Kitabı oku: «The Story of Our Flag», sayfa 3
ANOTHER “DON’T TREAD ON ME” FLAG
One of the favorite flags also was of white with a pine tree in the center. The words at the top were “An Appeal to God,” and underneath the snake were the words, “Don’t Tread on Me.” Several of the companies of minute men adopted a similar flag, giving the name of their company with the motto “Liberty or Death.” This flag is familiar to the public as the annual celebrations bring out descriptions of it in the press.
THE PRESIDENT’S FLAG
Within the last few years special flags have been designed for the President, the Secretary of the Navy and Secretary of War. The President’s flag is a very beautiful blue banner, in the center of which is a spread eagle bearing the United States shield on its breast, with the thirteen stars in a half circle overhead. It is flown at the main mast-head of naval vessels while the President remains on board, and on being hoisted it is the signal for the firing of the President’s salute.
COLONIAL AND PATRIOTIC MUSIC
The colonial music was mostly borrowed and adapted to the occasion. The Pilgrims had more important duties to perform and in those years of stirring events no one was in a mood to write music.
The first song to be used was that old and familiar one, “Yankee Doodle.” It made a powerful rallying cry in calling to arms against England. It is so old that it is impossible to decide just where the term came from.
It has been traced back to Greece—“Iankhe Doule,” meaning “Rejoice, O Slave,” and to the Chinese—“Yong Kee,” meaning “Flag of the Ocean.” It is said the Persians called Americans “Yanki Doon’iah,” “Inhabitants of the New World.” The Indians too, come in for their share of the credit of originating the term, as the Cherokee word “Eankke,” which means “coward” and “slave,” was often bestowed upon the inhabitants of New England.
At the time of the uprising against Charles the First, Oliver Cromwell rode into Oxford, on an insignificant little horse, wearing a single plume in a knot called a “macaroni.” The song was sung derisively by the cavaliers at that time. The tune is said to have come from Spain or France, there being several versions of the words.
It came into play when our ancestors flocked into Ticonderoga in answer to the call of Abercrombie. At that early day no one refused, but all answered the call and came equipped as best they could, but hardly any two alike, and to the trained English regulars must have presented a ridiculous appearance. Dr. Shamburg changed the words of the old satire to fit the new occasion. But in less than a year it was turned by the Yankees against the English in the form of a rallying cry and possessed new meaning.
History had emphasized it, and with the accompaniment of the shrill pipe and half worn drum calling the simple cottagers together, it must have aroused all their noble and sturdy patriotism.
Who that has viewed that stirring picture in the Corcoran Art Gallery at Washington, “Yankee Doodle,” could fail to catch the inspiration of the scene. The old man with his thin grey locks, but head erect and face glowing with enthusiasm as he keeps time to the old tune, followed by the small boy with his drum. One scarcely knows whether humor or pathos predominates: but certain we are that all alike stepped to its chords; it found an answering echo in each heart and led them on to glory.
YANKEE DOODLE
Father and I went down to camp.
Along with Captain Goodwin,
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty pudding.
CHORUS
Yankee Doodle, keep it up.
Yankee doodle dandy;
Mind the music and the step.
And with the girls be handy.
And there was Captain Washington,
Upon a slapping stallion.
A giving orders to his men.
I guess there was a million.—Cho.
And then the feathers on his hat.
They looked so tarnal finey,
I wanted peskily to get
To give to my Jemima.—Cho.
And there they had a swamping gun.
As big as a log of maple,
On a duced little cart,
A load for father’s cattle.—Cho.
And every time they fired it off
It took a horn of powder;
It made a noise like father’s gun,
Only a nation louder.—Cho.
I went as near to it myself
As Jacob’s underpinin’,
And father went as near again,
I th’t the duce was in him.—Cho.
It scared me so, I ran the streets,
Nor stopped as I remember,
Till I got home and safely locked
In granny’s little chamber.—Cho.
And there I see a little keg.
Its heads were made of leather;
They knocked upon it with little sticks
To call the folks together.—Cho.
And then they’d fife away like fun
And play on corn-stalk fiddles;
And some had ribbons red as blood
All bound around their middles.—Cho.
The troopers, too, would gallop up,
And fire right in our faces;
It scared me almost to death
To see them run such races.—Cho.
Uncle Sam came there to change
Some pancakes and some onions,
For ’lasses cake to carry home
To give his wife and young ones.—Cho.
But I can’t tell you half I see,
They keep up such a smother:
So I took off my hat, made a bow,
And scampered off to mother.—Cho.
AMERICA
Rev. Samuel Francis Smith was born in Boston October 21, 1808, and graduated in the class of ’29 from Harvard University. He enjoyed the honor of having for his classmate Oliver Wendell Holmes, in whose beautiful poem, entitled “The Boys,” the name of the author of “America” is affectionately mentioned.
And there’s a nice youngster of excellent pith;
Fate tried to conceal him by naming him Smith.
But he shouted a song for the brave and the free,
Just read on his medal—“My Country of Thee”!
“America” was written in 1832, the tune being the old one of “God Save the Queen,” and first rendered on the 4th of July of the same year by the children of Park St. Church, Boston.
AMERICA
My country, ’tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing!
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims’ pride,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring.
My native country, thee—
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love.
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills.
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.
Let music swell the breeze
And ring from all the trees
Sweet Freedom’s song!
Let mortal tongues awake,
Let all that breathe partake,
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.
Our fathers’ God, to thee,
Author of Liberty!
To Thee we sing:
Long may our land be bright
With freedom’s holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our king!
