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Lockean Influence
[[File:An Appeal to Heaven Flag.svg|thumb|250px|right|The Pine Tree Flag]]
[[File:An Appeal to Heaven Flag.svg|thumb|250px|right|The Pine Tree Flag]]
The '''Pine Tree Flag''', also known as the flag of ''Washington's Cruisers'', bears the inscription on it of '''An Appeal to Heaven''' on a white background, along with a representation of the [[Liberty Tree]] in the center.
The '''Pine Tree Flag''', also known as the flag of ''Washington's Cruisers'', bears the inscription on it of '''An Appeal to Heaven''' on a white background, along with a representation of the [[Liberty Tree]] in the center. The flag bears a strong association with the ideals of [[Natural Law]].
==Background==
==Background==
The design of the Pine Tree Naval Flag was suggested to General Washington by Colonel Joseph Reed. According to some early portraits published in London around the time of the [[American Revolution]], this flag had the words <ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GMMTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA28 Our Flag: Its History and what it Stands for]</ref>
The design of the Pine Tree Naval Flag was suggested to General Washington by Colonel Joseph Reed. According to some early portraits published in London around the time of the [[American Revolution]], this flag had the words <ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=GMMTAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA28 Our Flag: Its History and what it Stands for]</ref>
===Lockean Influence===
{{main|Two Treatises of Government|Natural Law}}
The inspiration and influence of [[John Locke]] and God as the Supreme authority in everybody's lives, and that God is greater than Government is acknowledged. When governments become abusive of the people, the people have one last resort and that is to appeal to the Almighty to resolve their grievances.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=2UZ1AAAAMAAJ&dq=%22appeal+to+heaven%22+john+locke+flag&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22appeal+to+heaven%22+flag The Lockean Moment: The Language of Rights on the Eve of the American Revolution: An Inaugural Lecture Delivered Before the University of Oxford on 15 May 2001]</ref> Locke wrote:
<blockquote>Where an appeal to the law, and constituted judges, lies open, but the remedy is denied by a manifest perverting of justice, and a barefaced wresting of the laws to protect or indemnify the violence or injuries of some men, or party of men, there it is hard to imagine any thing but a state of war: for wherever violence is used, and injury done, though by hands appointed to administer justice, it is still violence and injury, however coloured with the name, pretences, or forms of law, the end whereof being to protect and redress the innocent, by an unbiased application of it, to all who are under it; wherever that is not bona fide done, war is made upon the sufferers, who having no appeal on earth to right them, they are left to the only remedy in such cases, an appeal to heaven.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Where there is no judge on earth the appeal lies to God in Heaven. That question then cannot mean who shall judge, whether another hath put himself in a state of war with me, and whether I may, as Jephtha did, appeal to Heaven in it? Of that I myself can only judge in my own conscience, as I will answer it at the great day to the Supreme Judge of all men.</blockquote>
This concept of "appealing to heaven" was especially true at the time of the [[American Revolution]], where the colonists believed that [[King George III]] had failed them and only God would protect them from the King's wrath. Throughout the writings of the [[Founding Fathers]], phrases that indicate protection from divine Providence are common, and even appear in the [[Declaration of Independence]] itself.<ref>"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."</ref>
==See Also==
==See Also==
* [[American historical flags]]
* [[American historical flags]]
* [[Washington Elm]]
* [[Washington Elm]]
* [[Natural Law]]
* [[John Locke]]
==References==
==References==