White flag

“ White is for purity, red for valor, blue for justice; and altogether, bunting, stripes, stars, and colors blazing in the sky, make the flag of our country to be cherished by all our hearts, to be upheld by all our hands. ”

“ With the other he took the glass of milk Mahala offered him, but he was shaking so that he could only lift it to his lips with her help. The food he did not touch at all.
He rested a few minutes and then he arose and extended the white flag. He lifted his face to the skies and with more strength and sureness in his voice, he cried: “Behold the emblem of purity. Clean hearts may pass under with God’s blessing. Come, ye workers of darkness, wash your hearts clean by passing under the white flag!” ”

“ To me no sight is ever more beautiful than the American flag, red, white, and blue, as the breeze opens every fold and waves it abroad for the gaze of men; the blue signifying a league and covenant against oppression, to be maintained in truth, by valor and purity; the very color proclaiming to despots and tyrannized man that in one land on the broad face of the earth liberty of conscience prevails, and freedom of speech exists. We shall not want to change it when this war is over. It is the symbol of an idea which has never yet found its full utterance. ”

“ Regardless of circumstance, our flag endures as a sign of hope.
On Flag Day, we look to the red, white, and blue as a symbol of our commitment to advancing the universal hope of liberty and justice for all. Old Glory abounds in the landscape of our daily lives, reminding us of the freedom we share. The 50 stars and 13 stripes are not just a random pattern, they symbolize the blessings of liberty we enjoy as Americans. ”

“ There is no better symbol of our country's values and traditions than the Flag of the United States of America. Chosen by the Continental Congress in 1777, it continues to exemplify the profound commitment to freedom, equality, and opportunity made by our founders more than two centuries ago. Our flag's proud stars and stripes have long inspired our people, and its beautiful red, white, and blue design is known around the world as a beacon of liberty and justice. ”

“ Her sons were strong of arm and bold of heart, and with a dauntless spirit they broke the shackles of tyranny and erected in the wilderness an altar to fair Liberty, that all men might worship according to the dictates of their own conscience. They took the blue of heaven and the white of the milkyway and bound them with the rays of the sun, and made the American flag; and when they placed that banner in the sky, it became the flag of liberty, and carried to every shore and into every clime the message of freedom and human progress. ”

“ The white typifies the purity of purpose which belongs to her true ruler; the red points to the crimson tide in which life flows forth a willing offering; the blue reminds her of her home in heaven, to which all the good are gathered; the stars in her banner tell of light in darkness, and she shall learn to range them in a new and beautiful order, as the constellation of the cross. It is that flag which has solved most conclusively the long disputed problem of a free republican form of government. ”

“ It is a practical exhibition in itself of the result of concerted action, and has been from its origin until to-day worshipped as no other ensign designed by man has ever been. It is loved and respected by all who love liberty. It represents the government. It represents our honor. To love it is to love one’s country, a duty more sacred than any other, except love and respect for God.
“Oh, glorious flag! red, white and blue,
Bright emblem of the pure and true!
Oh, glorious group of clustering stars,
Ye lines of light, ye crimson bars.” ”

“ The whole history of the flag prior to the Great Revolution, is somewhat confused, and in the year 1669, which we may consider about the middle of the Bourbon or white flag period, [14] we find the order given by the Minister of the Marine that "the ensigns are to be blue, powdered with yellow fleurs-de-lys, with a large white cross in the middle." Merchant ships were to wear the same flag as the ships of war except that in the canton corner was to be placed the device of their province or town. ”

“ Shall your red stripes, O flag! a worthy token of our fathers' blood, which has mingled with the white in all American conflicts, now be used as a signal of welcome and protection to non-Americans, anarchists, and socialists, while the sons of American slaves, soldiers, and citizens are left standing without protection and rightful recognition, reaching forth the brawny hands for labor in vain? O may the goddess of liberty hear us to-day, and may the true American pulse be found forcing life, liberty, and protection through every artery of American sentiment! ”

“ Dear little flag in the window there, Hung with a tear and a woman's prayer, Child of Old Glory, born with a star— Oh, what a wonderful flag you are! Blue is your star in its field of white, Dipped in the red that was born of fight; Born of the blood that our forebears shed To raise your mother, The Flag, o'er-head. And now you've come, in this frenzied day, To speak from a window—to speak and say: "I am the voice of a soldier son, Gone, to be gone till the victory's won. ”

“ As these are the principal ideas presented in the arms of the United States, may we not reasonably conclude that, being borrowed from the flag, they are the views that prevailed at the time of its adoption, presented under another guise? The reference to eternity, in the arms, was indicated by the circle of stars in the flag; the reference to Providence, in the eye, was in the flag presented in the field of thirteen stripes, a combination of the red and white flags, which bore the mottoes: "Qui transtulit sustinet," and an "Appeal to Heaven." ”

“ The oriflamme, which was the particular flag of the Abbey of St. Denis, and was red, became to a certain extent the national flag, when St. Denis came under the protection of the kings of France, the kings still preserving their blue flag studded with golden fleurs de lis. The white flag (which was also the banner of Joan of Arc) has in all countries, and through all times, been the sign of authority. And when Louis XIV. destroyed the functions of the colonels-general of the different corps that bore the white standard, the color became the emblem of Royal authority. ”

“ It is a fact which I deem to be worth noting here, that amongst all Indian tribes, that I have yet visited, in their primitive, as well as improved state, the white flag is used as a flag of truce, as it is in the civilized parts of the world, and held to be sacred and inviolable. The chief going to war always carries it in some form or other, generally of a piece of white skin or bark, rolled on a small stick, and carried under his dress, or otherwise ”