Peace follows where it finds the Old Thirteen, the nucleus around which the other stars have gathered in their glory.
—Letitia Green Stevenson, Honorary Vice President General National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution.
The Old Thirteen
A Patriotic Song DEDICATED TO THE Sons, Daughters and CHILDREN OF THE American Revolution
1. Flag of the free, we hail thee with pride.
Float thou in freedom o’er all the land wide;
Emblem of pow’r where’er thou art seen. Yet
still we are true to The Old Thirteen.
Our fathers who fought a free country to make.
Who suffered and died for sweet liberty’s sake.
What joy had been theirs had they only foreseen
How vast we should grow from The Old Thirteen—
Forty-five stars now shine in thy blue,
Forty-five states to thee will be true—
As heroes of old keep their memory green.
Who marched with the flag of The Old Thirteen.
2. We’ll work for thy glory forever and aye.
We’ll celebrate ever that dearly bought day;
Thy folds floating o’er us in triumph were seen,
So valiantly won by The Old Thirteen.
We’ll rally around thee from near and from far,
Our standard forever in peace or in war,
All nations salute thee, thy stars’ mighty sheen,
Full splendor thou art of The Old Thirteen.
Then hail we our emblem, each daughter and son,
Honor the vict’ry thy fair folds have won;
Tho’ multiplied stars float in freedom serene,
Enshrined in our hearts is The Old Thirteen.
Words By
Corrilla Copeland Lewis
Music By Harriet Hayden Hayes
STARS ON THE FLAG
The Home Magazine contains the following beautiful suggestion regarding the placing of the stars on the flag:
Number 1 is the field of our first stars and stripes made by Betsy Ross.
Number 2 represents that field of flag of 1814 which inspired the “Star Spangled Banner.”
Number 3 the field of 1818 designed by Capt. S. C. Reid.
Number 4, field of our present flag.
Although there is no law saying who shall arrange the stars on our flag, or how they shall be arranged, it is customary for the changes to be made in the war department when new states have been admitted to the Union.
The incongruous variations in figures A, B, C, which are reproductions of unions taken from new flags, made by different manufacturers, would not exist if there was a law fixing the arrangement of the stars.
It is believed by many that the stars on our flag should be arranged into a permanent and symmetrical form, fixed by law, instead of the present changeable and uncertain form, which is subject in a great measure, to the caprice or convenience of the flag maker. It is not generally known that among the many flags in use in our country to-day, there is an utter lack of uniformity in the arrangement of the stars.
In the selection of a form, three different things should be considered—its historical significance, symmetry, and adaptability. The stars should be so arranged that it will not be necessary to make any noticeable change when new ones are added. The stars should always remain equal in size, representing the equality of the states.
In the form which is submitted, No. 8, with the group of thirteen stars in the center, representing the thirteen original states, they are arranged in exactly the same form as they appear on the great seal of the United States. The circle containing twenty-three stars, represents the states which were admitted to the Union up to the close of the civil war. These two features are symbolic of the two great events in the nation’s history—the one which brought our flag into existence, and the other which made its life permanent by welding the sisterhood of states into a perfect and indestructible union. The circle is also symbolic of unity, peace, and preservation.
The outside circle of nine stars, represents the states which have been added to the Union since the civil war. New stars can be added to this circle without changing the symmetry of the arrangement, as will be seen by reference to the illustration. As this circle will always remain an open one, there will always be room for one more star, and it is thus significant of progression.
One great advantage in this form is, that it is suggestive of a constellation, and thus carries out, as far as practicable, the idea of the framers of the resolution of 1777 in establishing the flag.
John F. Earhart is the author of the above description of the different forms of flags.
THE LIBERTY CAP
The historians who have searched the archives of ancient and medieval times tell us that this has been a symbol of liberty since the Phrygians made the conquest of the eastern part of Asia Minor.
After the conquest they stamped it on their coins, and to distinguish themselves from the primitive peoples they used the liberty cap as a head dress. The Romans used a small red cap called a “pileus,” which they placed on the head of a slave in making him free, and when Caesar was murdered a Phrygian cap was carried through the streets of Rome proclaiming the liberty of the people. The liberty cap of the English is blue with a white border.
It remained for the United States to adopt the British cap, adding to it the crescent of thirteen stars. Generals Lee and Schuyler, with the Philadelphia Light Horse troop, adopted it in 1775. This is the famous troop that escorted Washington to New York.
It is most familiar to us as seen on our coins, on which it was first used after the Revolution as a symbol of freedom.
Edward Everett Hale, in one of his impressive orations, says: “The starry banner speaks for itself; its mute eloquence needs no aid to interpret its significance. Fidelity to the Union blazes from its stars; allegiance to the government beneath which we live is wrapped in its folds.”
The Stars and Stripes was officially first unfolded over Ft. Schuyler, a military port in New York state, now the city of Rome, Oneida county. It was first saluted on the sea by a foreign power, when floating from the masthead of the Ranger, Capt. Paul Jones commanding, at Quiberon Bay, France, February 14, 1778. The salute was given by Admiral La Motte, representing the French government.
The first vessel over which the Union flag floated was the ship Ranger, built at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, whose gallant commander was the famous Paul Jones.
Its first trip around the world was on the ship Columbia, which left Boston September 30, 1787, commanded by Captains Kendrick and Gray. It was three years then in circling the globe. To-day it waves in every clime, on every sea.
It is pleasing to note how Franklin, when minister to France, secured the ship Doria from the French and gave to Paul Jones the command, who immediately renamed the old ship “Bon homme Richard,” in honor of Franklin.
