Show 11 e re at h ar 11 4 tw T is A thornas e ferson c ZO TL T by ELMO SCOTT WATSON president noo 1100 ver signs an important state document there Is another another ceremony aich Is necessary before the document becomes official that consists of aff liing to it the great seal of the united states which Is in the safekeeping of the secretary of state a metal disk two find and a halfin half inches clips in diameter and engraved with the coat of arms of this nation and when that Is done the document bears the imprint of the eldest national arms in the alie world despite the fact that the united states Is a young nation for our coat of arms has retained its original design for or nearly years longer than has that of other nat nations ions which are much older than ours tte the history of the great seal goes back to the founding of the republic soon after the adoption of the declaration of independence in 1770 1776 a resolution 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 tor for the coat of arms was that the shield should be divided into six quarte rings each bearing the emblem of those countries whose colonists made up the greater part of the population of the united states two of the features feature included la in this committees mit tees design were later included in the present coat of arms but nothing definite was accomplished at that time on march llarch 25 1779 the matter was again brought up tor for consideration and a second committee submitted a design in which the radiant constellation of thirteen stars first mude made its appearance it also provided for thirteen pea alternate red and white stripes which were to he be placed diagonally across the shield but this committee design was not dot accepted then the n 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 was a complicated one it provided for ebli thirteen cen stripes or a constellation of thirteen stars an eagle poised on the summit of a doric column a helmet of gold on which was a cap of dignity surmounted by a cock coch armed with gads or on the right side elde was a figure of the genius of america and on en the left a man to in armor over all gleamed the eye of providence and below the shield was the motto deo facente ta fa vente favored by god above the crest wits was another motto virtus sola bola In invicta vIcta virtue alone to Is unconquerable finally out olit of the suggestions put forth by the three committees the coat of firms arms in its present form proposed by doctor barton end and ranking use ose of some gome of the elements contained in the previous designs was adopted by congress on june 20 by this time the seal had been stripped of every emblem that sugg suggested I 1 sted monarchy and included those bich emphasized pha sized 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 arnic of austria germany rod and acussia stands for power pomer and authors v in its right talon it holds an ollee 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 ans 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 astion stands really ready to defend itself if need be the escutcheon was set across the breast of the eagle without any other support to show allow that the united states was to rely on its own owl strength the journals of the Conti continental Dental congress afford an interesting analysis ana lysle dc great beal f ohp united Z states second arl great seal ot oi united states of the coat of arms this tells of the significance of the escutcheon in the relationship between the individual sta states tea and the federal union in terms of heraldry it Is composed of 0 a chiev chief I 1 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 texts text represent sent the several states all jol joined ned in one solid compact entire supporting a chief which unites the whole and rp represents resents congress the motto alludes to this union the pales in the arms are kept closely united by the chief and the chief depends 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 of their union abrou through b congress the colors of the escutcheon are the same as those adopted tor for the flag in the famous flag resolution of june 14 1777 white for purity and innocence 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 alethe words E pluribus Pluri bua unum one out of many above this Is the gli ay or the constellation stel lation of thirteen stars on an azure neld field breaking through a surrounding halo of clouds symbolical of the new nation emerging from froin the storm and tress stress of the revolution the white st fars ars against the background of bf blue also point to the unity of the states tates fc since if a line be drawn between the outer ones it forms forma a perfect 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 tor for stamping the wax on a ribbon attached to an important state paper thus making a hanging seal was also adopted oo on it Is a of thirteen steps with a cut cul triangle suspended above aboe it ou this Is the all seeing eye of brov I 1 derice looking down upon the unfinished pyramid by which it was intended to indicate that the united states slates had nut attained a final state of spiritual perfection perfect loni a goal toward which it must strive according to heraldry the pyramid stands for strength and durability the eye exe Is hie elie symbol of the eternally vigilant providence which had favored the american cause so many times and this thought tg Is carried out in the latin motto anbult god has favored the work across the top of the seal the date at the base of the pyramid Is 1770 when the nation was founded and the latin motto beneath novus novas ordo heclo rum declares that then began A new kew order of ages ages the original seal was cut in brass and Is if bel believed leed to have been used for foi tile the first time on a commission dated september 10 1782 in which congress granted washington the power to arrange with the british for an exchange of prisoners of war this was wag signed by john hanson president of the congress and countersigned counter signed by charles thomson secretary the design ign of the seal remained unchanged in any particular tor for more thau than fifty years during the time daniel webster was secretary of state a second seal was wag cut on this occasion the artist placed six instead of thirteen arrows arrow iq in the eagles left talon this sent was war used until 1885 when a new one was made and the traditional number of arrows was restored ed to the seal not only Is the american seal the oldest national seal but it Is also said to be the most perfectly balanced and most beautiful of all national insignia i it has often been remarked that the makers of the seal were unaffected by the superstitious fear of the number thirteen instead thirteen Is the keynote of 0 the whole design not only are there thirteen stars and thir heeen stripes but there are thirteen arrows in the eagles talon and thirteen stars in the glory the motto E pluribus Pluri hus unum contains thirteen letters there are thirteen leaves on the olive branchard brun bran chand the same number of berries on the brunch the eagle has thirteen feathers in each wing and thirteen in its tall the title the coat of arms of the united states of america contains contain 9 39 I 1 or three times thirteen letters and it if one counts all these he will dl discover that the number thirteen Is re peutec thirteen times in the whole design since the great seal contains several emblems which symbolize the fact that the ole notion nation was founded by rebellion against the tyranny of england it Is worthy of note that one of them the eagle Is of english origin in that it was sug suggested alsted to john adams by sir john prestwich Prest an eminent british antiquary the choice of this bird which came to be popularly regarded as the national emblem was very distasteful to another member of the national great seal comm committee attee benjamin bentlie benthe franklin in a letter to his big daughter mrs sarah bache written on january 28 26 1784 i while franklin was in france he said for my own part I 1 wish the bald eagle bad not been chosen as the representative 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 lie he watches the labor of the fishing hawk and when that diligent bird has at length taken a fish and Is bearing it to his nest for the support of his mate and young ones the bald eagle pursues him and takes it ft from him with all this injustice he Is never in good case care but like those among wen men who live by and robbing he Is generally poor and aten very lousy Bes besides idea he be Is a rank coward modern science however has refuted some of these charges especially the one of cowardice the eagle as ar a symbol of racial and national power dates back to the time of the etruscans Etrus cans the race that preceded the rome kunie after the days of marius also adopted the eagle as a a t of legions it was represented with outspread wings later the byzantine emperors adopted the double headed beaded eagle which symbolized their claim to the eastern find and western empires in the fourteenth century the gier ginn ninn emperors adopted the eagle as their national emblem other euro countries followed germanys germanas Germ anys lend lead prussian sias emblem was waa distin gulshen by the black ragle eagle Po poland lands by a white eagle napoleon mud mittle the eagle represent imperial france the emblem was dropped by the bourbon rulers but was restored by louis napoleon on january 1 1852 |