“ Did the pine-tree flag a victory gain;
But at last the hearts of the Britons quailed,
And grandly the patriot arm prevailed.
One of the youths, the deed to crown,
Grasped the colors and pulled them down;
And raised, 'mid cries of wild delight,
The pine-tree flag of blue and white.
And the truth was shown, for the world to read,
That men may follow and boys may lead.
Will Carleton. ”

“ Wade replied. "But next day the nine of them walked down here, arm in arm, Humphreys with Melrose, Rhett with Tupper, Janney with Bowe, and Captain Spence and Parks and Uncle Wade, with seven or eight more veterans. Colonel Melrose stuck that flag on Colonel Spence's grave, himself."
René looked at the flag as if he had never seen it before.
"I perceive the point," he said. "Your experiment is entirely successful. I agree with you. I have seen nothing in America as wonderful as that little faded flag. I understand what it is of which you especially boast. ”

“ They've all that and we have n't; we can't compete with them in any of those things. Let them brag of their cathedrals, and art-galleries, and court-balls, and all the rest of it. They are wonderful. But that flag stands for the most wonderful thing in all the world, for the finest thing the world has ever produced yet. Not for talk about brotherhood, but for the real thing. That 's my view, you understand."
"I comprehend indeed," René repeated. "And how long will that flag stay there?" ”

“ Moreover, a white flag—which is sometimes merely a handkerchief tied to a rifle—may, in a comparatively undisciplined force like that of our opponents, be easily raised by a combatant on one side of a kopje, without being ordered or being noticed by his officer or the bulk of his comrades. ”

“ It is well to be charitable in all these white flag incidents, since it is always possible {181} on either side that unauthorised men may hoist it and the officer in command very properly refuse to recognise it ”

“ The British flag, always a pleasant feature in a foreign land, as it tells so much of home and safety, was flying above the Garrison,—an extensive range of edifices, at the southern horn of the bay; while the northern is occupied by a battery, the guns of which, peered over a ridge of low coral reefs, whereon the sea was breaking in white foam that sparkled in the light of the setting sun. ”

“ In our flag today the thirteen stripes symbolize the thirteen original States, and the blue field bears forty-eight stars, one for each State in the Union. The five-pointed star is used, it is said, at Betsey Ross's suggestion. This five-pointed star is the seal of King Solomon, and the sign of infinity. Even the colors of the flag mean something: red stands for valor, blue for justice, and white for purity. The whole flag stands for freedom, liberty, and justice. ”

“ And a flag combining the crosses of St. George and St. Andrew united (the distinctive emblem of the United Kingdom of Great Britain) , with a field composed of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, the combination of the flags previously used in the camp, on the cruisers, and the floating batteries of the colonies, was adopted for this purpose, and called The Great Union Flag. ”

“ That flag which almost a century before had risen from the clouds of war, like a star gleaming out through the darkness of a stormy night, with its design accredited to both Washington and John Adams, was raised over Virginia by Massachusetts, in place of the one whose kinship and likeness to the old banner had never been entirely destroyed.
In March, 1861, the Confederate Congress adopted the Stars and Bars—three horizontal bars of equal width, the middle one white, the others red, with a blue union of nine stars in a circle. This was so like the National Flag as [Pg 167] to cause confusion. ”

“ For some time after the Revolution the white field was retained. When the three colours came to be used there appears to have been at first no fixed order in arranging them, and in some cases they were placed vertically, and in others horizontally. By a decree in 1790 it was ordained that in the navy the flag on the bowsprit—the jack—should be composed of three equal bands placed vertically, that next the staff being red, the middle white, and the third blue. ”

“ The first real military flags of which we have definite records were those used in the Civil Wars. The cavalry possessed standards revealing all manner of decorative symbols with mottoes telling of their leader’s faith in God, their hatred for the enemy, and the trust which they placed in Providence. The infantry forces bore colours devised with more regularity of purpose. Each colonel flew a plain white, red or other coloured flag; lieutenant-colonels were known by a flag bearing a small 7St. George’s Cross in the upper left-hand canton ”

“ A worn black flag fluttered from a pole on the very top of the church.
“Madame, what is the black flag on your cathedral?” I asked, sipping black coffee.
“It was once white, that flag, monsieur.”
“But, madame! it is coal black.”
“Monsieur, it is the flag which we of Diest hoisted when the Germans came. Aerschot, Louvain, Schaffen—they were destroyed by the Germans. Diest,” she shrugged her shoulders, [137] “Diest is as you see it.”
Across the Grand’ Place, behind the gates of a porte cochère belonging to a rival inn, I found my chauffeur, Alexis, busy with the broken motor. ”

“ If we commence at the top with a white one, we shall have seven white and six red, whereas if we begin with a red stripe we shall get seven red and six white. Each of these renderings was for some years in use, until it was authoritatively laid down that the latter was the arrangement to be adopted. It seems a minor point, but any of our readers who will re-draw Fig. 146 and transpose the colours of the stripes, so that the upper and lower edges of the flag are white instead of red, will be surprised to note how so apparently trivial a change will affect the appearance of the flag. ”

“ The flag of our stately battles, not struggles of wrath and greed,
Its stripes were a holy lesson, its spangles a deathless creed:
'Twas red with the blood of freemen, and white with the fear of the foe;
And the stars that fight in their courses 'gaints tyrants its symbols know. ”

“ A weft of the ensign or jack, a pendant, and the three flags—red, blue, and white—already in existence as flags of command.
The signal to "Engage the enemy," doubtless that used by Monk in fighting Tromp, and by Blake in his last glorious action of Santa Cruz, was made "by shooting-off two guns and putting a red flag over the fore topmast-head."
This Commonwealth code was further expanded in 1665, under the guidance of the Duke of York, afterwards King James II. In a supplementary order of the same year, a red and white striped flag first appears as the signal to chase. ”