“Approved April 4, 1818.”
The use of stars by the Colonies on their flags was first suggested by a little piece of poetry in a newspaper called the “Massachusetts Spy,” published in Boston on March the 10th, 1774. It was as follows:
“A ray of bright glory
Now beams from afar;
The American Ensign
Now sparkles a star.”
Fig. 6 Fig. 7
Fig. 10 Fig. 11
This piece of poetry was the cause of a flag being made in 1775 by a patriotic vessel owner of Massachusetts having thirteen white stars on it in a blue union, the body of the flag being white, with an anchor upon it having over the top the word “HOPE” (see [Fig. 1]), already mentioned. It was hoisted on the armed schooner Lee, Captain John Manley (see also Rhode Island Colonial Records, Vol. X, p. 14. A similar flag is now in the office of the Secretary of State. It was carried by a Rhode Island regiment during the Revolution). Either this or the stars on the Washington book plate, in the absence of any record, may be taken as reasons for the adoption of the stars in the union in place of the crosses of St. Andrew and St. George. I have also referred to the claim that the combination of the stars and stripes was probably adopted out of love and respect for Washington. If this claim is true, then we would have, according to the Ross claim the spectacle of Washington complimenting and honoring himself, when, as a matter of fact, his whole life disproves such conduct on his part. Now, let us see if this argument as to the origin of the combination is born out by facts. We find in a book printed in London in 1704 by J. Beaumont that the English East India Company had a flag of thirteen red and white stripes alternating (see [Fig. 6]) the same as ours, only it had the red cross of St. George in a white union. In 1705 they reduced the stripes to ten; but in another work on ship-building, published in 1705, by Carl Allard in Amsterdam, we find that he fixes the number of stripes at nine. Also in a book published by Le Haye in 1737 we find that the number of striped flags in existence in Europe were as follows: Bremen, nine stripes, red and white, with a union of four squares, same colors; Rotterdam, eleven stripes, red and green; North Holland, thirteen stripes, red and yellow; East India Company, thirteen stripes, red and white, with a white union and St. George Cross, already mentioned. But no matter as to the number of stripes, it is thus conclusively shown that thirteen red and white stripes were in use seventy years before they were adopted by the American Colonies. In October, 1775, while the English troops were besieged in Boston by the troops under Washington, it became apparent that we should have some sort of a flag to represent the Colonies in the aggregate, and show thereby that they were acting in concert; so a committee was appointed, of which Benjamin Franklin was the chairman. It was determined that the flag should be called the Grand Union Flag, and that it should have thirteen red and white stripes alternating to represent the thirteen Colonies, and the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew in the union to attest their loyalty to the Crown (see [Fig. 7]), as at that period national sovereignty was not contemplated. The quarrel as claimed was simply over the right to be represented in the taxing body of the British nation. Preble in his history of the flag says, on page 225, as to the stripes being used at the instance of Washington: