Flags

My mother used to give me t-shirts she had bought at various rummage sales. They come with various logos, some of sports teams, whiskey distillers, etc. It would be a mistake then for someone to assume I am a devotee of the sports team or the distillery whose logo I wear on my back; I simply can’t afford to turn down a free t-shirt.

One can sometimes place too much significance on symbols. But I do think there is a great deal of significance in the comparison of the Confederate flag, the U.S. flag, and the British flag. The British flag (called the Union flag or the Union Jack) is a combination of the crosses of the patron saints of England (St. George’s cross, red on a white field), Scotland (St. Andrew’s cross, white saltire on a blue field), and Ireland (St. Patrick’s cross, red saltire on a white field). So in Britain one can be in complete opposition to the current British government but remain a proud, flag-waving Briton because the flag still symbolizes ancient Christian Britain.

Now over to America. Our flag went through various arrangements: the stars were initially set in a circle, and then, by order of President Monroe, they were set in parallel lines. We adopted the colors of the Union Jack but not the crosses. Significant? Or is it of no more significance than my whisky distiller t-shirt? I think Alfred B. Street has described with insightful accuracy the significance of our flag:

The stars were disposed in a circle, symbolizing the perpetuity of the Union; the ring, like the circling serpent of the Egyptians, signifying eternity. The thirteen stripes showed with the stars the number of the United Colonies, and denoted the subordination of the States to the Union, as well as equality among themselves.

Yes, the new flag symbolized an alien, non-European idea that was to pollute North American and then the world.

The Confederate flag, or more accurately the flag of the Confederate Navy and the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia, is a modification of St. Andrew’s cross. That symbol is in keeping with the ethos of the South. Their war was a war of a non-revolutionary, Christian society against a non-Christian, revolutionary one.