by Richard
McDonald
The people of the United States
actually have two national flags: one for our military government and
another for the civil. Each one has fifty stars in its canton and
thirteen red and white stripes, but there are several important
differences.
Although most Americans think of the Stars and Stripes (above
left) as their only flag, it is actually for military affairs only.
The other one, meant by its makers for wider use (peacetime), has
vertical stripes with blue stars on a white field (above right). You
can see this design, which bears civil jurisdiction, in the U.S. Coast
Guard and Customs flags, but their service insignias replace the fifty
stars.
I first learned of the separate, civil flag when I was reading
Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, published in 1850.
The introduction, titled "The Custom House," includes this
description:
From the loftiest point of its roof, during precisely
three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats or droops, in breeze
or calm, the banner of the republic; but with the thirteen stripes
turned vertically, instead of horizontally, and thus indicating that
a civil, and not a military post of Uncle Sam's government, is here
established.
It took me two years of digging before I found a picture
that matched what he was describing: my second clue was an original
Illuminated History of North America (1860). If this runs against
your beliefs, look up those two references.
History book publishers contribute to the public's miseducation
by always picturing the flag in military settings, creating the
impression that the one with horizontal stripes is the only one there
is. They don't actually lie; they just tell half the truth. For
example, the "first American flag" they show Betsy Ross sewing at
George Washington's request, was for the Revolution - of course it was
military.
The U.S. government hasn't flown the civil flag since the Civil
War, as that war is still going on. Peace has never been declared, nor
have hostilities against the people ended. The government is still
operating under quasi-military rule.
You movie buffs may recall this: In the old Westerns, "Old
Glory" has her stripes running sideways and a military yellow fringe.
Most of these films are historically accurate about that; their
stories usually took place in the territories still under military law
and not yet states. Before WWII, no U.S. flag, civil or military, flew
within the forty-eight states (except in federal settings); only state
flags did. Since then, the U.S. government seems to have decided the
supposedly sovereign states are its territories too, so it asserts its
military power over them under the "law of the flag."
Today the U.S. military flag appears alongside, or in place of,
the state flags in nearly all locations within the states. All of the
state courts and even the municipal ones now openly display it. This
should have raised serious questions from many citizens long ago, but
we've been educated to listen and believe what we are told, not to ask
questions, or think or search for the truth.
NOTES
1. hornswoggled: deceived. The term comes from
the traditional image of cuckolded husbands wearing horns.Editor
2. canton: The rectangular section in the upper corner of a
flag, next to the staff.
3. The Scarlet Letter: An Authoritative Text, edited by Sculley
Bradley, W. W. Norton, New York, 1978, pp. 7-8.
4. There is also a picture of the Coast Guard flag in Webster's
Third New International Dictionary of the English Language Unabridged,
G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass., 1966.
5. For more about the law of the flag, see "A Fiction-at-Law . . ," in
the printed version of Perceptions Magazine May/June1995, Issue
9, page 11.
About the author: Richard McDonald is a
California Citizen domiciled in The California state Republic. He does
legal research and has his own site on the web,
The Citizens
Forum File area. hornswog.htm
