When union among the colonies was urged, in 1774-6, as a mode of securing their liberties, this device, a disjointed snake, divided into _thirteen_ parts, with the initials of a colony on each division, and the motto, "Join, or die," was adopted as the head-piece of many of the newspapers. When the union of the colonies took place, this was changed, for the head-pieces of the newspapers, into the device adopted on the standard, viz.: a rattlesnake in the attitude of going to strike, and into an _united_ snake. (Under both forms of this device, was the motto, "Don't tread on me.") The seal of the War Department is the only public instrument in use, exhibiting evidence of the rattlesnake's having played an important part as a device in the American Revolution. The old seal of 1778, and the more modern seal now in use, both bear the rattlesnake (with its rattles as the emblem of union), and a _liberty cap_ in contiguity with it; the _liberty cap_ enveloped by the body, so that the opened mouth may defend the _rattles_, and liberty cap, or _union_ and liberty, with the motto, "This we'll defend." (See Fig. 4, Plate II.) The following account of this device, supposed to be from the pen of Benjamin Franklin, indicates fully why it was adopted, and will be found in the _American Archives_, vol. iv. p. 468. "PHILADELPHIA, December 27, 1775. "I observe on one of the drums belonging to the marines now raising, there was painted a rattlesnake, with this 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 suppose this may have been intended for the arms of America; and, as I have nothing to do with public affairs, and as my time is perfectly my own, in order to divert an idle hour, I sat down to guess what could have been intended by this uncommon device. I took care, however, to consult, on this occasion, a person who is acquainted with heraldry, from whom I learned that it is a rule, among the learned in that science, 'that the worthy properties of the animal, in the crest-born, shall be considered;' he likewise informed me that the ancients considered the serpent as an emblem of wisdom; and, in a certain attitude, of endless duration--both which circumstances, I suppose, may have been had in view. Having gained this intelligence, and recollecting that countries 'are sometimes represented by animals peculiar to them,' it occurred to me that the rattlesnake is found in no other quarter of the world beside America, and may, therefore, have been chosen on that account to represent her.