Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Debunking Our Historical Myths
HISTORY
"All history, so far as
it is not supported by contemporary evidence, is romance." So observed Dr.
Samuel Johnson to James Boswell, his biographer. No period of history has been
subject to more romantic enhancement than the American Revolution.
Dr. Johnson's sage remark
was brought to mind by the holiday we just observed. We should more properly
call it:
America’s Erroneous Birthday
The Fourth of July is universally regarded as America Philadelphia
Not the least of these errors
is John Trumbull's historically inaccurate painting, "The Declaration of
Independence," which hangs in the rotunda of the U.S. Capitol and is
reproduced on the obverse of the two-dollar bill.
In their old age, John Adams
and Thomas Jefferson both mistakenly recalled that the document had been signed
on July 4th, adding to a fiction that apparently will not die. Despite its date
of July 4th, the Continental Congress actually voted in favor of independence
on July 2nd. Two days later it adopted the wording of Jefferson ’s
Declaration.
In New York Washington Bowling Green Connecticut
As for signing the document,
Jefferson ’s rough draft of the Declaration was
not ordered to be engrossed (penned) on parchment until July 19, 1776--more
than two weeks after the Fourth of July.
In fact, no one actually
signed the document until August 2nd, when all delegates present did so. At
least six of the 56 signatures were added later. Matthew Thornton from New Hampshire
Thomas McKean, of Delaware
Four conservative members of
the Continental Congress refused to sign the document on principle. These were
John Dickinson of Pennsylvania ; James Duane, who
became a mayor of New York City (Duane Street Bedford , N.Y.
Some members of the
Continental Congress never signed--for good reason: Generals George Washington,
John Sullivan, Christopher Gadsden and George Clinton were all serving in the
field. Fiery radical Patrick Henry did not sign; he had resigned precipitously
from the Continental Congress in February of 1776 and returned to Virginia
In British eyes, signing
such a document represented a treasonable act, so delay on the part of any
signers is understandable. When Lewis Morris, then third lord of the manor of
Morrisania in Westchester (now part of the borough of the Bronx ),
was about to sign, he was reminded that doing so would risk death and
confiscation of his manor, which lay in the path of the fighting.
"Damn the consequences, give me the
pen," he is said to have replied. He signed with a flourish; his Westchester estate was ravaged in retaliation. The homes
of 15 of the signers of the Declaration were destroyed.
Who Created the Stars and Stripes?
Who Created the Stars and Stripes?
June 14th is celebrated as
Flag Day because on that date in 1776, Congress passed a resolution vaguely defining
what the American flag should look like. It said, "Resolved that the flag
of the United States
Many authorities believe
that the "Bennington Flag," flown at the battle of Bennington, Vt., in August of 1777, was the first to be carried
by American ground forces in battle. Its blue field, nine stripes deep, has an
arch of only 11 seven-pointed stars over the numerals "76," with two
stars added at the top corners.
Unfortunately, the design of
the Bennington
Another claim is that the
Stars and Stripes were first flown over Fort Stanwix (on the site of modern
Rome, N.Y.), which held out against British Col. Barry St. Leger's raiding
expedition into the Mohawk Valley in 1777. Marinus Willett supplied the makings
of this flag from British uniforms he captured at Peekskill
A flag historian later
decided that this "was not the Stars and Stripes, but a flag of the same
design as that raised by George Washington at Cambridge, Mass., on taking
command of the Continental Army" on July 3, 1775.
That flag had 13 alternating
red and white stripes and the joined crosses of St. George and St. Andrew in
the canton (the rectangle at the upper corner next to the staff). Washington 's Cambridge
flag was a modified version of the British Meteor Flag, so named not for its
design but because of the terror it supposedly struck in Britain
In the American version, six
horizontal white stripes were imposed on its red field, thus forming 13 alternate
red and white stripes.
According to a definitive
history of the American flag, "while Congress never formally adopted it,
this banner soon became known as the ‘Union Flag,' the 'Grand Union Flag,' the
'Congress Flag,' and the 'Colours of the United Colonies.’"
Other famous flags antedated
the Flag Resolution. These included the Bunker Hill Flag (probably a red flag
with a green tree in the canton); the Gadsden, or South Carolina Rattlesnake
Flag ("Don't Tread on Me"); the New England Pine Tree Flag ("An
Appeal to Heaven"); and the Crescent Flag, with a crescent moon in the
upper left corner and the word "Liberty" emblazoned across the
bottom), first flown at the siege of Charleston, S.C., in 1776.
Did Betsy Ross Sew the First Flag?
Don’t bet on it. Every schoolchild knows--and will
proudly tell you--that Betsy Ross made the first American flag in Philadelphia Washington
But did this widowed
upholsterer actually sew the first flag? Popularly called the "Betsy Ross
pattern," the flag in question has 13 five-pointed white stars in a
wreath, or circle, on a blue field, and with seven red and six white stripes.
Historians do not regard
that flag as a serious contender for the honor of being the first American
flag. Documentary evidence exists that Betsy was paid in 1777 for "making
ships' colours, etc."
In fact, the story of the
Betsy Ross flag did not surface until it was told in 1870, almost a hundred
years after the event, by her grandson, William Canby, who claimed it was a
family tradition.
Canby’s account was
supported by affidavits offered by Betsy Ross's granddaughter, daughter and
niece, which described, many years after the fact, how Betsy Ross recounted the
story of her flag. But no contemporaneous records exist attesting to her
primacy in the making of a 1776 flag.
One contemporary contender
was poet and artist Francis Hopkinson. A signer of the Declaration of
Independence from New Jersey , Hopkinson played
a role in designing the seals of the American Philosophical Society, the State
of New Jersey and the University of Pennsylvania
In 1780, Hopkinson wrote to
the Admiralty Board that he was pleased they liked the seal he had designed for
them, and requested recognition for this and "other devices" he
itemized, including designs for Continental currency.
Topping his list, however,
was his claim that he had created the "Stars and Stripes." Hopkinson
petitioned Congress and requested only "a Quarter Cask of the public
wine" for his "labours of fancy," evidence perhaps of his desire
more for recognition than for payment. After much wrangling, his invoice was
not paid because it lacked supporting vouchers. Congress decided in 1781 that
too many people had worked on the design of the flag for any one person to be
given credit as its creator.
Such fanciful distortions
from the time of the Revolution only prove the truth of another of Samuel
Johnson's remarks recorded by Boswell: "Many things which are false are
transmitted from book to book and gain credit in the world."
