The Oregon Standoff and the Civil Peace Flag

Did you notice  the civil peace flag flying over the BLM post seized by the militia in Oregon in 2015-16?

The presence of the militia in Oregon represents the best of America because these men are serious about restoring the rule of law by binding the government with the chains of the constitution. Instead of standing down, these men have stood up to Goliath. They have confronted government over reach, but seek a peaceful solution as noted by the Civil Flag.

Do you understand the significance and importance of this American flag?

Background to the Peace Flag:

The Stars and Stripes was adopted as a result of the Marine Committee of the Second Continental Congress at Philadelphia on June 14, 1777, for use on military ports and forts. It consisted of 13 stars and 13 horizontal red and white stripes.

During the American Revolution, smugglers, loyal to the colonies, smuggled commodities to the Americans as part of the patriotic duty to the new country.

After the Revolution, Congress adopted the Constitution, with the intent to promote trade and to lawfully raise money through imports and tariffs.

This meant that all war-effort smuggling operations had to cease and come into conformity with peacetime law. But, good law had to be enforced!

As a means of promoting lawful trade and to suppress illegal smuggling, Alexander Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury, introduced a bill to purchase ten small cutters to patrol the ports to promote peace and to arrest smugglers trying to avoid the tariff taxes. Congress agreed and gave Hamilton $10,000 dollars to establish this fleet of armed vessels.

These armed vessels, however, were not under the jurisdiction of the military War Department, but under the civil authority of the Treasury Department. Along with financial

accountability, Hamilton demanded that the officers be servants of the people—not the military: “They [the officers] will always keep in mind that their Countrymen are Freemen and as such are impatient of everything that bears that least mark of a domineering Spirit.”

As history progressed, it became necessary to make a clear distinction between civil authorities and military vessels operating in an American harbors.

On March 2, 1799 Congress passed the “Customs and Administration Act” to permit custom agents to use modest, reasonable force to apply civil law and to permit “an ensign and pendant, with such marks thereon as shall be prescribed and directed by the President of the United States.” Thus, custom officials were given police powers over the harbors, but not military powers.

The task of developing a custom’s pedant and ensign fell to Oliver Wolcott, Hamilton successor as Secretary of the Treasury. On June 1, 1799 Wocott submitted his ensign to be used on custom vessels for approval. It had blue stars on a white background representing the original colonies and sixteen vertical red and white stripes representing sixteen states.

The ensign was accepted and the flag became known as the US Civilian Flag representing the Treasury Department and NOT THE WAR DEPARTMENT.

This flag remained the ensign for the Treasury Department for one hundred and thirteen years.

It stands for “Lex Rex” (the law is king) not “Rex Lex” (the king is law)

It stood for the rule of law, not rule by law; for Constitutional authority, not military, maritime, admiralty authority; for common law, not statutory law; for consent, not tyranny; for unalienable, God-given rights, not lienable rights permitted by the government!

Further, custom’s houses and other merchants flew the flag over their building to signify that they were civilian authority under the Treasury Department, not military authority under the War Department.

Those who flew this flag understood jurisdictions, and knew that by the law the flag design denoted civil jurisdiction under the Constitution and common law as opposed to military jurisdiction under admiralty/military law.

Notice the picture showing the civil flag raised in America after WWI. It is not the Stars and Stripes (a military flag) but the United States Civil Flag representing Peace and restoration of a rule by law by Civil Authority.

After Congress fraudulently and surreptitiously passed the Federal Reserve Act, Senate Bill S. 2337 which created the treacherous Federal Reserve, the Internal Revenue Service, and the never lawfully ratified 16^th

Consequently, the U.S. Coast Guard found itself under dual authority; that is, in times of peace, the U.S. Coast Guard served under the authority of the Treasury Department; during times of war, it served under the authority of the War Department.

At this time, the ensign was modified. A military war eagle with arrows was imposed on the peaceful, civilian flag to signify its new military commission.

Later, the Coast Guard ensign was place on the stripes in the field and adopted by Coast Guard authority.

Nathaniel Hawthrone, the author of The Scarlet Letter (1850), wrote a description of the Civil Peace Flag flying over “the Custom House.”

“. . . Here, with a view from its front windows adown this not very enlivening prospect, and thence across the harbour, stands a spacious edifice of brick. From the loftiest point of its roof, during precisely three and a half hours of each forenoon, floats or droops, in breeze or calm, the banner of the republic; but with the thirteen stripes turned vertically, instead of horizontally, and thus indicating that a civil, and not a military, post of Uncle Sam’s government is here established.

