Long may it wave,” His eulogy of the old flag, which the leading traitors now affected to despise, was so full of Union sentiment that it was regarded as almost treasonable, and Brooke was severely rebuked. William Porcher Miles, of South Carolina, the Chairman of the Committee, protested against the resolution and the utterances of the mover. He gloried more a thousand times in the Palmetto flag of his State. He had regarded, “from his youth, the Stars and Stripes as the emblem of oppression and tyranny.” This bold conspirator was so warmly applauded, that menaced Brooke, “at the suggestion of a friend,” withdrew his motion. W. W. Boyce, of South Carolina, who had been a member of the National Congress for seven years, presented a model for a flag, which he had received, with a letter, from a woman of his State (Mrs. C. Ladd, of Winnsboroa), who described it as “tri-colored, with a red union, seven stars, and the crescent moon.” She offered her three boys to her “country ;” and suggested “Washington Republic” as the name of the new nation.1 In presenting the flag and letter, Boyce indulged in the usual turgid oratory of his class, saying:--“I will take the liberty of reading her letter to the Congress. It is full of authentic fire. It is worthy of Rome in her best days, and might well have been read in the Roman Senate on that disastrous day when the victorious banner of the great Carthaginian was visible from Mont Aventine. And I may add, Sir, that as long as our women are impelled by these sublime sentiments, and our mountains yield the metals out of which weapons are forged, the lustrous stars of our unyielding Confederacy will never pale their glorious fires, though baffled oppression may threaten with its impotent sword, or, more dangerous still, seek to beguile with the siren song of conciliation.” Chilton, Toombs, Stephens, and others, also presented devices for flags.2 They were sent in almost daily from various parts of the Cotton-growing States, a great many of them showing attachment to the old banner, yet accompanied by the most fervid expressions of sympathy with the “Southern cause.” 3 The Committee finally made an elaborate report on the subject, in which they confessed that they did not share in the sentiment of attachment to the Stars and Stripes too often repeated in communications.
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
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could never be effaced.
“Sir,” he said, “let us preserve it as far as we can. Let us continue to hallow it in our memory, and still pray that-
1 Many members liked the suggestion, but the more radical men, like Rhett and Toombs, opposed it, probably because it might have such strong associations with the old Government as to cause a desire for “reconstruction.” So powerful became the feeling in the Convention in favor of the name of “Washington Republic,” that it was voted down by only one majority.
2 Two young women, Rebecca C. Ferguson and Mollie A. D. Sinclair, in the Art Department of the “Tuscogee Female College,” sent in seven designs. In their accompanying letter they said, that “amidst all their efforts at originality, there ever danced before them visions of the star-gemmed flag, with its parti-colored stripes, that floated so proudly over the late United States. . . . Let us snatch from the eagle of the cliff our idea of independence, and cull from the earth diamonds, and gems from the heavens, to deck the flag of the Southern Confederacy. With Cotton for King, there are seven States bound by a chain of sisterly love that will strengthen by time, as onward, right onward, they move up the glorious path of Southern independence.” In the seven devices offered, the principal members were an eagle, stars, and a cotton-bale. These devices were presented with highly commendatory words by Mr. Chilton, of Alabama.
3 These drawings are among the archives of the “Confederate Government,” at Washington City.
Scanned printed text.
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