WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
The History of the First United States Flag / and the Patriotism of Betsy Ross, the Immortal Heroine That Originated the First Flag of the Union cover

The History of the First United States Flag / and the Patriotism of Betsy Ross, the Immortal Heroine That Originated the First Flag of the Union

Chapter 2: PREFACE.
By J. Franklin Reigart
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

History - American

About This Book

The author provides an anecdotal history that attributes the creation of the first national flag to a Philadelphia needleworker, drawing on family recollections, personal visits, and contemporary testimonies to reconstruct her life and craft. The narrative combines biographical detail about her sewing trade and clientele with accounts of patriotic activities, songs, and the distribution of flags to volunteers, while emphasizing domestic workmanship, color and design choices, and civic devotion. Much of the argument rests on oral tradition and local records, and the work foregrounds the interplay of private industry, symbolic ornamentation, and public memory in the flag’s early story.

PREFACE.

IN 1824, when General Lafayette arrived at Philadelphia, and was nobly welcomed as “The Nation’s Guest,” the writer of this book was staying several weeks at the hospitable home of his amiable and kind relative, Mrs. Betsy Ross. The arrival of Lafayette excited and brightened her extraordinary memory, as she very cheerfully entertained all her friends, by relating the most interesting facts of the Revolution, and its Flag of Victory. Her words we well remember. She objected, as a member of the society of “Friends,” to sit for her portrait, nevertheless, a miniature of her in crayon was made, and is now highly prized; and at this late day, we deem it our duty to publish the true history of the origin of the first Flag of our Country, and the patriotism of America’s most illustrious Heroine.

The BRAVEST of the brave demands our song,
Who made the Flag so firm and strong,
Of all earth’s emblems the brightest diadem,
The Freemen’s shield, the Patriot’s gem.

Listen to her thrilling, cheering voice, her soul-inspiring, martial song, whilst a dozen of the ladies of her household joined in the chorus, as she handed over each Flag to the gallant troops, on their way to camp, and roused their enthusiasm to the highest pitch. The ladies of the Revolution loved her for her magnanimous and modest Quaker deportment, and the army of Washington applauded her dignified admonitions, so full of patriotism and power of song. Quakers very seldom sing, but Betsy Ross always said, “My voice shall be devoted to God and my country, and whenever the spirit moves me, I’ll sing and shout for liberty!”—and with an enthusiasm for Independence, exhibiting a spirit power, only to be equalled by absolute phrensy, she waved her Flag aloft, and she did sing to the gallant volunteers, the

“WAR SONG OF INDEPENDENCE.”

“Come on, my hearts of temper’d steel,
Away! away! to arms!!
No foreign slaves shall give us law,
No British tyrants reign;
’Tis Independence makes us free,
And Freedom we’ll maintain.
And to conquest we will go! will go! will go!
With the red, white and blue,
To conquest we will go.
“A soldier is a gentleman,
His honor is his life,
And he that won’t stand by his Flag,
Will ne’er stand by his Wife.
And to conquest we will go! will go! will go!
With the red, white and blue,
To conquest we will go.
“Then hark! to arms! to arms!! to arms!!!
’Tis the time that tries men’s souls!
The rising world shall sing of you,
A Thousand Years to come,
And to your children’s children TELL
The Wonders you have done.
When to conquest you did go! did go! did go!
With the red, white and blue,
To conquest you did go.”

Many inspired songs (after the close of the war for American Independence) were carried home by Gen. Lafayette, (the companion of Washington,) Rochambeau, and many of the French engineers and soldiers, on their return to France, having proved their chivalry and united their hearts, blood, songs and arms with Americans, for the liberties of America; and, but for the “War Song” of Betsy Ross, the “Marseillaise Hymn” would not have been written by Rouget de Lille, a French officer of engineers, in 1791. Marshal Luckner commanded the French Revolutionary army at that time on their march from Marseilles to Paris; that whole army became phrensied by the words of the “War Songs” of American Independence, that they had helped to gain, and Rouget de Lille caught the inspiratory words, “And hark, away to arms! to conquest we will go!” and quickly composed the song that he entitled the “Chant de Guerre de l’ Armée du Rhin,” the “War Song of the Army of the Rhine,” which the Parisians, some years afterwards, named the “Hymne des Marseillaise.” Thus the “War Song of Independence” became combined, in word and spirit, in the “Marseillaise Hymn,” and has ever since enlivened the march of the armies of France to conquest and played an important part in the revolutions, not only of France, but of other Continental States.

In 1870, William J. Canby, Esq., (the grandson of Mrs. John Ross,) of Philadelphia, read before the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, a very interesting paper on the subject of the “Centennial Anniversary of the American Flag,” in which he stated that his maternal grandmother, “Betsy Ross,” was the first maker of the “Stars and Stripes.” She lived in Arch street at the time, and continued in the business of making Flags for many years.