A Monumental Example
Standing high above the trees in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, is a monument many Americans are not aware of even though it is the third tallest statue in the U.S. at 81 feet. In Kirk Cameron’s documentary, “Monumental: In Search of America’s National Treasure,” he highlights this impressive monument, primarily designed by Hammatt Billings, a Boston architect. Completed in October 1888, The National Monument to the Forefathers is made mostly of solid granite, bedecked with marble, and represents many of the virtues that the Mayflower Pilgrims held paramount.
The focal point of the monument is a tall figure in the center seemingly holding everything together. Her name is Faith; her right hand points towards heaven as she clutches a bible by her side. Faith symbolizes that without faith in God, all other concepts fall apart. Beneath her, four other figures sit, not apt to move from their positions now that Faith has secured them. Their names are Morality, Law, Education and Liberty—principles upon which the Pilgrims built their government—each depicting two supporting qualities.
- Morality is based upon the Prophet, who told us of God’s character and the Evangelist, who speaks the Gospel so we know what God expects of us.
- Law represents the values our nation must maintain in order to succeed. Justice supports Law, indicating that the law should apply to all people equally. Mercy also holds up Law, telling of Christ’s grace for us and its place in our justice system.
- Education, who wears a crown of victory, is braced by the symbols of Youth and Wisdom. Youth shows a need for those to be educated early in life. Wisdom represents a dependence on the more experienced for the young to learn. All these concepts in conjunction lead to Liberty.
- Liberty leads to Peace, as fighting becomes unnecessary if all follow God’s commands, especially that which tells us to love one another.
The front panel hosts the following inscription: “National Monument to the Forefathers. Erected by a grateful people in remembrance of their labors, sacrifices and sufferings for the cause of civil and religious liberty.” The right and left panels contain the names of those who came over in the Mayflower. The rear panel contains a quote from Governor William Bradford’s famous history, Of Plymouth Plantation:
“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing and gives being to all things that are; and as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many, yea in some sort to our whole nation; let the glorious name of Jehovah have all praise.”
The principles and virtues depicted on this grand monument are those which allowed this country to grow and develop before corruption and malice became commonplace. It is a system that worked for our Forefathers, and one that would serve America well today.
Read MoreDon’t Tread on History
The Gadsdsen Flag is a piece of American history. Named for its designer, Christopher Gadsden, an American general and statesman, the flag features a coiled timber rattlesnake on a yellow field with the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.” The origin of the rattlesnake as a symbol of the colonies started with Benjamin Franklin’s famous political cartoon of a snake cut into eight sections with the motto “Join or Die,” the first known pictorial representation of colonial unification. The cartoon appeared in his publication, The Pennsylvania Gazette, in 1754, and referred to the necessity of the colonists to join together with the British against the opposition in the French and Indian War. 
As frustration grew with the British policies leading up to the revolutionary war, the snake took on a new meaning. For instance, Paul Revere placed a modified version of the symbol in the masthead of the Thomas’s Boston Journal newspaper on July 7, 1774. In this version, the snake, representing the American Colonies, is facing off against Britain in the form of a dragon. This was an attempt to inspire the colonists to unite together to resist Britain. It worked! Many colonists adorned uniform buttons with the serpent, specifically a timber rattler. Additionally, some colonial leaders had money printed with the emblem. 
The serpent’s popularity led Gadsden to design a flag bearing the emblem for the marines of the Continental forces. Commodore Esek Hopkins received the original flag from Gadsen to be used as the distinctive personal standard of his flagship, the USS Alfred, before his first mission, the Battle of Nassau. In this bloodless battle, Hopkins captured Fort Montague. Later, Gadsen presented a copy of the flag to the Congress of South Carolina in 1776. It is still used today as a sign of patriotism such as—on the US Army’s Drill Sergeant Identification Badge and in a new iteration as the “Snake and Stripes” flag that’s flown on Navy vessels as a symbol of anti-terrorism— to name a few examples.
Read MoreThe Great Society: Just the Beginning
When Lyndon B. Johnson became 36th president of the United States in 1963 following President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, he knew exactly what he wanted to do with the power granted him. His childhood hero, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who initiated The New Deal program in 1933, inspired Johnson to enact a series of programs deemed The Great Society, a domestic plan to improve life in America.
In 1964 he gathered teams of experts to study many of the problems the country was facing. Once reports were in from these task forces, Johnson had a second review put into place, and drew in experts who specialized in pushing laws through congress rapidly. This included reforms in civil rights, education, and other branches of domestic policy. However, due to this elitist approach to solving issues, many of the resolves had no contingencies to provide funding after being put into place.
Several of the policies that were in place at the beginning of America’s economic war still remain today, but continuous cut backs and failure to comply with and/or acknowledge Johnson’s policies has not allowed the program to work as the president envisioned. Karen Tumluty from The Washington Post writes, “Today, the laws enacted between 1964 and 1968 are woven into the fabric of American life, in ways big and small. They have knocked down racial barriers, provided health care for the elderly and food for the poor, sustained orchestras and museums in cities across the country, put seat belts and padded dashboards in every automobile, garnished Connecticut Avenue in Northwest Washington with red oaks.”
Signing the Civil Rights Act 1964
Advancing civil rights became Johnson’s greatest aim and ultimate effect, passing four laws forbidding discrimination based on race including expanding voting rights for minority groups. However, with ambitions as great as Johnson had for this nation, some were destined to fail. Johnson had good intensions, such as his War on Poverty, which was intended to educate the people thereby providing greater economic opportunity. Unfortunately, pride and greed of those living in poverty led to manipulation of the system for personal gain.
