EVOLUTION

— OF THE —

^^rneriean •: PTa'g,

Rev. Marion D. Shutter.

[Address before the Geo, N. Morgan Post of the G. A. R.,
on Memoridl Sunaay, May 24, i8gi, in the Church of the
Redeemer.]

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EVOLUTION

American •: plag,

Eev. Marion D. Shutter.

[Address before the Geo. N. Morgan Post of the G.A.R.,
on. Memorial Sunaay, May 24, i8gi, in the Church of the^

'¦'¦Thou hast given a hanner to them that fear Thee, that it
ma-yhedispla'yedhecauf^e ofthe truth." — Psalm 60: 4.
**-*-**¦*
There is a superstition among the peasants who
live in the vicinity of the battle-field of Marathon,
that every night the encounter is renewed. Spectral
hosts of Greeks and Persians meet again under the
silent stars. The neighing of war-steeds, the clash
ing of swords, the shouts of combatants, ring out
under the midnight sky, as of old they did under the
blaze of noon. The armies of the past live again.
The battle of Marathon is re-fought.
It is now more than twenty-five years since the
thunder of the last gun died out in our Civil War.
More than a quarter of a century has passed over
the graves of those who fell upon its fields. But the
soldiers of the Union are alive to-day. They are
with us in spirit. "A great cloud of witnesses,"
they hover in the air about us. The memories of
their achievements crowd thick and fast. They come
from Bull Run, from Antietam, from Mission Ridge
and Atlanta. They come from a hundred fields that
are now forever sacred. The soldiers of the Union
rest from their labors and their works do follow
them. ' 'On fame's eternal camping ground.
Their silent tents are spread;
And glory guards, with solemn round.
The bivouac of the dead."
This is the season for public commemoration. It
is fitting that a day should be set apart and observed

with solemn ceremony; that music and eloquence
should bring their tributes; that love and devotion
should cast upon the graves of buried valor their
offering of the year's first flowers; that patriotism
and religion should recall these lives of sacrifice,
and express gratitude for their work, — a gratitude
that must grow more profound and sincere as the
passing years reveal the deeper significance and
wider bearings of that work!
From the earliest ages, wherever men have acted
in concert, they have devised standards, to denote
the ideas for which they strove, and to rally the ad
herents of those ideas. Every cause has a symbol,
a banner, that is displayed because of the truth it
represents. I shall speak to you this morning of the
Flag that the soldiers of the Union carried in
triumph through our Civil War. It has a history.
It symbolizes the career of the nation.
It represents and teaches great principles. While
the associations of the past gather around it, we con
tinue to display it, because of its perpetual and ever-
present truth. Every star that lights the sky of blue
upon that banner, and every stripe that floats upon
the breeze is full of meaning.
" Flag of the free heart's hope and home,
By angel hands to valor given.
Thy stars have lit the welkin dome.
And all thy hues were born in heaven!"

I.

The first common flag in the colonies was, of course,
the British, the prevailing color of which was red,
with the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew com
bined, edged with white, upon a field of blue. This

was the original banner of the colonies, and indeed,
the basis of that which was afterwards adopted, and
under whose folds we live today.
Different colonies, however, had special banners,
with special devices. Some of the more rigid Puri
tans who looked ilpon the sign of the cross as idola
trous, substituted for the crosses of St. George and
St. Andrew, the arms of the king on the British flag.
A green pine tree was the favorite emblem of Massa-.
chusetts, ' ' an apt symbol of her progressive vigor. "
This was the emblem upon the banner used at the
battle of Bunker Hill. Connecticut put her colonial
motto upon her flags — "He who transplanted, still
sustains." As the feeling of dissatisfaction with the
mother country became more pronounced, the word
"Liberty" was frequently inscribed. The "tree"
was for a long time the prevailing symbol. The col
onists probably took it from the Scriptures, in which
the tree is used as an emblem of vigor, usefulness,
security and liberty. Certain it is that Liberty
Trees were often planted and consecrated with
formal "ceremonies. , A graceful poem from the pen
of Thomas Paine survives:
"In a chariot of light from the regions of day.
The goddess of liberty came;
Ten thousand celestials directed the way.
And hither conducted the dame.
A fair budding branch from the gardens above.
Where millions with millions agree,
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love.
And the plant she named Liberty Tree."
In course of time, as the pressure of tyranny be
gan to be felt, the device of a rattlesnake cut in thir
teen pieces appeared, with the motto, "Join or die."
As the colonies became more united in their purpose
of resistance, they placed upon their flags a complete

