USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 61
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I. English Ensign
II. Grand Union Flag, 1776
HOPE
Ill. Rhode Island Flag, 1775
IV. Stars and Stripes, 1777
HOW RHODE ISLAND PUT THE STARS IN THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER
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thirteen stars on a canton of blue, and showing a blue anchor surmounted by the motto of the state, Hope, on the center of the field, this regimental banner of Rhode Island easily takes rank as an attractive flag; nor is it lacking in interesting historic associations. Carried safely through the intense struggle of Brandywine, at Trenton, and at Yorktown, it now rests in the State House at Providence, mute witness to the heroism of those who bore it to final victory." "The Rhode Island flag was the most beautiful and perhaps the most characteristic colonial flag or banner," wrote Colonel H. S. Kerrick in "The Flag of the United States: Your Flag and Mine." "It is sometimes called the 'Hope' flag. The thirteen stars, white on a blue field, arranged quincuncial in outline of the Cross of St. George and St. Andrew, was the first rep- resentation of stars in a flag. This no doubt influenced the design of the union of our first Stars and Stripes flag. . ... The canton of the Rhode Island colonial flag later became the union and canton of the United States navy boat flag." The other flag, hanging in the State House beside the flag of the First Rhode Island, is that carried by the Second Rhode Island Continental Infantry. This flag is of white silk, ninety inches long and sixty-five inches wide. In the field is a blue anchor with a piece of rope twining about it, and a scroll above contain- ing the word "Hope," the motto of Rhode Island. The union is of blue, probably faded, for it is now light blue, with thirteen gilt stars bordered with dark blue. The arrangement of stars is similar to that on the flag of the First Rhode Island Regiment. Again, there is no authen- tic record of the origin of this flag, but it is probably the flag carried by Colonel Lippitt's Rhode Island Regiment, which joined Washington's army in time to see, but not to participate in, the battle of White Plains. It was with Washington's army in the retreat across New Jersey, at the battles of Trenton and Princeton, at Red Bank, the Brandywine, Valley Forge and Monmouth. It was on the field at the battle of Rhode Island, at Springfield and at York- town. When the Rhode Island regiments were consolidated, the two flags remained with Olney's battalion, and at the close of the Revolutionary War were presented by the officers of the line to the General Assembly to remain in the custody of the state. The flag of the Second Rhode Island Continental Infantry was carried by the Second Rhode Island Regiment as a regimental banner early in the Civil War, and was on the field at Bull Run. It is significant that both Rhode Island flags carried, besides the arms of the state, the blue canton with thir- teen white stars, signifying the union of American States. There is reason to believe that from these Rhode Island flags was taken the design for the union in the Stars and Stripes, and that Rhode Island thus "put the Stars in the Star-Spangled Banner."
The continental army besieging Boston carried a motley array of flags and banners: The white flag of Rhode Island, the Pine Tree flag of Massachusetts, the vari-colored flags of Connecticut with the motto "Qui transtulit sustinet," the black beaver of New York on a field of white, the rattlesnake flags of the South, among others. Washington opened the new year of 1776 by unfurling at headquarters in Cambridge the Grand Union flag, with thirteen alternate stripes of red and white in the field, and a canton containing the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew. Esek Hopkins flew the same flag from his fleet when the United States navy made its first cruise to New Providence, besides the Rattlesnake flag presented to the Admiral by Gadsden. A flag of the Grand Union type could be made easily by taking an English red ensign and painting or sewing six white stripes across the red field to indicate by alternate red and white stripes the thirteen colonies and their estrangement from the mother country. Of the stripes Washington said: "We take the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her, and the white stripes shall go down to posterity representing liberty." As the revolution progressed, par- ticularly after the Declaration of Independence, the flag needed further remodelling; it was inconsistent to carry the symbol of British and Scotch union, the combined crosses of St. George and St. Andrew, on the flag of a new nation. What could replace the Union Jack more appropriately than a symbol of the new American union? The design was at hand, the
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union of thirteen white stars in the flag of Rhode Island. Just when and where the substitu- tion first was made no record shows. The resolution in Congress adopting the Stars and Stripes was reported by the marine committee ;* it is probable that the completed design originated in the navy, and was suggested by Esek Hopkins of Rhode Island, Commander-in- Chief. The earliest known Star-Spangled Banner that has been preserved, the flag carried on the "Bon Homme Richard" in the naval battle with the "Serapis," shows an arrangement of stars similar to that in the Rhode Island flag. A picture of an early American flag printed in the "Historical Genealogical Calendar or Chronicle of the Most Memorable Transactions in the New World," published at Leipsic in 1784, shows the same arrangement. It is true that Trumbull invariably painted the American flag in his pictures with the thirteen stars in a circle, but Trumbull was guilty of anachronism in painting the Stars and Stripes in pictures illustrating events preceding the Declaration of Independence, and might be as much in error in the design as in chronology. These facts remain for explanation of any other origin of the flag, including the childish story of Betsy Ross cutting a five-pointed star as a substitute for the six-pointed star said to have been chosen by the committee of Congressmen. The Rhode Island stars are