Endicott and the Red Cross

As printed in Samuel Adams Drake (1884)

Told by unattributed — the collector names no informant · collected by Samuel Adams Drake · 1884 · Boston and eastern Massachusetts

CUTTINa OUT THE CROSS. aroused the spirit of resistance in full vigor. The work of erect- ing fortifications was hastened. A solemn consultation between the magistrates and the ministers resulted in the determination to defend themselves against these innovations by force if there was a prospect of success, or by tem- porizing if there were none. Only in the fourth year of its existence, the Colony now stood on the verge of open rebellion ; and while thus in daily apprehension of the total subversion of the govern- ment, an act coming very little sliort of treasonable was per- formed. At the J^ovember court com- plaint was made by Richard Brown, of Watertown, that the Colony flag had been defaced at Salem by cutting out part of the red cross. No action was taken at this court, but at the next, Endicott, the old governor, was called upon to answer for the defacement. The cause that he alleged for the act was that the cross was the hated emblem and banner of Popery. Opinion being divided, some upholding and others censuring, the cause was again postponed ; and in the meantime the newly created military commission ordered all the ensigns to be laid aside, so that the Colony was now without any flag at all. At the next court, which Avas one of election, John Haynes was cliosen governor and Richard Bellingham deputy-governor. Endicott was left this time out of the number of assistants ; and lieing again called upon to defend his mutilating the ensign, was reprimanded, and disqualified from holding office for a year. Letters disavowing the act were written to England. To allay the excitement growing out of this affair, it was seriously proposed to substitute the red and white rose for the cross I'fEW-ENGLAND LEGENDS. ill the colors. The military commission afterward, in the exercise of its powers, left out the cross in the colors borne by the Colony troops, and caused a flag having the King's arras to be raised over the castle in Boston Har- bor. This leads us to ob- serve that the fathers of the Colony were making rapid strides towards independence. They had first refused to tolerate the only form of re- ligious "worship recognized by the laws of their country, had disobeyed a royal man- date, and had at length exer- cised the sovereignty of an independent State by adopt- ing a flag of their own. With this preamble we can take up understandiiigly HaAvthorne's tale, and from this point it is he who speaks : — " Such was the aspect of the times when the folds of an English banner, with the red cross in its field, were flung out over a com- pany of Puritans. Their leader, the famous Endicott, was a man of stern and resolute countenance, the eftect of which was height- ened by a grizzled beard that swept the upper portion of his breast- plate. ..." Having concluded a fiery harangue to his soldiers, in which he acquaints them with the dangers menacing the unrestrained liberty of conscience they have hitherto enjoyed, — " Endicott gazed round at the excited countenances of the people, now full of his own spirit, and then turned suddenly to the standard- bearer, who stood close behind him. " ' Officer, lower your banner ! ' said he. SOLDIER OF 1630. " The officer obeyed ; and brandishing his sword, Endicott thrnst it through the cloth, and with his left hand rent the red cross com- pletely out of the banner. He then waved the tattered ensign above his head. '•' ' Sacrilegious wretch ! ' cried the High Churchman in the pillory, unable longer to restrain himself, ' thou hast rejected the symbol of our holy religion ! ' " ' Treason, treason ! ' roared the royalist in the stocks. ' He hath defaced the King's banner ! ' " ' Before God and man I will avouch the deed,' answered Endi- cott. ' Beat a flourish, drummer ! — shout, soldiers and people ! — in honor of the ensign of New England. Neither Pope nor Tyrant hath part in it now ! ' « With a cry of triumph, the people gave their sanction to one of the boldest exploits which our history records. And forever honored be the name of Endicott ! We look back through the mist of ages, and recognize, in the rending of the red cross from New England's banner, the first omen of that deliverance which our fathers consum- mated, after the bones of the stern Puritan had lain more than a century in the dust." In the King's " Missive," Whittier cominem orates briefly the same incident of history.

Samuel Adams Drake, A Book of New England Legends and Folk Lore in Prose and Poetry (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1884)