OCR Text |
Show f f 'J ft : I , 'J J- '., : ,.": iiV 1 ' .v . . u v. Li . ' Bermin. Franklin T By ELMO SCOTT WATSON HENEVEfr President Hoo-' Hoo-' liTf Y ver s'-'"s an important Vx.JrV state document, there Is fjf another ceremony which is ' necessary before the docu--mmmm ment becomes official. tyiW That consists of affixing XprMffly to it the great seal of the vWW&f United States, which is HiMw$ in the safekeeping of the IJi'S'yAll secretary of state, a metal J'jmvh disk two and a half inches Mfjr in diameter and engraved with the coat of arms of this nation. And when that is done, the document bears the imprint of the oldest national arms Id the world, despite the fact that the United States is a "young" nation. For our coat of arms has retained its original design for nearly 150 years, longer than has that of other nations which are much older than ours. The history of the great seal goes back to the founding of the republic. Soon after the adoption of the Declaration Declar-ation of Independence in 1776. a resolution reso-lution was passed by the Continental congress naming Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams as a committee to design a coat of arms for the new nation. The original suggestion sug-gestion for the coat of arms was that the shield should be divided Into six quarterings. each bearing the emblem of those countries whose colonists made up the greater part of the population pop-ulation of the United States. Two of the features Included in this committee's com-mittee's design were later included in the present coat of arms, but nothing definite was accomplished at that time. On March 25, 1779. the matter was again brought up for consideration and a second committee submitted a design in which the "radiant constellation constella-tion of thirteen stars" first made its appearance. It also provided for thirteen alternate red and white stripes which were to be placed diagonally diag-onally across the shield. But this committee' design was not accepted. Then a third committee tried its hand at the Job and the members of this one called to their assistance a noted authority on heraldry, Dr. William Barton of Philadelphia. The design submitted by this committee com-mittee was a complicated one. It provided pro-vided for thirteen stripes or pales, a constellation of thirteen stars, an sF eagle poised on the summit of a Doric -- column, a helmet of gold on which was a cap of dignity, surmounted by a cock armed with gads; on the right side was a figure of the genius of America and on the left a man in armor. Over all gleamed the eye of Providence and below the shield was the motto "Deo favente" (Favored by God). Above the crest was another motto "Virtus sola Invlcta" (Virtue alone Is unconquerable). Finally out of the suggestions put forth by the three committees the coat of nnns In Its present form, proposed by Doctor Carton and making use of some of the elements contained In the previous designs, was adopted by congress on June 20, 17S2. By this time the seal had been stripped of every emblem that suggested monarchy mon-archy and Included those which emphasized em-phasized the Idea of democracy. The outstanding features were the eagle, the shield and the stars. The eagle, typical of those found in this country and unlike those which appear on the Imperial arm? of aus-! aus-! tria, (Jormany nnd Russia, stands for power and authority. In its right talon .It holds an olive branch and in Its left a bundle of thirteen arrows, these denoting power In peace and In war. The ancient symbol of peace, the olive branch, was placed In the right talon to Indicate that the first gesture of the new republic should be peace Instead of war. but the arrows In the left talon Indicate that the nation na-tion stands ready to defend Itself If need be. The escutcheon was set l across the breast of the eagle without any other support to show that the United Slates was to rely on Its own strength The Journals of the Continental congress afford an interesting analysis j Thomas Jefferson. of the coat of arms. This tells of the significance of the escutcheon In the relationship between the individual states and the federal Union. Id terms of heraldry It is composed of a "chief" and thirteen "pales." that is, an "azure" (blue) crossbar resting on stripes of "gules" (red) alternated with "argent" (write). "The pieces paly," reads the old text, "represent the several states all joined in one solid compact entire, supporting a Chief which unites the whole and represents congress. The Motto alludes to this Union. The pales in the Arms are kept closely united by the chief and the chief depends de-pends on that Union and the strength resulting from it for its support to denote the Confederacy of the United States of America and the preservation preserva-tion of their Union through congress." The colors of the escutcheon are the same as those adopted for the flag in the famous Flag resolution of June 14, 1777 white for purity and innocence, inno-cence, red for hardiness and valor and blue for vigilance, perseverance, and Justice. In its beak the eagle holds an unfurled scroll on which on a crimson ground are the words "E Pluribus Unum" (One out of many). Above this Is the "glty" or the constellation con-stellation of thirteen stars on an azure field, breaking through a surrounding halo of clouds symbolical of