five-pointed; the Rhode Island flags and the Rhode Island canton were familiar before the adoption of Old Glory, and the transfer of the Rhode Island canton of thirteen stars on the field of blue to the place previously occupied by the Union Jack is the simplest explanation of the origin of Old Glory. Telfair Minton, an industrious research student of the history of the flag, writes of a book in preparation: "I intend to show in my story the positive connection of our flag with the flag of the Rhode Island Brigade of 1775. . . I am thoroughly convinced that the flag of the Rhode Island Brigade is responsible for the stars in the blue field of our flag of today. It is significant that the boat ensign of the United States navy, until five years ago, contained the same arrangement of stars on the blue field as contained in the flag of the Rhode Island Brigade of 1775. This shows positively that the flag of the Rhode Island Brigade was taken into consideration on the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as far as the stars were concerned." Louis Bancroft Runk, in "The Birth of Our Flag and Flag Etiquette," says: "Nearly a year elapsed after the Declaration of Inde- pendence before the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew in the Cambridge flag, which typi- fied the mother country, were discarded. In strictness these crosses should not have been used at all after July 4, 1776. In June, 1777, its marine committee had made a report to Congress, then sitting in Philadelphia, on several naval matters, and in their report appears these words: 'Resolved, that the flag of the Thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.' The idea of the stars and their grouping probably came from the colonial banner of Rhode Island." The Rhode Island flag no longer carries the canton of blue with white stars; it gave that to Old Glory. Instead, a circle of golden stars surrounds the anchor on the beautiful white Rhode Island flag of the twentieth century. Aside from the almost certainty that Rhode Island "put the stars in the Star-Spangled Banner," it is significant that that beautiful flag still carries in the canton the symbolic presentation of an indissoluble union of indestructible states, the Rhode Island idea from the beginning of the movement to bring about "the firm- est union possible."
PROGRESS OF THE REVOLUTION-The revolution in Rhode Island had been accomplished (I) by repealing the statute establishing procedure for taking appeals from the courts of Rhode Island to the courts of England; (2) by repealing a statute securing the enforcement in Rhode Island of certain English statutes, and (3) by refusing to permit any public officer to administer the engagement for office to Governor Wanton, who had received a majority of the proxies for reelection as Governor. Except that there was no precedent for refusing to
*Rhode Island was represented on the Marine Committee consecutively by Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery, and Henry Marchant.
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permit a Governor-elect to qualify, the assumption of authority to determine eligibility for office was not novel; if it were necessary that the General Assembly should enact the two statutes to establish jurisdiction and to give effect to English statutes, or if the General Assem- bly had power to enact the two statutes, then the General Assembly had power to repeal them. If the right to appeal to English courts or the enforcement of English statutes depended upon action by the Rhode Island General Assembly, Rhode Island was sovereign before May 4, 1776. This, indeed, was the opinion maintained by Stephen Hopkins when he declared that the British Parliament had no more power than the Mohawks to legislate for Rhode Island, and the position which he reached in the argument in "The Rights of Colonies Examined."* The General Assembly continued, on and after May 4, 1776, without interval and without interruption, to exercise the legislative powers that appertain to sovereign states. De jure, the revolution in Rhode Island had been accomplished by resolution; de facto, it was estab- lished by force of arms. There was no change of government, however; the government in Rhode Island had declared its independence and established it.
The Declaration of Independence of July 4, 1776, was adopted by a congress of delegates representing twelve English colonies, and Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, a sover- eign state, which last had repudiated colonial status by action of its legislature. Congress was solicitous that the Declaration should be ratified by each and every one of its constituents, and requested that, besides ratifying it, each of the new states should spread a copy of the Declara- tion of Independence upon its legislative records and thus make the Declaration its own. The new states were thus placed in the position of declaring independence, and Congress became an assembly of delegates representing states rather than colonies. The situation was far from satisfactory, notwithstanding the Declaration of Independence; Congress was still exercising powers that it had assumed as agent for states, which, as a matter of fact and law, had not granted Congress powers and had not bound themselves by any agreement or action beyond sending delegates. The borrowing power of Congress was ineffective under the circum- stances ; issues of paper money depreciated almost immediately because it was understood clearly that Congress had no power to guarantee redemption. European countries were not interested in loaning money under the circumstances. Some form of union more definite was absolutely essential and necessary. "Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union" were proposed by Congress in 1777 as a contract whereby to bind the states. When these had been ratified unanimously in 1781, they became a Constitution for the United States of America. Perhaps the words "United States" should be written and printed without capitals, as they were in the Articles of Confederation, for the latter set up merely a union for defence and promotion of the general welfare of thirteen states that still maintained independence of each other in all but the bare minima of functions entrusted to the Congress.
