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"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

HISTORY OF COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY
FLAGS AND THE NATIONAL FLAG OF
THE UNITED STATES.

Prior to the Declaration of Independence the different colonies retained the standards of the mother country, the ancient national flag of England, a white banner with the red cross of St. George, or the union flag of King James, a combination of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, designated as the "King's colors." There was sometimes an addition, however, of some local emblem. Massachusetts, for instance, adopted for its emblem the pine tree, placing the device also on its coins.

According to the Massachusetts Bay records, the red cross of St. George was in use in that colony in 1634, and probably had been for some time. The Puritans strongly objected to the red cross in the flag, on the narrow ground that it was a papistical symbol and was idolatrous. In November, 1634, John Endicott, of Massachusetts, a Puritan of the most austere, type, with his sword cut the cross out of the banner that hung before the Governor's gate. His act received so much support in sentiment among the militiamen that in 1635 the Military Commissioners substituted the King's colors for the cross of St. George, to be displayed from ships and over Castle Island, Boston, because the castle belonged to the King, but colors were appointed for the militia companies, with the red cross left out of all of them. The English Parliament, however, in 1651, revived the standard of St. George, and the General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts decreed that it be used on all appropriate occa

sions.

The flags in use in America in these early times were of various construction and arrangement of color. Sometimes a white field was charged with the red cross; at other times the

field was red with the cross cantoned on a white field in one corner; sometimes, too, the field was blue, with the cross cantoned in white, and at times a pine tree or globe was displayed in the canton along with the cross. Under the government of Sir Edmund Andros the flag of New England had a white field, charged with the cross of St. George, surmounted with a crown, and bearing the inscription J. R. (Jacobus Rex). In 1707, when, under Queen Anne, the kingdom of Great Britain, including England, Wales, and Scotland, was established by treaty, the Union Jack of the time of King James was adopted by the American colonies, in conformity to the action of the British Parliament.

At the commencement of the Revolution the revolted colonies displayed quite a variety of flags, those so much spoken of in 1774 as "union flags" being red English ensigns, with the Union Jack, or combined crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, and bearing, in addition, such mottoes as "Liberty," "Liberty and Union," etc.

The "Union, with a red field," or, in other words, a red ensign, was displayed at New York in March, 1775, on a liberty pole, with the inscription, "George Rex and the Liberties of America." The Connecticut troops displayed on their standards after the battle of Lexington the arms of the colony, with the motto "Qui transtulit, sustinet," which was freely translated "God, who transported us hither, will support us." Sometime later the Provincial Congress ordered that the regiments be distinguished by the colors of their flags. Nothing is positively known as to what flag, or whether any flag, was carried by the Americans at Bunker's Hill, but there is a tradition that one was hoisted at the redoubt with the motto, "Come if You Dare." The generally accepted belief as brought down from early descriptions is that the Bunker Hill flag was blue, with the red cross of St. George and a green pine tree in a white canton in the upper left hand corner. The motto, "An Appeal to Heaven," was ordered by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, in 1776, to be borne on the flag of the warships of that colony. This flag was the green pine tree on a white field. The first warships commissioned by Washington, sailed under the pine-tree flag. Blue, with a white crescent, was the first revolutionary flag unfurled in the South. This was hoisted on the fortifications of Charleston, September 13, 1775, being the

design of Captain William Moultrie, who prepared it at the request of the Council of Safety.

The flag known as the "Great Union" was first unfurled by Washington at Cambridge, on January 2, 1776. It combined the thirteen alternate red and white stripes of the present United States flag, with the St. George and St. Andrew crosses on the blue canton where the stars now are.

The first flag adopted by the ships of the United States as a national ensign consisted of the familiar horizontal stripes, with the British union, however, retained in a canton. Commodore Esek Hopkins bore this flag at the masthead of his ship when he sailed with his fleet from the Delaware capes on February 17, 1776. A yellow ensign, with the device of a rattlesnake about to strike, and bearing the motto, "Don't Tread on Me," was carried by Hopkins previous to the introduction of the "Great Union." The snake emblem on many of the flags then used was doubtless suggested by the illustrations at the heads of many of the newspapers of the time, representing a snake in thirteen sections, each inscribed with an abbreviation of the name of a colony and bearing the motto, "Join or Die." Sometimes the snake was represented coiled around the base of a pine tree, and at others lying at length on a field of thirteen alternate red and white or red and blue stripes. Again, it was coiled in the center on a yellow field.

When the "Great Union," whose official origin is somewhat obscure, was adopted, the legal rights of the mother country were still acknowledged by the colonists; hence the combination of the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew was retained. The thirteen red and white stripes were probably derived from the red flag of the army and the white flag of the navy, which were previously in use. It is said that the thirteen stripes were first used in a banner presented by Captain Abraham Markoe to the Light Horse troop of Philadelphia in 1775. This banner is still in the possession of the troop, and is sometimes displayed at its anniversary dinners. The stripes, however, were cantoned in the upper left hand corner, while the center of the flag contained armorial emblems.

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