"DON'T TREAD ON ME"

" I observed on one of the drums belonging to the marines now raising, there was 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 suspposed this may have been intended for the arms od America.

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 thhe Colonies united in America; and  irecollected too that this  was the  onlt part of the   Snake wich increased in numbers ... this curios amazing yo  abserve how distinct and  independent of each other the rattles of this animal are, and  yet  how firmly the are united togetherm so  as  never to  be separated but by breaking them to pieces.She never begings 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.

One  of those  rattles singly, is incapable of  producing sound, but  the ringing of thirteen together, is sufficient  to  alarm the boldest man living. " 
 (In December 1775, "An American Guesser" anonymously wrote to the Pennsylvania Journal)