6
rattlesnake in the attitude of one about to strike,
with the legend beneath, " Don't tread on me!"
I have spoken of the cross upon the Plag of
England, and the offence it, gave to many of the
Puritans. As early as 1634, on a training day in
Salem, old John Endicott, the governor, shouted
"Ofiicer, lower your banner!" The officer obeyed;
and brandishing his sword, Endicott thrust it
through the cloth, and with his left hand, rent the
red cross completely out of the banner. He then
waved the tattered ensign above his head.
"Sacrilegious wretch" cried the high churchman
in the pillory, "thou hast rejected the symbol of our
holy religion."
"Treason, treason," roared the royalist in the
stocks, "he hath defaced the king's banner!"
' 'Before God and man I will avouch the deed, "
answered Endicott. "Beat a flourish, drummer!
shout, soldiers and people! — in honor of the ensign
of New England. Neither pope nor tyrant hath a
part in it now!"
And Hawthorne, who relates , the incident' adds:
"With a cry of triumph, the people gave their sanc
tion to one of the boldest exploits which our history
records. And forever honored be the name of
Endicott! We look back through the mist of ages
and recognize in the rending of the red cross from
New England's banner, the first omen of that de
liverance which our fathers consummated after the
bones of the stern puritan had lain more than a cen
tury in the dust." II.
The tree and the serpent were, for a long time, the
prevailing signs, but neither gave permanent form

to our standard. The first decisive step taken in the
direction of the National standard was in October, 1775.
Congress was considering the subject of a Federal
Navy. The question of colors for the Navy arose.
This led to the suggestion of a common flag for all
the colonies, — for the land as well as for the sea.
Dr. Franklin, Mr. Lynch and Mr. Harrison, were
appointed to consider the subject. The committee
met at Cambridge. This was in 1775, before inde
pendence had been determined. The committee
wished their standard to show two things — that they
were yet loyal to England; but that, at the same time,
they were united in resisting oppression. How should
they express the 'situation? This was the problem.
They took the BritisTi flag, retained the crosses upon
their field of blue, but broke the expanse of red
with stripes of white, making in all thirteen stripes
of white and red, to represent the union of the thirteen
colonies. The very hues were symbolic. The red
color had been used from the days of Roman
valor to denote courage and daring, the white
to denote purity. When these patriotic forefath
ers of ours combined the red and white in the
banner they devised, they told the reigning powers
in symbolic language, of the purity and honesty of
their motives in protesting against oppression; and
of their courage to resist that oppression, if need be,
with all the means that God had put in their power!
(1) This striped flag was first hoisted on the 2nd
of January, 1776, over the camp at Cambridge. It
was saluted with thirteen guns and thirteen cheers.
Capt. Paul Jones writes : ' 'I had the honor to hoist
with my own hands the flag of freedom, the first time
it was displayed upon the Delaware; and I have at
tended it ever since with veneration on the' ocean."

(2) The new flag was first worn upon the ocean by
Hopkins' squadron, Feb. 17, 1776; and the first vic
tory achieved under the red and white stripes was
the capture of New Providence by this squadron.
(3) The brig Reprisal was the flrst to show the
flag in European seas. Around the very stripes of
our banner cluster memories of daring and triumph.
In these bands of red and white, we read the situa
tion of the colonists at the dawn of the great strug
gle; united, courageous, sincere; but not yet freed
from the power represented by the crosses of St.
George and St. Andrew in the field of blue. But af
ter the first blow had been struck, after the Declara
tion of Independence had been signed, the royal em
blem became a blot and an offence. Another step
must be taken. The deed of old John Endicott, more
than a century before, was prophetic. The time has
come when the royal cross must be cut forever from
the ensign of a people determined to be free!
III.
What shall take its place? The earliest sugges
tion of stars as a device is found in an old song
printed in 1774; it was written for the anniversary of
the Boston massacre:
"The American ensign now sparkles a star,
That shall shortly flame wide through the sky."
Those combined crosses finally blend into a star,
and then a star is placed in the blue for every colony.
(1) June 14, 1777, nearly a year after the Declara
tion of Independence, the American congress re
solved, ' ' That the flag of the United States be thir
teen stripes, alternate red and white, and that the
union be thirteen white stars on a blue field, repre
senting a new constellation." It was under the per-

