"_Be it enacted_, &c., That from and after the fourth day of July
next, the flag of the United States be thirteen horizontal 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
shall take effect on the fourth day of July next succeeding such
admission." Approved April 4, 1818.
The flag planted on the National Palace of the city of Mexico had
thirty stars in the union.
The following compliment was paid to this flag.
June 3, 1848, "Mr. Drayton submitted the following resolution; which
was considered, by unanimous consent, and agreed to:--
"_Resolved_, That the Vice-President be requested to have the flag
of the United States first erected by the American army upon the
palace in the capital of Mexico, and now here presented, deposited
for safe-keeping in the Department of State of the United
States."--Page 370, Journal of the Senate 1847-48.
The union of the United States flag at present contains thirty-one
stars. (See Fig. 3, Plate III.)
We have, in the preceding pages, offered many reasons for concluding
that the devices in the flag, its colors, and the manner in which they
were combined, originated in some circumstance directly connected with
the history of the colonies, or in some practice which prevailed in the
mother country. Particularly was this the case in the adoption of the
emblem of union from the mother country. This leads us to make a few
remarks as to the prominence given to the color blue in the reports on
the adoption of the device for a Great Seal of the United States, and
in its being the ground of the uniform of the United States. We have
previously stated that its adoption was due to other circumstances
directly, than its being typical of the virtues of perseverance,
vigilance, and justice, though indirectly this meaning was involved in
its adoption. First, blue was a favorite color in the colonies, as is
proved by the fact of its being the uniform of the South Carolina
troops in 1775. For we have seen that Colonel Moultrie caused a large
blue flag to be made, with a crescent in one corner, to be uniform with
the troops; and by the fact that the pine-tree flag of New England was
a blue field, containing in the upper canton, next the staff, a St.
George's cross on a white ground, and a pine-tree represented in the
upper square formed by the cross. A reason for this color being a
favorite in New England, may perhaps be found in the circumstance,
that, in 1679, when the banner of the league and covenant was raised in
Scotland, it was a red flag, the borders of which were edged with
blue.[63] Borders of different color from the body of the flag, or from
the shield of the coat of arms, are in heraldry, a common distinction,
and as such was doubtless applied by the Covenanters (blue being the
color of the field of the banner of Scotland, as we have seen), to
indicate by whom this red flag was raised, and thus the blue color
became identified with the league and covenant. After the defeat of
Bothwell's Bridge, many of those people fled to the colonies,
particularly to New England and New Jersey.
[63] Walter Scott's Old Mortality, vol. ii. p. 116.
That feelings kindred to those excited among the Covenanters were
aroused among the colonists, is shown by the mottoes on "the Union flag
with a red field," already spoken of as displayed on a liberty-pole in
New York city in 1775. Those mottoes were, "No Popery," and "George Rex
and the liberties of America." It was probably in reference to his
being commander of the armies of the colonies, united in a solemn
league and covenant in defence of civil and religious liberty, that
General Washington adopted as his badge a light blue riband, which had
already been identified with a similar league and covenant in Scotland.
At a later day, on the adoption of an Union flag as the flag of the
United Colonies, the color of the field of the union (derived, as was
the blue border of the red flag of the Covenanters, from the banner of
Scotland) being blue, this color became identified with that which gave
nationality to the colonies, viz., their union, and on this account was
adopted as the ground of the national uniform, and as the color for the
chief or union, both in the arms of the United States and in their
flag.
That the prevailing colors of the uniforms of the army at that time
corresponded to the colors of the flag, is a well-known fact. Thus the
facings of the blue coats were red, the color of the plumes white,
tipped with red, &c. The buff and blue, commonly regarded as the
continental uniform, was that of the general officers, and not of the
body of the troops. In the navy, the same was the case. The prevailing
colors of the uniform of the officers of the navy were blue and red;
those of the uniform of the marine officers, green and white: the
colors of the flag of the United States, and of the flag of the
floating batteries, before given, viz., white, with a green tree in the
middle, &c. &c.
That such considerations operate in the selection of colors for
uniforms, is proved by the fact that the uniform of the United States
corps of cadets, a corps instituted and kept up with a view to foster
and preserve military knowledge in our country, instead of being of the
national color, blue, is gray trimmed with black. This color for the
uniform of that corps was chosen in 1815, out of compliment to the
services of the brigade commanded by General Scott at Chippewa, &c., in
the war of 1812-14. The embargo and the war having cut off the supply
of blue cloths, the commissary-general of purchases was forced
temporarily to supply that brigade with a substitute of gray, trimmed
with black.
As this, then, was the origin of the color of the uniform of the corps
of cadets, may we not conclude that, for the reasons assigned, blue was
adopted as our national color, out of compliment to the Union, with
which, as we have shown, it was intimately connected.
Having given the preceding account of our National Flag, we now add the
names of those connected with its different phases.
1st. General Washington.
2d. Benjamin Franklin, Mr. Lynch, and Mr. Harrison; the Committee of
Conference, with General Washington, on the organization of the army,
of which Colonel Joseph Reed was Secretary.
3d. The Marine Committee; Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Hancock, Mr. Hopkins, Mr.
Deane, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Crane, Mr. R. Morris, Mr. Read, Mr. Chase, Mr. R.
H. Lee, Mr. Hewes, Mr. Gadsden, and Mr. Houston.
4th. The Board of War; Mr. J. Adams, Mr. Sherman, Mr. Harrison, Mr.
Wilson, and Mr. E. Rutledge.
With this array of names before us, of those who, with others,
established our liberty and Union, and the idea we have developed, that
the devices adopted by them for the National Ensign of our country were
intended to intimate the perpetuity of that country's union, may we not
truly say of WASHINGTON and his compeers, now resting in their graves,
as connected with those devices, There is neither speech nor language,
but their voices are heard among them. Their sound has gone out into
all lands, and their words into the ends of the world, proclaiming
their trust in Providence, that that Union should only perish, when the
sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their
light.