Two state flags were slow in coming
On August 1, 1876, as the U.S. was marking the centenary of the Declaration of Independence, another U.S. – U.S. Grant, that is – was busy at his desk, putting the final touches on a document that would certify Colorado’s entry into the Union.
“I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States of America,” he wrote, “do, in accordance with the provisions of the act of Congress aforesaid, declare and proclaim the fact that the fundamental conditions imposed by Congress on the State of Colorado to entitle that State to admission to the Union have been ratified…and that the admission…is now complete.”
Fifty-five years earlier, President James Monroe had also accepted a newcomer to the United States when Missouri became the 24th star in the American flag – and the first state located entirely west of the Mississippi. He had previously opened the door to Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama and Maine.
The dual acceptance of Maine and Missouri fulfilled the Missouri Compromise, which permitted a free and a slave state to join, thus maintaining balance on a tense issue. But the Supreme Court invalidated the compromise and triggered the Civil War.
It took quite a while for Colorado, now 140 years old as a state, and Missouri, 195, to create their state flags. The latter was especially tardy, not adopting its banner until 1913. The design was the work of Mary Elizabeth Oliver, a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution.
According to the State Historical Society of Missouri, Oliver “wrote to the secretaries of state of every state,…seeking information about how other states had designed their flags and had them officially adopted. Once she had gathered enough information, Oliver designed a flag that she thought would represent Missouri.”
With red, white and blue horizontal stripes as background, she placed the state seal in the middle. While her flag was late in coming, the seal was not. It had been created in 1822 by Robert William Wells, a federal judge. According to the state, the seal “is composed of two parts. On the right is the United States coat-of-arms….On the left side…are a grizzly bear and a silver crescent moon.”
The state’s motto, “United we stand, divided we fall,” also appears on the seal. Two more grizzlies that stand on either side of the seal represent strength. A Latin inscription is translated as “Let the welfare of the people be the supreme law.”
Colorado’s state flag wasn’t chosen until 1911. Unlike Missouri’s banner, its design is very simple. It, too, has three horizontal stripes, but they are blue, white and blue. The left-center of the state flag consists only of a large red “C,” in the middle of which rests a golden disk.
The banner is also the handiwork of one person: Andrew Carlisle Carson. When he died in 1921, his casket was draped with – what else? – the Colorado state flag.