The Middletown Insider: don't tread on me

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Don't Tread on Me - The Gadsden Flag

Benjamin Franklin sketched... and published the first known political cartoon in an American newspaper. It is the first image in the video below. The rattlesnake image continued to be used in various forms on flags and banners in the early days of the Republic. One such banner is the Gadsden Flag with the rattlesnake and the "Don't Tread on Me" admonition. Read the history of the Gadsden Flag here.

The song, "The Gadsden Flag" was composed by Michael O'Donoghue of the early National Lampoon and Saturday Night Live years. I have never been able to discover who sings this song although I once communicated with a woman who said she was the producer. However she would not reveal the artist's name.

The Gadsden Flag

In some old dusty attic
Undisturbed for many years
There lies a tattered banner
That is stained with blood and tears
By men who knew that freedom
Must be fought for by the free
And died to save a ragged flag
That said Don't Tread on Me

Don't Tread on Me
I'm a rattlesnake with
Diamonds down my back
When other men retreat
That's just the time that I attack
Because a dream that's worth defending
Is a dream that's bound to be
A ragged flag that said
Don't Tread on Me

Two hundred years of glory
And the glory's just begun
We may have lost some battles
But these colors never run
We drew the line at Valley Forge
We held at Bunker Hill
The cannon smoke is lifting
I can see that banner still

Don't Tread on me
I'm a mountain lion
And courage is my name
I tamed a wild country
But I'm wild just the same
And from that rocky Boston harbor
To the California Sea
A ragged flag that said
Don't Tread on Me

This nation isn't what we've done
It's what we've got to do
Remember that United States
Can only start with you
We better be recalling
What this country's all about
And rally round that ragged flag
And hear the people shout
Don't Tread on Me

Middletown Insider