 
 ensign : at the same time the highest grades of 
 officers in the navy and army are distinguished 
 by a star or stars upon their epaulettes, and the 
 sailors by stars upon the collars of their blue 
 shirts. Sailors got their name of "Jack Tars" 
 from wearing shirts similar to those described 
 above 5 for the same reason, even, the heavy boots 
 of the cavalry were called "jack boots." 
 
 On the union of England and Scotland into the 
 kingdom of Great Britain, under the treaty entered 
 into on January 10, 1707, the king's colors became 
 the great union flag of Great Britain, and with a red 
 field was the ensign for all British merchant ships 
 
"the star-spangled banner." 11 
 
 and the ordinary British ensign by sea and land, 
 and was commonly called the " Union flag." 
 
 To go back for a moment to the red-cross flag. 
 Mr. Endicott at Salem, Massachusetts, cut a por- 
 tion of the cross out of the ensign, averring the 
 cross savored of popery. At the next General 
 Court Mr. Endicott was called in question about 
 defacing the cross in the ensign, and still later was 
 sharply censured and left out of the magistracy 
 for having done so, among other reasons because 
 his act might give "the state of England reason 
 to think ill of us." 
 
 Nevertheless, owing to the superstition of the 
 people, the red-cross flag was laid aside for a 
 time, and red and white roses substituted for it. 
 Finally, in 1651 (it was the time of the Common- 
 wealth in England), the General Court passed 
 a resolve " that, inasmuch as the Parliament of 
 England in the war with King Charles I. had 
 used the red-cross flag, and it being a badge of 
 distinction between the English and the other 
 nations, in all places of the world, till the state of 
 England alter the same, which we much desire, we, 
 being of the same nation, the captain of the fort 
 at Boston will advance the same upon the castle 
 upon all necessary occasions." The state of Eng- 
 land did not see fit to alter the ensign, and the 
 red-cross flag continued the ensign of England 
 
12 OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 and its dependencies until the union with Scot- 
 land, when the banner of St. G-eorge and the 
 banner of St. Andrew conjoined, as previously 
 described, became the ensign of Great Britain. 
 
 In regard to the great union flag of Great Brit- 
 ain, there are several things to be noticed. King 
 James was a Scot. King James was learned in 
 the Bible, and the blue ground of St. Andrew's 
 banner was God's color. In the fifteenth chapter 
 of Numbers, verses 37-39, it is written: "And 
 the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto 
 the children of Israel, and bid them that they 
 make them fringes in the borders of their 
 garments throughout their generations, and that 
 they put upon the fringe of the borders a 
 ribbon of blue : And it shall be unto you for 
 a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remem- 
 ber all the commandments of the Lord, and do 
 them," etc. 
 
 It will be observed that the red cross laid on the 
 St. Andrew's banner had a white margin, to show 
 it came from a white flag. Here we must go back 
 a moment ; but all history is going back to what 
 went on before, with the reason of it. Endicottfs 
 cutting a part of the cross out of the ensign because 
 it savored of popery and was esteemed idolatrous 
 has been mentioned. It will, perhaps, be some- 
 what surprising to learn that more than a century 
 
"the star-spangled banner." 13 
 
 later the same sentiments still swayed the common 
 mind. 
 
 When the remarkable effort of New England 
 vigor in 1745, which, resulting in the capture of 
 Louisburg, Cape Breton, astonished the world, 
 was set on foot, many of the 40,000 men raised by 
 New England under Colonel Wm. Pepperell, of 
 New Hampshire, were unwilling to march under 
 the great Union flag of Great Britain, because of 
 the crosses. " To still men's minds," Colonel Pep- 
 perell asked the eminent Methodist divine, George 
 Whitefleld, then itinerating through the colonies, 
 to give him a motto for the obnoxious flag, which 
 perforce had to be used. Whitefleld gave the 
 motto, Nil desperandum Christo Dace ("Nothing is 
 to be despaired of, Christ being the leader"). This 
 gave the undertaking the character of a crusade. 
 Louisburg surrendered. The troops employed were 
 paid by Massachusetts in paper money. This was the 
 first time paper money was used on this continent. 
 
