Don't Tread on Me

On 9/12, hundreds of thousands of Americans (maybe more) joined together in Washington D.C. to protest the destructive nature of our national government. Many protestors dawned the slogan "Don't tread on me."  Enclosed below is a condensed history of those tried and true words.

Benjamin Franklin first attributed the American people with the rattlesnake when he penned a satirical commentary suggesting as a way to thank the Britian for their policy of sending convicted felons to America, the colonists should send rattlesnakes to England.

Later, Franklin sketched, carved, and published the first known political cartoon in an American newspaper. It was a snake cut into eight sections.  Each section representing a colony or a grouping of colonies along the American coastline.  Beneath the snake were the ominous words "Join, or Die."  The purpose for the cartoon was  to illustrate the need for the colonies to unite for the common defense during the French and Indian War. 

Before to the battle of Bunker Hill, Congress commissioned the Navy and a detachment of Marines to commendere a British ship carrying weapons and amunision.  As the Marines marched off Franklin noticed the Marines carrying drums, each yellow and a picture of a timber rattler on it.  From the scene Franklin wrote the following observations:

1. 
   
   "I observed on one of the drums belonging to the marines now raising, there was painted a Rattle-Snake, with this modest motto under it, 'Don't tread on me.' As I know it is the custom to have some device on the arms of every country, I supposed this may have been intended for the arms of America."
   
   
   
2. 
   
   "The Rattle-snake is found in no other quarter of the world besides America."
   
   
   
3. 
   
   The rattlesnake also has sharp eyes, and "may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance."
   
   
   
4. 
   
   "She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage. ... she never wounds 'till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and cautioned him against the danger of treading on her."
   
   
   
5. 
   
   "I confess I was wholly at a loss what to make of the rattles, 'till I went back and counted them and found them just thirteen, exactly the number of the Colonies united in America; and I recollected too that this was the only part of the Snake which increased in numbers."
   
   
   
6. 
   
   "'Tis curious and amazing to observe how distinct and independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and yet how firmly they are united together, so as never to be separated but by breaking them to pieces. One of those rattles singly, is incapable of producing sound, but the ringing of thirteen together, is sufficient to alarm the boldest man living."