Learning that a book entitled “Betsey Ross” had been published in 1901, I procured a copy thinking it biographical or historical but it proved to be a romance, pure and simple, woven about Mrs. Ross who is represented as the heroine of her day and the principal designer of the flag.
Since 1891, several small works on the flag have been published, written by members of the Daughters of the American Revolution and dedicated to that organization. In those works great honor is given Mrs. Ross, indeed, the members of the D. A. R. as a whole, seem to have accepted Mr. Canby’s story as beyond dispute.
In 1908, Mr. John H. Fow published at Philadelphia a book of fifty-four pages entitled “The True Story of the American Flag.” Mr. Fow devotes considerable space to the claims made for Mrs. Ross and considers them without any documentary or record proof. He says, “If Mrs. Ross made a flag in an Arch Street house as claimed, it was made after a design that had been conceived and born somewhere else, and her contribution was no more than the labor that is given by any girl or woman in a flag manufactory. Even according to the paper which was read (by Mr. Canby) before the (Historical) Society in 1870, it is admitted that a design made by someone else was taken to her but that she made some changes in it. Now,” says Mr. Fow, “that is all there is in the Betsey Ross claim. Yet the growing youths of the nation are being misled and taught an historical untruth.” Mr. Fow also says that the Canby claim “is practically charging Washington and the rest of the Committee with seeking to establish and set up in June, 1776, a national ensign before we had declared ourselves a free people on July 4, of the same year, and without any delegated authority to do so, the record of Congress being silent on the subject.”
I will not quote further from Mr. Fow’s book, as to do so would unduly lengthen this paper, but the book itself can be found in the Scottsville Free Library.
I have lately found in the “Manual of Patriotism for Use in the Public Schools of the State of New York, Edition of 1904, Compiled, Arranged and Edited under direction of Charles R. Skinner, State Superintendent of Public Instruction” the following in relation to the origin of our flag, “A Committee of Congress accompanied by Washington sought out the home and services of Mrs. Elizabeth Ross of Philadelphia—better known as Betsey Ross—to aid them in the flag-making. Her skillful hands and willing heart soon worked out a plan and gave to this country that red, white and blue banner which is the admiration of all nations and the unfailing joy of every true American.” All of which is a very fine example of what may be called “patriotic gush.”
Here you observe that Mr. Skinner gives Mrs. Ross all the credit for working out and giving us the flag. As it seemed to me that that sort of history and patriotism is all wrong and as there is, I believe, no warrant for that statement, I wrote on September 16, 1916, to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction at Albany, and asked to be furnished with the authority upon which that statement was based. A reply came very promptly signed “Wilmer L. Hall, Sub-librarian in history,” to whom my letter had been referred for reply. Mr. Hall says, “The statement you quote may be based upon one or more of the several histories of the American Flag. See for example; Peleg D. Harrison, The Stars and Stripes, 5th edition, 1914., and C. W. Stewart, The Stars and Stripes, 1915. These accounts do not assert that Betsey Ross originated the American flag but allow her the credit of making the first one. It is said that Congress appointed a Committee consisting of General Washington, Col. George Ross and Robert Morris, who called upon Mrs. Ross and submitted to her a rough drawing of the flag. As the American flag is a growth rather than a creation, its exact origin is not determined; nor is the date of the manufacture of the first one by Mrs. Ross and the date of its first use matters of exact knowledge.”
Upon examining the two works referred to by Mr. Hall, I find that Mr. Harrison says that “the credit of making the first flag combining the Stars and Stripes is generally given to Mrs. Betsey Ross, and the story of its making is somewhat familiar to all.” Then Mr. Harrison goes on to give Mr. Canby’s account of what his grandmother told him.
Mr. Stewart in his book says, “Tradition tells us that Mrs. Elizabeth Ross, known as Betsey Ross, of Philadelphia, constructed the first Stars and Stripes flag. Though we have no official record of the making of this first United States flag, the accounts given by Betsey Ross’ relatives are generally accepted.”
I will here call attention to the use by Mr. Hall, Mr. Harrison, Mr. Stewart, and other writers of such expressions as “It is said,” “Tradition tells us,” “It is believed,” “Credit is generally given,” and so forth and so forth. These expressions are to history what the expression “they say” in common gossip or talk is to the truth, and are worth just as much. The fact that a thing is generally believed does not make it true.