“As a national emblem, it is significant of our higher cause, the cause of a superior race, and a higher civilization contending against ignorance, infidelity, and barbarism. Another merit in the new flag is, that it bears no resemblance to the now infamous banner of the Yankee vandals.”

—  William Tappan Thompson

Savannah Morning News (4 May 1863); As quoted in History of the Flag of the United States of America (1882), by George Henry Preble, p. 528

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "As a national emblem, it is significant of our higher cause, the cause of a superior race, and a higher civilization co…" by William Tappan Thompson?
William Tappan Thompson photo
William Tappan Thompson 3
American humorist 1812–1882

Related quotes

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo

“The North is fighting for no sentimental cause—for no victory of a 'higher civilization.'”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

It is fighting for a very ancient and vulgar object of war—for that which Russia has secured in Poland—that which Austria clings to in Venetia—that which Napoleon sought in Spain. It is a struggle for empire, conducted with a recklessness of human life which may have been paralleled in practice, but has never been avowed with equal cynicism. If any shame is left in the Americans, the first revision they will make in their constitution will be to repudiate formally the now exploded doctrine laid down in the Declaration of Independence, that 'Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed'.
Source: 'The United States as an Example', Quarterly Review, 117, 1865, pp. 252-253

William Tappan Thompson photo

“Such a flag would be a suitable emblem of our young confederacy, and sustained by the brave hearts and strong arms of the south, it would soon take rank among the proudest ensigns of the nations, and be hailed by the civilized world as THE WHITE MAN'S FLAG.”

William Tappan Thompson (1812–1882) American humorist

Savannah Morning News (28 April 1863); As quoted in Our Flag: Origin and Progress of the Flag of the United States of America https://books.google.com/books?id=vuRCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA417 (1872), by George Henry Preble, Albany: Joel Munsell, pp. 417–418

Humayun photo

“He holds aloft the banner of Islam and knocks down the infamous idols. He does away with people of infidelity and hostility”

Humayun (1508–1556) second Mughal Emperor

of Islam
Khwand Amir: Qanun-i Humayuni, M. Hidayat Hosain ed., Calcutta 1940. Cited in Harsh Narain, The Ayodhya Temple Mosque Dispute: Focus on Muslim Sources, p. 66-67

Theodore Roosevelt photo

“We must ever bear in mind that the great end in view is righteousness, justice as between man and man, nation and nation, the chance to lead our lives on a somewhat higher level, with a broader spirit of brotherly goodwill one for another.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

1910s, Nobel lecture (1910)
Context: We must ever bear in mind that the great end in view is righteousness, justice as between man and man, nation and nation, the chance to lead our lives on a somewhat higher level, with a broader spirit of brotherly goodwill one for another. Peace is generally good in itself, but it is never the highest good unless it comes as the handmaid of righteousness; and it becomes a very evil thing if it serves merely as a mask for cowardice and sloth, or as an instrument to further the ends of despotism or anarchy. We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. No nation deserves to exist if it permits itself to lose the stern and virile virtues; and this without regard to whether the loss is due to the growth of a heartless and all-absorbing commercialism, to prolonged indulgence in luxury and soft, effortless ease, or to the deification of a warped and twisted sentimentality.

Mary Harris Jones photo

“The old condition is passing away. The new dawn of another civilized nation is breaking into the lives of the human race.”

Mary Harris Jones (1837–1930) Irish-born American labor and community organizer

Source: Speech in Williamson, WV. (20 June 1920)

Bob Dylan photo

“The pump don't work
'Cause the vandals took the handles”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), Subterranean Homesick Blues

Lucian photo

“Ignorance is a dreadful thing and has caused no end of damage to the human race.”

Lucian (120) ancient Greek writer

Cited in Tim Flannery, Atmosphere of Hope. Solutions to the Climate Crisis, Penguin Books, 2015, page 81 ISBN 9780141981048.
Other

William Tappan Thompson photo

“As a people, we are fighting to maintain the Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race; a white flag would thus be emblematical of our cause.”

William Tappan Thompson (1812–1882) American humorist

Savannah Morning News (23 April 1863), As quoted in Our Flag: Origin and Progress of the Flag of the United States of America (1872), by George Henry Preble, Albany: Joel Munsell, pp. 416–417

Arundhati Roy photo

“Nationalism of one kind or another was the cause of most of the genocide of the twentieth century. Flags are bits of colored cloth that governments use first to shrink-wrap people's brains and then as ceremonial shrouds to bury the dead.”

Arundhati Roy (1961) Indian novelist, essayist

From a speech entitled Come September http://ada.evergreen.edu/~arunc/texts/politics/comeSeptember.pdf, given at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, Santa Fe, NM, 29 Sep 2002.
Speeches
Source: War Talk

Michael Franti photo

“I've never really been into flags of any kind, cause flags can bring people together, but they always bring people together against other people,”

Michael Franti (1966) American rapper

Interview, live at Coachella http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YMwcXBePqE
Context: I've never really been into flags of any kind, cause flags can bring people together, but they always bring people together against other people, and I don't really consider myself to be a patriot in the sense that I say, 'okay, this is my nation,' I consider myself to be a child of this whole planet.

Related topics