9
sonal direction of General Washington and a com
mittee from congress that the first flag was modelled
according to these directions. They visited a little
upholstery shop in Arch street near Second street,
kept by Mrs. Betsey Ross, a relative of Colonel Geo.
Ross, member of the Continental congress, and asked
her if she could make a flag according to the design
they presented. She replied "Yes," but suggested
that a five pointed star would be more symmetrical
than the six pointed star they proposed. To illus
trate her idea, she folded a sheet of paper, and with
one cut produced a pattern of a five pointed star,
which was at once approved. The flag was made
and was ready to hoist the very next day. The stars
of the flag stand for the idea taken from the constel
lation Lyra, signifying harmony. An old seal repre
sents an eagle holding in his beak the constellation
Lyra and the motto, ' ' Now the star leads. " The
stars were at flrst arranged in a circle, emblem of.
eternity, to denote the perpetuity of the union. The
blue of the field was taken from the banner of the
Scotch Covenanters, denoting fidelity, as the red
valor, the white purity. And now the banner is com
plete. No; not complete. Many a star has been
added to that original cluster; and many more will
yet take their places in the serene blue. Let us trust
that the harmony signified at the beginning, — a har
mony but once broken; and then happily restored by
you, soldiers of the Grand Army, and your fallen
comrades — will prevail undisturbed henceforth for
ever! " Light of our firmament, guide of our nation.
Pride of our children and honored afar.
Let the wide beams of thy full constellation.
Scatter each cloud that would darken a star."

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(2) The first incident connected with the stars
and stripes as a national ensign, occurred at Port
Stanwix, afterwards known as Port Schuyler, the
site of the present city of Rome, N. Y. When the
enemy appeared before this fort and demanded its
surrender, brave old Peter Ganesvoort, the colonel,
replied: ."It is my determined resolution, with the
force under my command, to defend this fort to the
last extremity, in behalf of the United States who
have placed me here to defend it against all their
enemies.". The garrison needed a flag to flaunt in
the faces of their foes, but were without one. Patri
otism, however, was the mother of invention. The
soldiers contributed their shirts for the white stripes;
one of the women of the garrison gave her scarlet .
cloak for the red; Captain Abraham Swartvout tore
up his blue coat for the field upon which white
patches representing the stars were sewed. And be-
. fore sunset this curious banner waved from the fort !
Prom this time forward, the stars and stripes went
before the the armies of America, as of old the pillar
of cloud and fire went before the children of Israel.
It was unfurled at the battle of Brandy wine; it wit
nessed the overthrow of Burgoyne;- it cheered the
suffering patriots of Valley Forge whose unshod
feet were tracking with blood the new fallen snow;
it floated in triumph over the surrender of Cornwallis
at Yorktown; it saw the evacuation of New York, and
added its luster to the closing glories of the revolu
tion. The independence of the United States having
at length been recognized by Great Britain, the stars
and stripes became the symbol of the new nation.
The ensign that had gone before the* armies who
achieved independence, that had inspired them with

11
courage in the day of battle, with hope in the hour of
darkness, was henceforth to lead the nation in its
new career! IV.
One or two subsequent modifications of the flag
need to be mentioned here. Jan. 13, 1794, .congress
enacted: " That after May 1, 1795, the flag of the
United States be fifteen stripes alternate red and
white; that the union be fifteen stars white in a field
of blue."
( 1) Two other states had been added to the origi
nal thirteen, and these must be recognized. The
flag of Port McHenry, whose liberally ' 'broad stripes,"
and whose "bright stars," inspired the song wfe never
weary of singing, was a flag of fifteen stripes and
fifteen stars. Each stripe was two feet wide, and
each star was two feet from point to point. The flag
was originally forty feet long and thirty feet wide.
Itis still in existence, ^or was, but a few years ago,
T— being owned, it is said, by Mr. Eben Appleton of
Yonkers, N. Y. , a grandson of Col. Armstead who
defended Port McHenry. Francis Key, the author
of the song, was detained in the British fleet that,
during the war of 1812, was bombarding the fort.
During the night he heard the thunder of the guns.
and anxiously awaited the morning to see whether
the old flag was still floating in its place. He after
wards embodied his experience in the immortal song:
"O say, can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous flght.
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
Ahd the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there!

12
"On the shore dimly seen thro' the mists of the deep.
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the beam of the morning's first gleam,
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream.
'Tis the star spangled banner; O long may it wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!"
(2) The union continued to grow. The admission
of new states made changes in the flag desirable. It
would, of course, have made it clumsy and unwieldy
to go on adding new stripes as well as new stars.
So April 4, 1818, the following act of congress was
passed: Besolved, That the flag of the United States be thirteen
horizontal stripes, alternate red and white; that the union
have twenty stars white in a blue fleld; that on the addition
of every new state to the union, one star be added to the
union of the flag, and that such addition take place on the
4th of July next succeeding such admission."
Under this act, while the thirteen stripes remain to
remind us of the original colonies, star after star has
been added to the national sky. This is the history of
dur flag; rather the flag is the history of the nation
in symbol. It is the concentrated essence of the
United States!
Born in the war of the Revolution, it has since that
time taken the nation in triumph through a second
war with England, through battles with hostile tribes
of Indians, through the conflict with Mexico, through
the war of the Rebellion. Around it cluster the glo
ries of war and the greater glories of peace; the sword
of the soldier, the scroll of the statesman; the harp
of the poet and the machine of the inventor. It sym
bolizes all that has been done to marke this country