The Articles of Confederation opened with a declaration that each state retained "its sovereignty, freedom and independence, and every power, jurisdiction and right" not "expressly delegated to the united states in congress assembled." The states entered "into a firm league of friendship with each other, for the common defence, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade or any other pretence whatever." Comity between states was assured on the basis of granting to "the free inhabitants of each of the states . . . . all the privileges and immunities of free citizens in the several states . . . . free ingress and regress to and from any other state . . all the privileges of trade and commerce," and requiring that "full faith and credit shall be given in each of these states to the records, acts and judicial proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other state." Extradition for treason, felony or other high misdemeanors was granted. The Congress consisted of delegates to be "annually appointed in such manner
*Chapter XI.
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as the legislature of each state shall direct, to meet in congress on the first Monday in Novem- ber in every year." The states reserved the right to recall and replace delegates within the year. States must be represented by not less than two nor more than seven delegates; no person was "capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years." Delegates could not hold any office under the United States carrying "salary, fees or emolu- ments of any kind." Each state was required to maintain its own delegates; and each state was entitled to one vote in determining questions before Congress. Treaty making and war powers were reserved to Congress. Charges of war and all other expenses incurred for the common defence or general welfare and allowed by Congress were to be "defrayed out of a common treasury" to be "supplied by the several states in proportion to the value of all land within each state granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land and the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated according to such mode as the united states in con- gress assembled shall from time to time direct." Taxes were to be "laid and levied by the authority and direction of the legislatures of the several states within the time agreed upon by the united states in congress assembled." Congress was the last resort on appeal for settling boundary disputes between states, and controversies arising concerning the "right of soil claimed under different grants of two or more states." Congress had power also "to regulate alloy and value of coin," fix weights and measures, regulate trade with the Indian tribes, estab- lish and regulate post offices, appoint military officers, except regimental officers, and to appoint naval officers. All important functions were to be exercised by vote of nine states in Con- gress. Canada could be admitted to the Confederation by ratifying the Articles, but no other state than the original thirteen except by the agreement of nine states. Amendments could be made only by unanimous action. The outstanding faults of the Articles of Confederation were recognized almost immediately, among them that Congress had no power to obtain a revenue except through action by the states ; and that Congress had no power to make its own functions effective by coercing a state or otherwise. Amendments purposing to correct these deficiencies were offered in 1781, but both failed of adoption. Rhode Island interposed vigor- ous opposition to an amendment that would permit Congress to levy an impost, although twelve states had been persuaded to ratify it; eventually one after another of the states with- drew ratification, and the proposition was abandoned. The measure intended to establish coercion was merged in a movement for general revision that spent itself without action.
Of the Rhode Island delegates elected in 1778 and 1779, only John Collins was reelected in 1780. With him were Daniel Mowry and James M. Varnum, elected by the people, and Ezekiel Cornell, elected by the General Assembly, the people not having cast a majority vote for any of three candidates. The General Assembly adopted resolutions thanking William Ellery and Henry Marchant for their services in Congress; that Stephen Hopkins was not mentioned in the resolutions of thanks may be explained as due to the failure of Hopkins to attend any session of Congress after 1776. Varnum, who was attending, reported, in Janu- ary, 1781, that Virginia had ceded all claim to land west of the Ohio River to the Confedera- tion, and that Maryland had ratified the Articles. Congress almost immediately took action to strengthen the government by appointing officers corresponding in the organization under the Constitution to the Secretary of State, Secretary of War and Secretary of the Treasury. There was promise of improvement, in this development of an executive secretariat to replace the cumbersome committee system.