the new nation emerging from the storm and stress of the Revolution. The white stars against the background of blue also point to the unity of the states, since if a line be drawn between the outer ones it forms a perfect six-pointed six-pointed star. At the same time that this seal was adopted another one, Intended to be the reverse of the coat of arms and to be used for stamping the wax on a ribbon attached to an important state paper, thus making a hanging seal, was also adopted. On it Is a pyramid of thirteen steps with a culminating cul-minating triangle suspended above it. On this Is the all-seeing eye of Providence Prov-idence looking down upon the unfinished unfin-ished pyramid, by which it was Intended In-tended to Indicate that the United States had not attained a final state of spiritual perfection, a goal toward which It must strive. According to heraldry, the pyramid stands for strength and durability. The eye Is the symbol of the eternally vigilant Providence which had favored the American cause so many times and this thought Is carried out In the Latin motto "Annult Coeptis" (God has favored fa-vored the work) across the top of the seal. The date MDCCJ.XXVI at the base of the pyramid Is 177fi. when the nation was founded, and the Latin motto beneath "Novus Ordo Secio-rum" Secio-rum" declares that then began "A New Order of Ages." The original seal was cut In brass and is believed to have been used for the first time on o commission dated September 16. 17S2. In which congress granted Washington the power to arrange ar-range with the British for an exchange ex-change of prisoners of war. This was signed by John Hanson, president of the congress, and countersigned by Charles Thomson, secretary. The design de-sign of the seal remained unchanged In any particular for more than fifty years. During the time Daniel Webster Web-ster was secretary of stale a second seal was cut. On this occasion the artist placed six Instead of thirteen arrows in the eagle's left talon. This seal was used until 1SS5 when a new cJohn. Adams Second Great Seal of the. United States one was made and the traditional number of arrows was restored to the seal. Not only Is the American seal the oldest national seal but it is also said to be the most perfectly balanced bal-anced and most beautiful of all national na-tional Insignia. It has often been remarked that the makers of the seal were unaffected by the superstitious fear of the number num-ber thirteen. Instead, thirteen is the keynote of the whole design. Not only are there thirteen stars-and thir-teeen thir-teeen stripes, but there are thirteen arrows In the eagle's talon and thirteen thir-teen stars in the glory. The motto E Pluribus Unum contains thirteen letters, there are thirteen leaves on the olive branch and the same number num-ber of berries on the branch. The eagle has thirteen feathers in each wing and thirteen in its tail. The title "The Coat of Arms of the United States of America" contains 39, or three times , thirteen, letters, and if one counts all these he will discover dis-cover that the number thirteen is repeated re-peated thirteen times in the whole design. Since the great seal contains several sev-eral emblems which symbolize the fact that the nation was founded by rebellion rebel-lion against the tyranny of England, it is worthy of note that one of them, the eagle, is of English origin. In that it was suggested to John Adams by Sir John Prestwich, an eminent British Brit-ish antiquary. The choice of this bird, which came to be popularly regarded re-garded as the national emblem, was very distasteful to another member of the national great seal committee, Benjamin Ben-jamin Franklin. In a letter to his daughter, Mrs. Sarah Bache, written on January 26, 17S4, while Franklin was In France, he said : "For my own part, 1 wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative rep-resentative of the country; he Is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly; you may have seen him perched on some dead tree where, too lazy to fish for himself, him-self, he watches the labor of the fishing fish-ing hawk; and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish and Is bearing bear-ing It to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, the bald eagle pursues him and takes It from him. With all this Injustice he is never In good case, but like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides, he is a rank coward." Modern science, however, has refuted re-futed some of these charges, especially especial-ly the one of cowardice. The eagle as a symbol of racial and national power dates back to the time of the Etruscans, the race that preceded pre-ceded the Romans. Rome, Rfter the days of Marius, also adopted the eagle as It standard of legions. It was represented rep-resented with outspread wings. Later the Byzantine emperors adapted the double-headed eagle, which symbolized symbol-ized their claim to the eastern and western empires. In the Fourteenth century the German Ger-man emperors adopted the eale as their national emblem. Oilier European Euro-pean eountries followed Germany's lead. Prussia's emblem was dislln guished by the black eagle; Poland's ty a white eaizle. Napoleon made the eade represent Imperial Trance. The emblem was dropped by the Bourbon rulers, but was restored bj Louis Napoleon od January 1. 1S02. |