 During the popular excitement which led to our 
 Revolution, Union flags, bearing various mottoes, 
 were displayed throughout the colonies. They were 
 simply the British ensign. The colonists claimed 
 only the rights of British subjects. Every one 
 then knew a Union flag was the ensign of Great 
 Britain, though probably very many did not know 
 why. No one paused to describe them. 
 2 
 
14 OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 The first blood shed in our Revolution was at 
 Lexington, Mass., April 19, 1775. June 17, 1775, 
 the battle of Bunker's Hill was fought. On July 
 18th, 1775, General Israel Putnam, in command of 
 the Continental troops in front of Boston, having 
 received a declaration of the Congress of the Colo- 
 nies, setting forth the causes and necessity for 
 taking up arms, caused it to be read to the troops, 
 and a red flag, bearing the mottoes of Massachu- 
 setts and Connecticut in gold, was displayed on 
 Prospect Hill. The motto of Massachusetts was, 
 " Appeal to Heaven." That of Connecticut was, 
 Qui transtulit sustinet (" He who brought us 
 across the ocean sustains us "). Thus this flag sig- 
 nified union. 
 
 A Committee of Conference was sent by Con- 
 gress to arrange with General Washington the 
 details of the organization of the new army, which 
 went into being January 2, 1776. This committee 
 consisted of Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and 
 Mr. Harrison. Dr. Franklin had urged the union of 
 the colonies by a serpent at the head of his news- 
 paper, The Philadelphia Gazette, divided into thir- 
 teen parts, each part marked with the initials of 
 the colony it represented, viz., N. H., M. B., Conn., 
 etc. (Maine was then a part of Massachusetts, and 
 Massachusetts was called Massachusetts Bay), and 
 the motto, "Join or die." After the union was 
 
U THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER." 15 
 
 effected he changed the head-piece of his paper to a 
 united or whole serpent with the motto, " Union is 
 strength." This wise statesman and patriot and 
 his coadjutors, notably General Washington, could 
 not forget the object of the then pending struggle 
 was not independence, but the rights and liber- 
 ties of British subjects. So for an ensign for the 
 colonies, they fixed upon the great Union flag of 
 Great Britain in the upper canton, or corner, with 
 thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, a stripe 
 for each colony, constituting the field. The stripe, 
 or ribbon, though an old heraldic emblem, was 
 especially appropriate for the flag of the colonies 
 to distinguish it from that of the mother country. 
 Shortly after assuming command of the army with- 
 out uniforms before Boston, General Washington, 
 under the dates of July 14 and July 23, 1775, 
 published orders directing that the commander-in- 
 chief would be distinguished by a light blue ribbon 
 worn across his breast between his coat and waist- 
 coat; the major-generals, by a purple ribbon; 
 and the brigadier-generals, by a pink ribbon. The 
 field officers were to have red or pink cockades in 
 their hats; the captains, yellow or buff; and the 
 subalterns, green. The sergeants were to be dis- 
 tinguished by an epaulette or stripe of red cloth 
 sewed upon the right shoulder, and the corporals 
 by one of green. Sometimes the portraits of Gen- 
 
16 OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 eral Washington exhibit this blue ribbon. Some 
 have deemed this the insignia of a Marshal of 
 France. General Washington never was a Mar- 
 shal of France. The blue ribbon was simply the 
 distinctive badge first worn by him as commander- 
 in-chief. 
 
 The display of the great union flag of the colo- 
 nies, or striped union flag, as it was called some- 
 times, General Washington says, in a letter written 
 at the time to Joseph Reed, Secretary to the Com- 
 mittee of Conference, " farcical enough," without 
 knowing or intending it, "gave great joy to the 
 Boston gentry." It seems that a speech of the king 
 of Great Britain had been sent into the camp of 
 the rebels, as the colonists were called, which they 
 burned. Immediately after its receipt the great 
 union flag of the colonies was displayed, and the 
 British signal officer in Boston mistook it for two 
 flags, and so reported it, — the British Union flag 
 above the flag of thirteen stripes, which he sup- 
 posed to be the flag of the colonies, and therefore 
 interpreted it as a token of submission. 
 
 On the evacution of Boston by the British, this 
 standard, " The Great Union Flag of the Colonies," 
 was, on the entrance of the American army into 
 Boston, carried by Ensign Richards. 
 
 This flag floated over the American army in its 
 retreat from Long Island, the defeat at White 
 
"the star-spangled banner." 17 
 
 Plains, and Washington's daring passage of the 
 Delaware, when full of floating ice, on the stormy 
 Christmas night, December 25, 1775, which pre- 
 ceded the successful battle of Trenton. 
 