Ultimately, President Johnson’s “Great Society” encompassed many great ideas for the benefit of the American people. Like Roosevelt, Johnson sought positive change for the spirit and welfare of the people, but his great ambition and ideas were not enough. Due to the mixed outcome, the Great Society then and now is still a subject of controversy today. The Great Society was a learning experience that laid a foundation for social change in America.
Excerpts from Great Society speech given at the University of Michigan, 1964:
Read MoreFor a century we labored to settle and to subdue a continent. For half a century we called upon unbounded invention and untiring industry to create an order of plenty for all of our people.
The challenge of the next half century is whether we have the wisdom to use that wealth to enrich and elevate our national life, and to advance the quality of our American civilization.
. . . The Great Society rests on abundance and liberty for all. It demands an end to poverty and racial injustice, to which we are totally committed in our time. But that is just the beginning.
The Shifting Flag
Did you know that the design of the American Flag has been officially changed 26 times since the Flag Resolution in 1777? Prior to 1777, there were no official guidelines as to the design of the flag resulting in an unstandardized representation of the new country. Afterwards, since the Continental Congress had not specified how to arrange the stars when they wrote the Flag Resolution, many unique designs still cropped up. For example, the Flag Resolution did not state how the stars were to be arranged on the blue field, so there were flags with stars in rows, a circle, and even a diamond shape.
Ask any elementary student the name of the person credited with designing and making the first American flag and it’s a sure bet the response will be Betsy Ross. The popular legend, initiated by Ross’s grandson William Canby, that Ross sewed the first American Flag for General George Washington, spread rapidly preceding the 1876 centennial celebrations. However, this is disputed amongst historians, as Betsy Ross was only one of at least 17 flag makers in Philadelphia. A Ross biographer, Marla Miller, wrote that Ross’s contribution was to alter the design from a six-pointed star to a five-pointed one because they were easier for her to make.
However, the first designer for the national flag can be supported as Francis Hopkinson, American author and delegate, in 1777. Hopkinson arranged the stars in a 3-2-3-2-3 pattern in the canton, with thirteen red and white alternating stripes. He sent a letter to Congress, mainly in jest, requesting payment for his services. He asked only for “a Quarter Cask of the public Wine,” which was not granted.
In 1795, after the inclusion of two more states into the union, the number of stars and stripes each increased to fifteen. More new states joined the Union, but no alterations were made because many thought the flag would become cluttered. That changed in 1818 after U.S. Naval Captain Samuel C. Reid sketched three designs for a Congressional committee charged with determining future modifications to the flag. Reid suggested reducing the number of stripes from fifteen to thirteen to honor the original colonies, and placing twenty stars in the blue field representing the number of states at that time.
In 1959, as adoption of a fiftieth state was approaching, Congress received thousands of designs for the new flag, settling on seventeen-year-old Robert G. Heft’s school project. Heft, of Lancaster, Ohio, originally was given a B- for his flag, but his teacher told him that if Congress selected his design, Heft’s grade would be reconsidered. Congress chose his flag and Heft’s grade was changed to an A. That same flag has been the longest used design for our nation’s colors in its entire history.
It’s interesting to see how a part of our national identity has changed over the years. For a complete timeline of our nation’s flags, visit https://www.ushistory.org/betsy/flagfact.html. Remember to hang this historied symbol out on Flag Day!
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June 14 – A Day of Commemoration
Are you ready to display Old Glory this month? Check your calendar and you’ll see Flag Day noted on June 14. Our national flag’s birthday, tucked between Memorial Day and Independence Day, doesn’t seem to ignite much patriotism among Americans these days. Perhaps it’s because Flag Day is not a federal holiday or maybe Americans just don’t understand the historical significance.
During the American Revolutionary War, colonists fought under unit or regimental flags. Realizing a need for conformity, the Second Continental Congress took the responsibility of making the change. It was on June 14, 1777, while meeting in Philadelphia to draft the Articles of Confederation, that the Second Continental Congress proclaimed a specific design for the Union’s flag—the purpose being that each of the naval vessels of the United States Continental Army would be recognized collectively as representing the United States. Taken from the original proclamation: “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.”
Flying of the flag by individuals didn’t become popular until the Civil War in 1861. Numerous patriotic citizens and elected officials advocated June 14 for observance of the U.S. flag, but it was Bernard J. Cigrand who was dubbed the “Father of Flag Day.” In 1885, Cigrand, a 19-year-old teacher at Stony Hill School, Waubeka, Wisconsin, placed a 10 inch, 38- star flag in a bottle on his desk then assigned essays on the flag and its significance, leading students in the first formal observance of the flag. In June, 1886, he moved to Chicago and publicly proposed an annual observance of the United States flag in an article titled “The Fourteenth of June,” published in the Chicago Argus newspaper. In June 1888, Cigrand advocated the same in a speech before the “Sons of America,” an organization that founded American Standard Magazine. Cigrand was appointed editor-in-chief and used his position for promoting patriotism and the flag. He later became president of the American Flag Day Association and the National Flag Day Society.
Finally, in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation officially establishing a nationwide observance of Flag Day on June 14. On August 3, 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed legislation designating June 14 as National Flag Day. The week of June 14 is now designated as “National Flag Week” when the president issues a proclamation urging us to fly the American flag on our homes, businesses, and all government buildings. Some cities, towns, and organizations hold parades, carnivals, fireworks and other events. The National Flag Day Foundation holds an annual observance for Flag Day on the second Sunday in June at its Americanism Center in Waubeka, Wisconsin.
So get out the iconic Old Glory and hang it proudly. National Flag Day is a way to collectively tell the world that our national flag unites our 50 states—one Nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for all!
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