Democratic Sentinel, Volume 12, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1888 — THE STARS AND STRIPES. [ARTICLE]

THE STARS AND STRIPES.

The Story of Their Origin as Told by Sunset Cox in His New Book, There is one romance connecting America with the Orient and religion with patriotism Which should be recorded. It involves the “Star'Spangled Banner. ” I warn my readers that with this sedate subject of religion I am about to associate a patriotic incident. The Washington family has been traced back to the time of the Norman conquest and to the north of Humber. The princely see of Durham had a prelate who was a feudatory of the conqueror. He was a war-rior-priest and had many feudatories under him. Among the rest was the knightly William de Hertburn, who, in exchanging his village of Hertburn for the manor of Wessynton, gave not only the first recorded link in the family, but the immortal name of Washington—“farther west." The Ottoman dynasty had risen to a formidable power, and Richard the Lion-Hearted had pawned his patrimony for a crusade, and had been imprisoned on the shores of the Bosphorus ; the story of the Plantagenets •had been played before the world; stately and warlike scenes in the West and East had come and gone, and the name of De Wessynton, after illustrating many heroic qualities, had died out ifrom the chivalric rolls of Durham, but it was preserved in the cloister by ■a doughty abbot. The stock was divided into various branches. It was 'scattered over England. About the same time the great-grandson of the conqueror of Constantinople—Suleiman the Magnificent—had raised his realm to its acme of fame, one of the Washingtons, Laurence, was practicing law at Gray’s Inn. When the Sultan Ibrahim was trying to foil the intrigues of the eunuchs, Col. Henry Washington was defending the city of Worcester for King Charles against Cromwell. Happily for America, England became uncomfortable for the cavaliers who had fought for the Stuarts, and the brothers John and Andrew Washingtom emigrated to loyal old Virginia. John settled near the Potomac. His grandson Augustine was born there. There he lived, married, and died. Of his sons George was the eldest. But, as the genealogy shows, although he was out of the direct line, he had inherited the stamina of the stock. What of all this now and here ? There is another George Washington living at Constantinople. He is the Chaplain of the British Legation, and by no means mute, if not as glorious as his American namesake. He is in the direct line from the De Wessyntons of the conquest. In ibis keeping is the crest of the family. What is the romance to which I have Adverted? Nothing less than the incomparable growth of a great Western nation, directed, moderated, energized, and inspired by a descendant of the martial and priestly family whose stock is noted in the stalwart folk of Northumberland, and whose branches are as widely apart as the Bosphorus and the Potomac. Rev. George WashIngton is an accomplished gentleman ■and scholar. He is quite friendly to Americans, as, of course, he should be. I can not refrain from inserting here a little note which he sent to my wife. It contained his own card, and, doubtless, the arms on that card, as has been often surmised, if not proven, gave the first idea of the American “Star-Span-gled Banner:” Pera, Jan. 19, 1885. Dear Mrs. Cox: It might interest Mi - . Cox to see these quarterings of which I was speaking to you the other evening. You see the “stars and stripes” are them I have always heard that the story I mentioned to you was correct, viz.: That casting about for a flag when independence had been declared, the Americans thought that they conld not.do better than take their General’s family quarterings as a foundation. Hence the “stars and stripes.” With kind regards, believe me yours very truly, George Washington. The quarterings referred to are a shield with three stars at the top and stripes below running across the shield. Above the shield are the head and wings of an eagle, rising from a crown, and below it is the motto, “In cruce glorior.” Below all is the name, George Washington.