 The colors of the colonial fleet under Admiral 
 Hopkins, which sailed from the Capes of the 
 Delaware February 17, 1776, were the great union 
 flag of the colonies, with the thirteen stripes alter- 
 nate red and white, and the admiral's flag — a yel- 
 low flag with a black rattlesnake in the attitude of 
 going to strike, and the motto, "Don't tread on 
 me." This flag also was an emblem of union, as 
 the following letter from Dr. Franklin, dated 
 Philadelphia, December 27, 1775, sets forth : 
 
 " I observe on one of the drums of the marines 
 now raising there was painted a rattlesnake, with 
 this motto under it, ' Don't tread on me.' As I know 
 it is the custom to have some device on the arms 
 of every country, I suppose this may have been 
 intended for the arms of America ; and as I have 
 nothing to do with public affairs, and as my time 
 is perfectly my own, in order to divert an idle hour 
 I sat down to guess what could have been intended 
 by this uncommon device. I took care, however, 
 to consult, on this occasion, a person who is ac- 
 quainted with heraldry, from whom I learned that 
 it is a rule among the learned in that science 
 'that the worthy properties of the animal, in the 
 
18 OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 crest-born, shall be considered'; lie likewise in- 
 formed me that the ancients considered the ser- 
 pent as an emblem of wisdom ; and, in a certain 
 attitude, of endless duration, both which circum- 
 stances, I suppose, may have been had in view. Hav- 
 ing gained this intelligence, and recollecting that 
 countries i are sometimes represented by animals 
 peculiar to them,' it occurred to me that the rattle- 
 snake is found in no other quarter of the world 
 besides America, and may, therefore, have been 
 chosen on that account to represent her. 
 
 " But then, i the worthy properties 7 of a snake, 
 I judged, would be hard to point out. This rather 
 raised than suppressed my curiosity ; and having 
 frequently seen the rattlesnake, I ran over in my 
 mind every property by which she was distin- 
 guished, not only from other animals, but from 
 those of the same genus or class of animals, en- 
 deavoring to fix some meaning to each not wholly 
 inconsistent with common-sense. 
 
 " I recollected that her eye excelled in brightness 
 that of any other animal, and that she has no eye- 
 lids. She may, therefore, be esteemed an emblem 
 of vigilance. She never begins an attack, nor, 
 when once engaged, ever surrenders. She is, there- 
 fore, an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. 
 As if anxious to prevent all pretensions of quarel- 
 ing with her, the weapons with which nature has 
 
"the star-spangled banner." 19 
 
 furnished her she conceals in the roof of her 
 mouth; so that, to those who are unacquainted 
 with her, she appears to be a defenseless animal. 
 And even when those weapons are shown and ex- 
 tended for defense, they appear weak and con- 
 temptible; but their wounds, however small, are 
 decisive and fatal. Conscious of this, she never 
 wounds till she has generously given notice, even 
 to her enemy, and cautioned him against the 
 danger of treading on her. Was I wrong sir, in 
 thinking this a strong picture of the temper and 
 conduct of America ? 
 
 " The poison of her teeth is the necessary means 
 of digesting her food, and at the same time is cer- 
 tain destruction to her enemies. This may be un- 
 derstood to intimate that those things which are 
 destructive to our enemies may be to us not only 
 harmless, but absolutely necessary to our exist- 
 ence. I confess I was wholly at a loss what to 
 make of the rattles, till I went back and counted 
 them, and found them just thirteen, exactly the 
 number of the colonies united in America ; and I 
 recollected, too, that this was the only part of the 
 snake which increased in number. 
 
 " Perhaps it might be only fancy, but I conceived 
 the painter had shown a half- formed additional rat- 
 tle, which I suppose may have been intended to 
 represent the province of Canada. 'T is curious 
 
20 OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 and amazing to observe how distinct and independ- 
 ent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and 
 yet how firmly they are united together, so as never 
 to be separated but by breaking them to pieces. 
 One of these rattles singly is incapable of produc- 
 ing sound ; but the ringing of thirteen together is 
 sufficient to alarm the boldest man living. The 
 rattlesnake is solitary, and associates with her 
 kind only when it is necessary for their preserva- 
 tion. In winter the warmth of a number together 
 will preserve their lives, while singly they would 
 probably perish. The power of fascination attrib- 
 uted to her, by a generous construction may be 
 understood to mean that those who consider the 
 liberty and blessings which America affords, and 
 once come over to her, never afterwards leave her, 
 but spend their lives with her. She strongly resem- 
 bles America in this, that she is beautiful in youth, 
 and her beauty increaseth with her age; 'her 
 tongue also is blue, and forked as the lightning, 
 and her abode is among impenetrable rocks.' 
 
