DON'T TREAD ON ME T-Shirt

The coiled rattle snack as a symbol for the American Spirit can be traced back to Benjamin Franklin who used the image to promote the idea that America's growing weariness of British rule and unbridled determination to stand tall, never giving up. In 1775, Franklin penned the following: "I recollected that her eye excelled in brightness, that of any other animal, and that she has no eye-lids—She may therefore be esteemed an emblem of vigilance.—She never begins an attack, nor, when once engaged, ever surrenders: She is therefore an emblem of magnanimity and true courage.—As if anxious to prevent all pretensions of quarreling with her, the weapons with which nature has furnished her, she conceals in the roof of her mouth, so that, to those who are unacquainted with her, she appears to be a most defenseless animal; and even when those weapons are shewn and extended for her defense, they appear weak and contemptible; but their wounds however small, are decisive and fatal:—Conscious of this, she never wounds till she has generously given notice, even to her enemy, and ed him against the danger of treading on her.—Was I wrong, Sir, in thinking this a strong picture of the temper and conduct of America?" Since roughly that time, the Gadsden Flag was used by our Navy (and later our Marines). Accompanied by the words "DON'T TREAD OF ME" the flag embodies the spirit of America's struggle for revolution then as much as it does the new struggle for liberty and the TEA Party movement today.