THE BUILDER JUNE 1919
SOME SOURCES AND SYMBOLISM OF OLD GLORY
BY BRO. CHARLES S. LOBINGIER, CHINA

THE flag which is today presented and raised is not a mere piece of
bunting designed to attract the eye or adorn the landscape. It is
a great national emblem, expressing the traditions and ideals of
earth's mightiest democracy and appealing to the deepest emotions
of every patriotic American. More than that our flag has a history
and an historical significance, of which far too little is
generally known. But, thanks to the encouragement offered by our
patriotic societies, groups of our people here and there have
seriously taken up "flag study." Now "flag study" is a branch of
heraldry and heraldry of sphragistics. And so the study of our flag
in the light of its history leads us into several interesting
fields where the horizon is broadened and the view inspiring.

THE COLORS

What are the elements of our flag, or of any flag for that matter?
Are they not (1) its colors and (2) its figures?

Joseph Rodman Drake, the first poetic panegyrist of old glory, sang
in rhapsodic verse, recalling the first lines of "Rule Brittania,"

"When Freedom, from her mountain-height,
Unfurled her standard to the air,
She tore the azure robe of night,
And set the stars of glory there:
She mingled with its gorgeous dyes
The milky baldric of the skies,
And striped its pure, celestial white
With streakings of the morning light.
"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.'

A later bard, (2) in language equally ornate, sings

"From the dyes of battle gory,
Foam and wave of ocean's glory
And the stars that tell thy story
Freemen fashioned thee."

But these hues the red, white and blue which the one poet said
"were born in heaven" and the other takes from nature, are in fact
found in many other flags e.g. the French, the Dutch, the Russian
and even the Chinese. And have you not noticed them in the Union
Jack? If not do so, for thereby hangs an interesting historical
chain.

THE RED CROSS

In this fateful time when the Red Cross emblem is omnipresent, one
is much interested to find that it may rightfully claim a kinship
to our own. While the Cross itself is an universal symbol the red
cross appears always to have been a Christian emblem. The story of
Constantine's vision of that flaming cross in the sky may have been
mere legend but modern scholars "are agreed that the sacred
monogram was in fact employed by Constantine on the shields of his
soldiers as a sort of magic to secure the help of the mighty God of
the Christians. " (3)

The same figure a red cross in a white field  flourished in the
days "when knighthood was in flower." Spenser, describing in his
"Faery Queene" the accoutrements of his knightly hero, says

"Upon his breast a bloodie erosse he wore, 
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord."

Such also was the standard of the crusaders, particularly the
Knights Templar, who organized in 1118 to protect pilgrims to the
Holy Land. It was such a banner, afterward known as the "Cross of
St. George," that Richard Coeur de Lion, England's Crusader king,
received from George Bishop of Cappadocia, later made patron saint
of the kingdom. Such was the beginning of what Thomas Campbell
calls

"THE METEOR FLAG OF ENGLAND"

By the time of Edward II (1327) it had become the recognized
English standard and remained such for nearly three centuries. As
the ensign of Henry VII, it was planted on the shores of what is
now Canada by Sebastian Cabot in 1497 the first European flag to
float over the soil of North America. And is it not fitting that
this ensign of chivalry should reappear in modern times as the
emblem of humanity? As early as 1830 Bishop Baraga, a Roman
Catholic missionary, carried a red cross flag in his work among the
Indians of western America. Florence Nightingale, nursing the
victims of the Crimean war in 1854, was a source of inspiration to
Henri Dinant, the young Swiss physician, who some years later,
after his experiences on the battle field of Solferino in 1859,
conceived the idea of an international organization devoted to the
special purpose of mitigating the horrors of war. The outcome of
his efforts was the Geneva Conference of 1864, participated in by
the representatives of fourteen nations, which adopted as its
watch-words "Humanity" and "Neutrality" and as its emblem that
which also supplied its name the red cross in a white field.

It was Clara Barton who introduced the Red Cross into America. She
had unconsciously served it throughout our own Civil War but it was
not until after its close, when she went to Europe for rest that
she heard of the organization. Observing its achievements in the
Franco-German war of 1870 she resolved to devote her efforts to
securing her country's adhesion to the Geneva Convention. It was
not until 1882 that she succeeded but, like certain other
organizations-the Masonic Order and the Y.M.C.A.-which originated
in Europe, the Red Cross had its greatest growth after
transplantation to America. Incorporated by Act of Congress in 1900
and reincorporated in 1905 the American Red Cross became the
mightiest non-governmental factor in the late world war while in
time of peace its emblem is the omnipresent herald of social
service on a colossal scale. (4) Truly when the League of Nations
is formed its flag should be the Red Cross in a white field.