VARNUM FORETELLS CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION -- But Varnum was keen in analyzing the situation and noting the weakness of Congress, and almost prophetic in foretelling the process whereby the Congress of the Confederation would be superseded, and the Articles of Confederation entirely reconstructed by a body other than Congress, in which there was too much inertia, Varnum believed, to permit it to arise to an opportunity. Varnum's letter to Governor Greene under date of April 2, 1781, was most remarkable. Perhaps it was his tem-
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perament, which could not brook inactivity ; a capable general officer, and a gallant soldier, hero of many a hard-fought battlefield, he had resigned from the army twice because he was dissatisfied. He found Congress far from being what it should be in his estimation, partly by reason of want of power and partly by reason of failure to exercise efficiently the func- tions committed to it. He predicted the Constitutional Convention of 1787 six years before it assembled as the "one eligible resort in the power of the United States" for relief from an almost intolerable situation. An extract from the Varnum letter of April 2, 1781, follows :
There are two obstacles to that energy and vigor which are absolutely necessary to the United States. In the first place, the United States have not vested Congress, or any other body, with the power of calling out effectually the resources of each state. The Articles of Confederation give only the power of apportion- ing. Compliance in the respective states is generally slow, and in many instances does not take place. The consequence is disappointment, and may be fatal. In the second place, an extreme, though perhaps well-meant jealousy in many members of Congress, especially those of long standing, seems to frustrate every attempt to introduce a more efficacious system. Prudent caution against the abuse of power is very requisite for support- ing the principles of republican government; but when that caution is carried too far, the event may, and probably will, prove alarming. We have experienced a recent instance of political diffidence. Mr. Robert Morris of this city has been chosen Financier. Previous to his final acceptance he insisted upon the power of removing from office all persons entrusted with the expenditure of the public money, for abuse, fraud, etc., without being answerable, except to the party injured, in the courts of law. Without that authority he despaired of introducing economy, so essentially important at this critical situation. A majority decided against the proposition. The consequence is we are replunged into an old situation, so agreeable to some gen- tlemen, and I fear shall not be able to effect a reformation in point of revenue and expenditure, which some- time since many of us hoped and firmly expected. . . . My duty, or a mistaken idea of it, obliges me to hazard a conjecture that the time is not far distant when the present American Congress will be dissolved, or laid aside as useless, unless a change of measures shall render their authority more respectable. Our time is consumed in testing executive business, while objects of the greatest magnitude are postponed, or rejected as subversive in their nature of democratical liberty. If political and civil liberty can be enjoyed amidst the din of arms. in their utmost Platonic extent, I confess my own ideas are perfectly wrong; but if the kind of government sufficiently energetic to obtain the objects of peace when free from invasion, is too feeble to raise and support armies, fight battles and obtain complete victory, I know of but one eligible resort in the power of the United States ; that is, to form a convention, not composed of members of Congress, especially those whose political sentiments have become interwoven with their habits for a long train of thinking in the same way. It should be the business of this convention to revise and reform the Articles of Confederation, to define the aggregate powers of the United States in Congress assembled, fix the executive departments, and ascer- tain their authorities. Many other matters subservient to the general idea would come before them, and their powers should be extensive in point of ratification. But the system to be by them adopted should expire at a given or limited time.
In the last suggestion Varnum showed an inclination to the opinion of Jefferson and other advanced democrats, that the form of government ought to be reexamined and reconstructed at reasonably short intervals ; Jefferson fixed thirty-three years as the longest period between revisions.
CONFEDERATION PROBLEMS-Besides the routine of business pertaining to carrying on the war, and maintaining armies, three important questions were considered by Congress in 1781 and thereafter: (I) the application of Vermont for admission to the Confederation as a state; (2) an equitable disposition of public lands or back lands west of the Alleghenies and within the boundaries claimed by the original thirteen states, and (3) import duties as a source of continental revenues. Each claiming part of the territory over which the Vermont "state government" organized in June, 1777, exercised jurisdiction, New Hampshire, New York and Massachusetts opposed admission. There was opposition also from states that feared that Vermont "might affect the balance of power by throwing an additional weight
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into the eastern scale; and because it might be a precedent for augmenting the number of the confederated states, already too large." The Rhode Island delegates in Congress favored Vermont, and in February, 1783, the General Assembly instructed them to "promote and con- cur in measures to obtain a final declaration of Congress in favor of the independence of that people." Vermont was admitted in 1791; at that time the Green Mountain state's population had been increased by Rhode Islanders, who migrated to the "last New England frontier" after the war. Rhode Island insisted that the back lands were common spoils of war in which the states that contributed to ultimate success ought to share; and that equitably these lands should be ceded to the continental government for disposition by Congress to reduce the public debt and to promote the general welfare. Virginia relinquished claim to territory west of the Ohio River as an inducement to persuade Maryland to enter the Confederation; one of the compromises that made the Constitution possible recognized the justice of Rhode Island's contention with reference to the public lands. Rhode Island's steadfast objection to import duties, even when the twelve other states had yielded consent, some conditionally, defeated the project, and played an important part in proving the inadequacy of the Confederation. The discussion of import duties was most thorough at the time, and enlisted such intellectual giants as David Howell and Jonathan Arnold of Rhode Island, as well as Robert Morris of Penn- sylvania, and Alexander Hamilton of New York. Rhode Island and Rhode Islanders have been abused for their stand against import duties; an attempt was made to prejudice the peo- ple of Rhode Island against Howell and he was challenged twice to fight duels in an attempt to eliminate him from Congress.
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