 " Having pleased myself with reflections of this 
 kind, I communicated my sentiments to a neighbor 
 of mine, who has a surprising readiness at guess- 
 ing at everything which relates to public affairs; 
 and, indeed, I should be jealous of his reputation 
 in that way, was it not that the event constantly 
 shows that he has guessed wrong. He instantly 
 
21 
 
 declared it as his sentiments that the Congress 
 meant to allude to Lord North's declaration in the 
 House of Commons, that he would never relax his 
 measures until he had brought America to his feet ; 
 and to intimate to his lordship, that if she was 
 brought to his feet, it would be dangerous tread- 
 ing upon her. But I am positive he has guessed 
 wrong, for I am sure that Congress would not con- 
 descend, "at this time of day, to take the least notice 
 of his lordship, in that or any other way. In which 
 opinion I am determined to remain your humble 
 servant." 
 
 The seal of the War Department bears the rat- 
 tlesnake with its rattles as the emblem of union, 
 and a liberty cap in contiguity with it, — the liberty 
 cap enveloped by the body, so that the opened mouth 
 may defend the rattles and liberty cap ; or union 
 and liberty with the motto, " This we ? 11 defend." 
 
 July 4, 1776, independence was declared. The 
 American flag, however, remained unchanged until 
 June 14, 1777. The British men-of-war finding it 
 easy to sew some strips of white canvas on the red 
 field of the great British Union ensign, and thus 
 convert it into the great union flag of the colonies, 
 thus decoyed into their power and captured many 
 American vessels. 
 
 Congress, June 14, 1777, "Besolved, That the flag 
 of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, 
 
22 OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 alternate red and white ; That the union be thir- 
 teen stars, white, in a blue field, representing a new 
 constellation.' 7 
 
 The drawing of this flag in the State Depart- 
 ment shows the thirteen stars arranged in a circle, 
 the emblem of perpetuity; but the soldiers, who, 
 like sailors, adhere to their traditions with extreme 
 tenacity, could not forget the old crosses, and ar- 
 ranged the stars so as to still preserve the design 
 of the crosses — three stars at the top, three in the 
 middle, three at the bottom, two stars mid-way 
 between the top and middle row, and two stars 
 between the middle and the bottom row. The stars 
 in the rows of two stars each rested upon what had 
 been the saltier of St. Andrew, and thus the union 
 of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, were 
 indicated on the flag. This was the stars and 
 stripes, or the star-spangled banner of our Revolu- 
 tionary War. 
 
 Such a flag as this had never been displayed by 
 any nation nor by any human hand. The nearest 
 type of it was at the passage of the Eed Sea by 
 the Israelites. Israel was encamped over against 
 the tall light-house of Pihahiroth. Pharaoh, by the 
 advice of the magicians, had erected on Pihahi- 
 roth a huge brazen serpent — Baal Typhon — to 
 check the passage of the Israelites. The serpent 
 was then the great emblem of divinity in Egypt. 
 
"the star-spangled banner." 23 
 
 Otherwise Moses would not have been ordered by 
 God to cause Aaron to cast his rod before Pharaoh, 
 that it might turn to a serpent to prove to Pharaoh 
 that Moses acted under a divine commission. 
 When the pillar of cloud and fire moved to the 
 rear of Israel and enveloped the hosts of Egypt in 
 the darkness as of death, the pathway of Israel 
 glowed with the radiance of God. The pellucid azure 
 of the night of Egypt, studded with its myriads of 
 stars like molten silver, and striped with the glory 
 of the divine aurora, made the very heaven itself a 
 starry banner of blue, red, and white, displayed by 
 Jehovah, Lord God of Sabaoth. The brazen serpent, 
 glowing as if of fire, made it the type of the over- 
 throw of Pharaoh. When the Israelites lusted after 
 the flesh-pots of Egypt, they were punished by fiery 
 serpents, and cured by an act of faith, in looking 
 up to a brazen serpent erected by Moses by divine 
 command, which recalled the tremendous event in 
 which the Jehovah they proposed to desert had, 
 as Moses sung, " triumphed gloriously." The rais- 
 ing upon a pole of the brazen serpent in the wil- 
 derness by Moses had evident reference to this 
 great salvation of a defenseless and unorganized 
 multitude, by a right hand not their own. The 
 parallel would be readily obvious to Nicodemus, 
 " A master in Israel," when a greater than Moses 
 said to him, " As Moses lifted up the serpent in the 
 
24 OUR NATIONAL FLAG, 
 
 wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted 
 up." 
 
