Resistance to Tyrants is Obedience to God was a favorite motto of American leaders of the colonial rebellion during the American Revolution. Jefferson even made it a personal motto, and formally suggested a version of it as the official motto of the Great Seal of the United States in the first committee he and Franklin partnered in to design a new seal. Congress wasn't impressed with the various designs they had artist Pierre Eugene du Simitiere draw up for them. But the mottos radical assertion has lived on to this day. 

We printed it on this heavyweight garment-dyed tee that is a favorite for those who love super soft, thick t-shirts. It features a version of the seal on back, with the Latin motto "Nullus dominus nisi Deus" in the eagle's mouth on a banner. (No master but God.)

On the front left breast, the Liberty Tree with the motto "An Appeal to Heaven." The phrase was popular amongst the colonists familiar with John Locke's Two Treatises of Government. Washington even commissioned it for the Continental Army's original six frigates on the Pine Tree Flag. The colonists were essentially turning the world upside down with their rebellion against the authority of the King, arguing, like in Locke's work, that individual natural rights supersede any of man's positive law. It read:

And where the body of the people, or any single man, is deprived of their right, or is under the exercise of a power without right, and have no appeal on earth, then they have a liberty to appeal to heaven, whenever they judge the cause of sufficient moment. And therefore, though the people cannot be judge, so as to have, by the constitution of that society, any superior power, to determine and give effective sentence in the case; yet they have, by a law antecedent and paramount to all positive laws of men, reserved that ultimate determination to themselves which belongs to all mankind, where there lies no appeal on earth, viz. to judge, whether they have just cause to make their appeal to heaven.

Locke was the most cited source for colonial leaders in the years leading up to the revolution and had been for generations. Today this motto is no less revolutionary. Man's duty to resist tyranny with dignified respect for all through liberty and justice is remains a challenge many struggle with 250 years later.

• 100% ring-spun cotton
• pre-shrunk during the garment dye process for almost no shrinkage at home
• Fabric weight: 6.1 oz/yd² (206.8 g/m²)
• Garment-dyed
• Relaxed fit
• 7/8″ double-needle topstitched collar
• Twill-taped neck and shoulders for extra durability
• Double-needle armhole, sleeve, and bottom hems

Size guide