THE "BONNIE BLUE FLAG"

There was another crusader standard borne by a brave and hardy
people who have contributed much to the making of our own nation.
This was the "bonnie blue flag" of Scotland, consisting of the
white cross of St. Andrew in a blue field,-a flag which seldom met
defeat and never conquest. Under it Robert Bruce, addressing the
assembled Scots at the break of that fateful day of Bannockburn,
uttered those fiery words which the genius of Robert Burns
transformed into a Scotch Marseillaise, beginning

"Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled,
Scots wham Bruce has often led,
Welcome to your gory bed,
Or to victory!"

In 1606, after James VI of Scotland had become James I of England,
these two historic standards were combined in token of the union of
the kingdoms. To the red and white of St. George's banner was added
the blue of St. Andrew's; and the red, white and blue, thus for the
first time appearing in a single flag, became known as the "King's
Colors." (5) This was the flag under which our country was chiefly
colonized. It was the flag which the Maytiower flew and which our
colonial ancestors carried in all their wars including King
William's, Queen Anne's, George It's and the French and Indian. As
a young lieutenant, George Washington rendered his first military
service under that flag with General Braddock's ill-fated
expedition against Ft. Du Quesne. In all their history the
colonists had followed no other flag than the "King's Colors." What
was more natural than that they should embody the same colors in
their new banner of independence ?

THE FIGURES

But what of the stars and stripes? How came they to find a place in
our flag? Drake, you will remember, tells us that

"Thy stars have lit the welkin dome."

But no flag with which our Revolutionary fathers had been familiar
ever contained stars and stripes. The only figures in the older
flags were the crosses and these were retained in the earliest
revolutionary flags even so late as January, 1776, scarcely a half
year before the Declaration of Independence, when a flag was
hoisted over General Washington's headquarters at Cambridge,
Massachusetts, with thirteen stripes, one for each of the revolting
colonies, but still with the united crosses of St. George and St.
Andrew in a blue field.

A flag containing thirteen red and white stripes and a red cross
appears (6) to have been used by the East India Company as early as
1704 and some have thought that it furnished the suggestion of the
stripes in our flag. If so it affords one more example of Asiatic
origins.

In the colonial banner of Rhode Island there were thirteen stars in
a blue field and some would trace to that source the stars of our
flag another honor for the smallest commonwealth.

But one fact seems clear: The stars and stripes were never combined
in any single flag until they appeared in one designed and used by
General Washington. Just when this was accomplished, remains a
disputed question.

In the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art is a famous painting by
Emanuel Leutze which represents "Washington Crossing the Delaware,"
and in the prow of the boat which bears the great leader, floats
"the star spangled banner." Of course that picture was painted long
after the event, for the artist belongs to a recent generation
(1816-1868); but there are reasons for believing that in this
respect he followed those who were contemporaries of the event.
Charles Wilson Peale, (7) the soldier painter, commanded one of the
companies which recrossed the Delaware on Christmas day, 1776, and
participated in the battle of Trenton of the day following. Later
he painted a picture of "Washington at Trenton" in the background
of which is a flag of thirteen white stars in a blue field.

Colonel John Trumbull was one of the most famous of early American
painters. He was General Washington's aide during the operations
around Boston and later was with him again "not long after his
success at Trenton." (8) The battle of Princeton was only one week
after, and Colonel Trumbull painted a picture of that battle
showing the stars and stripes in action. Thus the present figures
of our flag appear in these two leading engagements, as represented
by contemporaries, directly under the eye of the commander-in-
chief.

He seems to have been quite as closely identified also with the
circumstances which culminated about a half year later, in the
official adoption of those figures by Congress. In the spring of
1776 Washington visited Philadelphia and we are told (9) that, in
company with Robert Morris, the financier of the Revolution, George
Ross, a member of the Continental Congress, and Betsey Ross, widow
of the latter's nephew, he worked out the details of the new
nation's flag. Only in September, 1917, it was my privilege to
linger for a time in the little two story building on Arch street,
in the city of brotherly love, where Betsey Ross kept her
upholstery shop and her three distinguished visitors gathered to
discuss with her the designs for a new national emblem. It is
interesting to note in passing that the means for purchasing and
preserving those historic premises came largely from ten cent
contributions, mostly by American school children, and that a fund
is now being raised to purchase the surrounding property and
convert the whole into a memorial park. I am glad to be able to
provide the opportunity for the names of members of the present
graduating class of the Shanghai American School to appear on the
roll of honor of this patriotic enterprise.

On June 14,1277, the Continental Congress

"Resolved, That the Flag of the United States be 13 stripes
alternate red and white" with "13 stars white in a blue field."