Moreover, we are indebted to Hawthrone’s description of the American War Eagle emblem also atop the Custom House which sits in clear contrast to the meaning of the Civil Peace Flag:

Its front is ornamented with a portico of half-a-dozen wooden pillars, supporting a balcony, beneath which a flight of wide granite steps descends towards the street Over the entrance hovers an enormous specimen of the American eagle, with outspread wings, a shield before her breast, and, if I recollect aright, a bunch of intermingled thunder- bolts and barbed arrows in each claw. With the customary infirmity of temper that characterizes this unhappy fowl, she appears by the fierceness of her beak and eye, and the general truculency of her attitude, to threaten mischief to the inoffensive community; and especially to warn all citizens careful of their safety against intruding on the premises which she overshadows with her wings. Nevertheless, vixenly as she looks, many people are seeking at this very moment to shelter themselves under the wing of the federal eagle; imagining, I presume, that her bosom has all the softness and snugness of an eiderdown pillow. But she has no great tenderness even in her best of moods, and, sooner or later — oftener soon than late — is apt to fling off her nestlings with a scratch of her claw, a dab of her beak, or a rankling wound from her barbed arrows.”

Before 1940, no U.S. flag, civil or military, flew within the 48 states except over military ports and forts, and over “necessary” federal buildings.

All states flew their own flag. The state flag was the highest authority in every state and was acknowledge as such by the People.

After 1940, due to the Buck Act of 1940, 4 U.S.C.S. Chapter 4, Section 104-113, a deception foisted on the American people, clever Congress unlawfully and unconstitutionally extended maritime jurisdiction over the land. In effect, this brought the states and the people and their property under military, admiralty law jurisdiction.

The symbol of military, admiralty law jurisdiction is the gold fringe around the Stars and Stripes. The gold fringe, in effect, symbolizes the president’s military authority to act as Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces anywhere he wants in the Continental United States or around the world.

“Placing of fringe on the national flag, the dimensions of the flag, and arrangement of the stars are matters of detail not controlled by statute, but within the discretion of the President as Commander-In-Chief of the Army and Navy.” – 1925, 34 Op.Atty.Gen. 483 (See: Footnote 4 USC Section 1, p. 1113)

“Pursuant to U.S.C. Chapter 1, 2, and 3; Executive Order No. 10834, August 21, 1959, 24 F.R. 6865, a military flag is a flag that resembles the regular flag of the United States, except that it has a YELLOW FRINGE, bordered on three sides. The President of the United states designates this deviation from the regular flag, by executive order, and in his capacity as COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF of the Armed forces.”

See the National Encyclopedia, Volume 4:

“Flag, an emblem of a nation; usually made of cloth and flown from a staff. From a military standpoint flags are of two general classes, those flown from stationary masts over army posts, and those carried by troops in formation. The former are referred to by the general name flags. The latter are called colors when carried by dismounted troops. Colors and Standards are more nearly square than flags and are made of silk with a knotted Fringe of Yellow on three sides………..use of the flag. The most general and appropriate use of the flag is as a symbol of authority and power.”

Consider that when you go into a courtroom and see a US flag paraded in gold fringe, that you are in the king’s court, under the king’s laws  in Washington DC. There, you are a subject, not a sovereign. You have privileges (civil rights), but not God-given rights. The king’s laws need not be consistent with the constitution because you are in the king’s court under the statutory law . . . unless, of course, you know how to navigate your vessel through these waters.

Could anything be more offensive to a civilized free people than a symbol of military occupation flying over state building, over state lands, over and in courtrooms, and over public memorials?

Why are Americans pledging the lives and fortunes to a military flag instead of to the Lord Jesus Christ, to their families, and to peace? Yes, war is necessary when peace is broken, but are we really expected to pledge allegiance to continual military occupation over the People by a corporation known as ‘THE UNITED STATES”?

Thus, the presence of the militia and the flying of the United States Civil Peace Flag in Oregon represents the Best of America. Furthermore, it stands as a symbol of resistance to the ultra vires acts of a run-away, out-of-control federal government which is forbidden by fundamental law to own  land in the states or to legislate law from Washington D.C. against the People.

Storm Brooks

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