 In a design for a great seal of the United States, 
 submitted to Congress by a committee of no less 
 eminent men than Dr. Franklin, Mr. John Adams, 
 and Mr. Thomas Jefferson, the crest was to be the 
 eye of Providence in a triangle, its glory extending 
 over the whole shield, etc., with the motto, E pluri- 
 bus unum (" One composed of many"), on the back. 
 Rays from the pillar of fire and cloud beamed upon 
 Moses as Pharaoh was overthrown in the Red Sea, 
 with the motto, " Rebellion to tyrants is obedience 
 to God." This design, however, was not adopted. 
 
 Our ancestors drew most of their anti-types from 
 the Bible. The grape-vines in the arms of Con- 
 necticut, with the motto, Qui transtulit sustinet 
 (" Who brought us across the ocean sustains us") ; 
 the tree on the early coins of Massachusetts ; the 
 green tree, with the motto, " Appeal to Heaven," 
 on the flag of the floating batteries before Boston, 
 and the Massachusetts cruisers, were used as 
 types of God's chosen people and reliance upon the 
 protection of Providence. Union and dependence 
 upon Providence in the coat-of-arms of the United 
 States are the chief bearings. Our coins bear the 
 stamp, Upluribus unum, and " In God we trust." 
 
 A writer in the " Massachusetts Historical Collec- 
 tions" intimates the tree on the coins commonly 
 
25 
 
 called " pine-tree shillings " was a cedar, not a pine- 
 tree. Ezekiel was a favorite with the preachers of 
 those days. In the seventeenth chapter of Ezekiel 
 much is said of cedar-trees and vines as types 
 of nations. A great eagle is there spoken of as 
 taking the topmost branch of the cedar of Leba- 
 non and carrying it into a land of traffic and 
 setting it in a city of merchants. May not such 
 trains of thought have suggested the eagle in the 
 arms of the United States and on their coins? 
 
 The star-spangled banner, heretofore described, 
 remained unaltered until January 13, 1794, when 
 it was enacted, " That from and after the 1st day 
 of May, Anno Domini 1795, the flag of the United 
 States be fifteen stripes, alternate red and white; 
 that the union be fifteen stars white in a blue field." 
 
 This was the flag of the United States in the 
 War of 1812-14, in which Andrew Jackson and 
 Winfield Scott, especially, won so much distinction. 
 
 In 1818 the flag was again changed. Mr. Wen- 
 dover, an M. C. from New- York, suggested that at 
 the rate the United States were growing the tallest 
 pine in Maine would not make a mast tall enough 
 to hoist the flag upon if a stripe was added for 
 each new State. 
 
 A resolution was passed (approved April 4, 1818), 
 " That from and after the 4th day of July next, the 
 flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal 
 
26 OUR NATIONAL FLAG. 
 
 stripes, alternate red and white ; that the union be 
 twenty stars, white, in a blue field. And that on 
 the admission of a new State into the Union, one 
 star be added to the union of the flag ; and that 
 such addition take effect on the 4th day of July 
 next succeeding such admission/' 
 
 The flag planted on the national palace of the 
 City of Mexico by the United States army com- 
 manded by General Winfield Scott had thirty stars 
 in the union, and, of course, the thirteen alternate 
 stripes of red and white. 
 
 Our flag, now, October, 1886, has thirty-eight 
 stars in its union, thanks to the people of the 
 United States, under their great leader President 
 Lincoln; thanks to the courage of the officers, 
 soldiers, and sailors who followed the wise and 
 heroi(j leadership of General Grant and Admiral 
 Farragut. 
 
 Grant, in journeying around the world for his 
 own and his country's sake, received ovations from 
 the potentates of the whole world such as never 
 before fell to the lot of mortal man. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln died doing his duty. The 
 whole world, including China, Japan, and the far- 
 off isles of the sea, bewailed his death. The country 
 he lived and died for lives and prospers. 
 
 God bless our flag forever ! 
 
^"-v-v^