As no other details are prescribed it is evident that the author of
this resolution assumed that the arrangement and location of these
figures would be understood and that implies a flag already in
existence doubtless that designed by Washington with the aid of
Betsey Ross. It seems clear, therefore, that the "father of his
country" had a very direct part in the making of its flag and
particularly in the union of the figures the stars and
stripes which afford its most distinguishing features.

Now it happens that those are also the figures of the Washington
family coat of arms. In the church of St. Mary the Virgin, hamlet
of Great Brington, Northamptonshire, are the tombs of several
Washingtons, among them Lawrence, who died in 1616 and was a
grandson of another of that name who, in 1539, received a grant of
Sulgrave Manor in the same shire, having migrated there from
Lancashire. (10) These tombs are marked by an inscription bearing
this Washington coat of arms; argent two bars, and in chief three
mullets (stars). They are also carved on a sun dial found near the
Washington home in the adjoining hamlet of Little Brington and were
naturally carried by two grandsons of Lawrence Washington who
emigrated to Virginia in 1657, one of whom (John) was the
greatgrandfather of George Washington. And it was in this cherished
heirloom that, so far as heraldic records have disclosed, the stars
and stripes were first combined in the same shield.

The objection (11) that General Washington himself never referred
to this device as a source of our national flag seems to me without
force. The man whose innate modesty forbade him to remain (12) in
the hall of the Continental Congress, though a member, after his
name had been so much as mentioned for the post of Commander-in-
Chief; and who shrank later from the mere suggestion that the
national capital be located near his Virginia home, would have been
the last to draw public attention to the fact that the figures of
our flag are those of his ancestral coat of arms. But that the one
suggested the other seems to me too obvious for argument.

SYMBOLRY

The stars and the stripes thus united originally symbolized at
first the same fact the union of thirteen states. And this
connection lasted for a considerable time after the first new
states were admitted. For each one a new stripe, as well as a new
star, was added to the flag. But it soon became apparent that these
additional stripes, if continued, would widen the flag unduly and
spoil its symmetry. A compromise was finally reached by which the
number of stripes was restored to thirteen while a star was added
for each new state. Thus the stripes permanently symbolize the
original states while the stars represent the ever expanding union.

And what a wealth of symbolism and historic allusion lies back of
this chivalry, the crusades, heraldry, the exploration and
colonization of the new world, the union of English-speaking
nations, the struggle to make and keep North America Anglo-Saxon,
the preservation of Anglo-Saxon ideals of liberty and law, the
defense of the rights of small nations these are the ideas
perpetuated and preserved in the evolution of our flag. And the
mighty conflict now closing has opened a new chapter in its
history. For within recent months the stars and stripes have been
raised for the first time over St. Paul's Cathedral, flown from the
mastheads of British vessels, carried by American armies through
the streets of the world's metropolis amid thundering plaudits of
a grateful populace and borne with resistless courage over the
bloody fields of Chateau Thierry and the Argonne.

Scion of knightly standards, cousin of Red Cross emblem, symbol of
triumphant democracy, prophecy of a world wide ensign, Old Glory
floats today over the soil of defeated Germany, but it floats even
there in mercy. A German newspaper recently said of our army of
occupation,

"The generosity of the Americans is spoiling our children."

For as President McKinley declared, in speaking of the Philippines,

"Our flag has never waved over any people save blessing."

And in the words of Clinton Scollard,

"Nor stripe nor clustered star has ever shone
Save but for freedom, for the broader birth
Of liberty the dearer, clearer dawn
Of brotherhood on earth.

Wave then, O banner! May thy mission be
To heal the grievous wounds, the woeful sears,
Triumphant over wrong and tyranny,
Beloved Stripes and Stars!"

(1) The occasion of this address was the raising of a flag
presented by the American University Club of China to the American
School at Shanghai.
(2) George Sterling.
(3) Warvelle, Constantine the Great (1915) 7.
(4) Judge Lobingier is Field Representative of the American Red
Cross in China and was recently decorated with the Service Button
and presented with Service Certificate of the Red Cross, "in
recognition," wrote Manager Cutler of the Insular and Foreign
Division, "of the loyal service you have rendered to the American
Red Cross and to the nation during the war." Editor.
(5) Journal of American History, 11.
(6) Preble, The United States Flag, 220,221.
(7) THE BUILDER, II, 200.
(8) Goodrich, History of the United States, 244. Cf. THE BUILDER,
II, 199.

The statement in a recent number of the Geographic Magazine (XXXII,
297) that Trumbull "left the colonies while Washington was before
Boston and was abroad for seven years," appears to be incorrect.
(9) Canby & Balderston, Evolution of the American Flag.
(10) Lodge's "Washington," I, 30-32 note. The family seems to have
been of Swedish origin. See Review of Reviews (Feb., 1919), 202.
(11) Journal of American History, 13; THE BUILDER, II, 227.
(12) Goodrich, History of the United States, 198.

