The device of a rattlesnake was popular among the colonists, and its
origin as an American emblem is a curious feature in our national
history.
It has been stated, that its use grew out of a humorous suggestion
made by a writer in Franklin’s paper—the Pennsylvania Gazette—that, in
return for the wrongs which England was forcing upon the colonists,
a cargo of rattlesnakes should be sent to the mother country and
“distributed in St. James’ Park, Spring Garden and other places of
pleasure.”
Colonel Gadsden, one of the marine committee, presented to Congress, on
the 8th of February, 1776, “an elegant standard, such as is to be used
by the commander-in-chief of the American navy; being a yellow flag
with a representation of a rattlesnake coiled for attack.”