18
great and honorable. It keeps and brings before us
the virtues of our fathers, and teaches us the per-'
petual lesson of courage and purity and fidelity.
Is it any wonder, soldiers of the Grand Army, that
when, thirty years ago, there was danger that some
of these stars would go out in eternal night, you and
your comrades sprang to the rescue? And when
the smoke of that great conflict cleared away, you
brought out the old flag and counted the stars, and
we found not that there were eleven missing, but that
TWO. new ones had actually been added to the con
stellation! [W. Virginia and Nevada.]
Why, so potent had its influence been that when
the Southern States proposed to go out of the Union,
they did not know what to do without the flag. One
of the most curious relics in the archives of the Con
federacy is the scrap-book of designs for a new stan
dard. It contains 129 patterns, and they are of all
sizes, shapes and colors, but they were mostly mod
eled after the old banner, and the letters accompany
ing them contained such sentiments as these: "You
have fought well under one glorious banner; could
you fight as well under another? Never. Alter it,
improve it as you will; but for Heaven's sake, keep
the stars and stripes!" Another wrote, "Keep the
stars, keep the stripes, keep the azure field, but add
the Southern Cross." Well, they did keep the stars
and stripes at last, and they kept them all ; and they
are glad to-day that the folds of an unchanged banner
wave alike over North and South.
V.
The lessons of the flag the fathers of the Revolu
tion fashioned and the soldiers of the Union pre
served, must never be forgotten!

14
( 1) The virtues which are enshrined in its stars
"bid us be just and righteous and unspotted, assuring
us that the first requisite of good citizenship is good
manhood. ' 'The stars in their courses fought against
Sisera, " sings the Hebrew poet. The stars of our ban
ner have fought and are fighting against injustice
and unrighteousness, and harmonize with the grand
old moral principle, "Righteousness exalteth a na
tion, but sin is a reproach to any people."
(2) Our flag is a growth, not a creation; not some
thing arbitrarily manufactured. It is the outcome
of the life of our people, and is identified with our
history. In the beginning, it unified the colonies.
It helped to make one homogeneous nationality out
of the different people who had come to these shores
from Holland, Prance, Spain, Germany, and England;
when the stars and stripes were lifted up every other
standard was forgotten. They still wave a welcome
to the oppressed of other shores; but upon the su
preme and eternal condition that this shall be their
flag when they come; that it shall be honored in the
highest; that it shall witness the beginning of a new
political career. Let it float over forgotten feuds,
over the graves of old world strifes and principles.
Let it see the resolution of Ruth formed in the breast
of every one who seeks its protection! "Whither
thou goest, I will go! Thy people shall be my
people; and thy God my God."
(3) I said, a few moments ago, that measures had
to be taken to prevent the banner from becoming too
large or unwieldy; but there is one sense in which it
never can become too expansive. The principles it
represents are marching on. The republican spirit
is growing among the nations. There is a shadow on
every throne today, and it is cast by the banner of

15
the United States. And if scepters should be broken
and the institutions of royalty perish, some such flag
as this might well be wrapped round the interests of
the people to preserve them in the shock of any
convulsion! (4 ) All honor, then, to its brave defenders. Honor
to the living, peace to the dead! Whether the dust
of those who went down lies indistinguishable in
battle trenches, or whether it sleeps in the quiet
church-yard — peace, peace forever. The nation
lives on — the fruit of their sacrifice. The men of to
day bend in gratitude over their places of sepulture.
Coming generations will rise up and call them blessed!
'•Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead.
Dear is the blood you gave;
No i-mpious footsteps here shall tread
The herbage of your grave.
Nor shall your glory be forgot
While Fame her record keeps.
Or Honor points the hallowed spot
Where Valor proudly sleeps.
"Yon marble minstrel's voiceless stone
In deathless song shall tell,
When many a vanished year hath flown.
The story how you fell:
Nor vrreck, nor change, nor winter's blight,
Nor time's remorseless doom.
Can dim one ray of holy light
That gilds your sacred tomb."

' /'. ''Oi 5