An Appeal to Heaven
Pine Tree Flag, 1775
$35
Premium 100 percent combed ring-spun cotton, preshrunk
An engraved lone white pine over AN APPEAL TO HEAVEN and Pine Tree Flag, Washington's Cruisers, 1775, on the back. The Patriarch Outfitters mark sits upper left chest, and the right sleeve carries the US flag over FEAR GOD ALONE and STAND AND FIGHT. Printed to order on a premium tee of preshrunk 100 percent combed ring-spun cotton in a fitted cut, with a Patriarch Outfitters label inside the neck that lists the size, country of origin, and material.
Larger sizes cost a little more to make.
Made to order and ready in 2 to 5 business days, then 3 to 7 in transit. Flat-rate US shipping of $6 per order is added at checkout.
Details
- Fabric
- Premium 100 percent combed ring-spun cotton, preshrunk
- Fit
- Fitted cut
- Construction
- Side-seamed
- Shrinkage
- Preshrunk fabric that can still shrink slightly
- Printed to order in one ink
- Sleeve
- Right sleeve print
- Label
- Patriarch label inside the neck with the size, country of origin, and material
- Care
- Wash cold inside out, tumble dry low or hang dry, do not iron the print. Hot water can shrink the fabric.
- Placement
- Back, Front, Neckline detail and Sleeve
Front and back
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Front -
Back
The story
In the fall of 1775 George Washington, besieging Boston, armed a few schooners to take British supply ships off the Massachusetts coast. On October 20 his secretary, Joseph Reed, wrote to the officers fitting them out: "What do you think of a flag with a white ground, a tree in the middle, the motto 'Appeal to Heaven'?" Washington's cruisers flew the pine tree flag that year, and in April 1776 Massachusetts made a white flag with a green pine tree and the inscription Appeal to Heaven the colors of its own sea service.
Where the motto comes from
The words are John Locke's, from the Second Treatise of Government, published in 1689. In section 168 he writes that when a ruler abuses his power, the people "have no other remedy in this, as in all other cases where they have no judge on earth, but to appeal to heaven." In section 176 he says a people wronged without remedy may appeal to heaven and repeat the appeal until they recover their rights. His example is Jephthah, who said in Judges 11:27, "the LORD the Judge be judge this day."
An appeal to heaven is a lawful cause laid before God as judge. The Westminster Confession and the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 both teach that the civil magistrate may wage war upon just and necessary occasions. The pine on the back is a modern engraving, not a copy of the 1775 flag, and the shirt shows no image of God.
