Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1877 — E Pluribus Unum. [ARTICLE]

E Pluribus Unum.

WILLIAM B. AUSTIN.

■f Tl «‘ history of Ute Gl-est Seal of <w union in ■indeed brief, because : i| i (lie fflililetli of and like'unto >' our goVeiiifii.e.iU-—simple, plain and (•fW'Umlf fine from ad feolnii«»b||c*. l| wss adopted ami is main-. kmv& Us * wljo aeknoW’-l ..• . v . ■ &

s&m* ?iwi j r mw , l!u ‘ lr i u * l God. After thpratification ot the of Itnh’jmidi’iiut*, and after s people lormcd for empbe had censed lo be imperial, and the nation had begun that political education which will one day give It far more .and better than imperial sway, then it was that fourteen governments hnd to lie created, fourteen constitutions formed, fourteen Codes established, and, last.’of nil, fourteen seals engraved. Two gentlemen had Revised a propu*seal for Virginia, but notin ail the province of America f rom Florida to Maine was ikero a single individual w ho knew how to engrave it; | and on this account they were ! forced to send to Kuropc and there ! had engraved upon the senl of VirI ginia those words which attained a j mournful and horrible celebrity on j the fourteenth day of April, 186# — | Sic Semper 2\r<nnn*. During this | time Thomas Jefferson going (about Philadelphia in tllWte burnI ing summer days looking for an enj graver and brooding over a design lor a seal for the general government —Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and himself having been appointed a committee, by the Continental Congress, for that purpose. This committee, by combining the ideas of its nu mbers, achieved a most wonderful design, which was composed of various devices; but all of which w ere finally rejected, except that one very best lego <1 A' lHur,hus i’lroti. In 1779, and again in f 782, oilier committees were appointed for the same purpose, but with no better success; and it was finally referred to Charles Thomson, secretary of Congress, who received from John Adams, then in London, a very simple and appropriate device suggested by Sir John Brest witch, a baronet of the West of Eiigliiipl and a warm friend of America. It con sisled of tlurtee i perpendicular pieces, white and red, in a blue field, tlie escutcheon on the bivnst of the American eagle, which dis played, holding in ids right talon an (dive branch and in bis left a bundle of thirteen arrows, and in his beak a scroll inscribed with our motto A’ riuribit* Uttum. Tin x*sculclieon is placed on the eagle's hnast v.-uhout supports as an '■ emblem of that self-reliance for which the Americans were noted in throwing off the yoke ofoneofthe strongest, and then most despotic, nations of ti.u world. , This device met W f ith general approbation, both in and but orCongK^s, iunTwas aflopTeil in- Jute. 1782, and readopted under the new constitution in 17. j>9. So it is manifest, though not exten sively known, that wo are indebted for onr national arms to a titled aristocrat of the country with which we were then at war. II • only who holds a civil cilice in our government knows tlie sanctity of .the Great Seal of our liepublic; for, from whatever source he niav derive his authority to act, even if it flows from the Chief Ex eeulive of die United Slates, the seal is the only thing which will give it legality and entitle bis act and doing to the sanction of a free and enlightened people. And tlie officer must certainly look with pleasure to a seal that givis sanction to his acts by all-the i conic ot

the R<-}»ubiitj whose Khoren are Ivshtd l»y the waves el almost every oeeaii, atul Unit combines a ivliiie’.l .fill cultivated tintioM trt the strongest lies of brotherhood and aliVelion. 'lbis sea!, although truly having jetsM.i through the short B,‘itee ol ninety liveye us, yet inis been as :i beacon iigiil siret.chiiiu far out to the unknown shoals of futurity and ifcndittghalo to the vision ot our nation’s destiny, and showing to tlie powerful nations of the Oh! \\ orld that it they would have war we can take uj>

; UK | tlie arrows which are held by tlie Ainerienn eagle, which are sacred j with the 2ero of the brave sous ol i liberty, and phinge them in tl.e 1 hearts' of our foreign eueui.es; or, it they would lidve themselves and neighbors enjoy the sacred blessings of peace, and have prosperity and Happiness rein their influence, upon (tl.e earth, then we, as a national people, can take up the peace-lov-ing olive branch and dip its top in tin* sweets—«>f u antp.iliiy aud ~4rar fti my. Yet ill whatever condition we may Do placed., in whatever rein: ions with 1-. reign nations we may

in* —in aiiv ease—we iiinst. be a nation and .’Kccpt K pfari&m 6’aww as o;ir motto from T« xas to Maine and from Florida to Alaska. Such is the condition of tlie American Re public ai the present period ol its existent*!*. Who wiildare say that we shu'! quail when beneath a threateifiog sky, with our sails properly trimmed and turned seaward, and the people united by tiie siroitg ties of brotherhobd look to their motto as their guiding star? Uvvoluimns have been attempted j —rhe life ot a Lincoln tvas taken by • conspirators-—but above all soared the tagie toward :» happy destiny with ibis motto in his beak. Our country has risen witli renewed vigor from < nt of the timnoil of anarchy which tor a lime threaiem’d j its Over’hroA—anarchy that de-; pi'ves society of its natural liberty, i and that always has been and ub t wavs uiil be the ruin of govern-* IP : V-'' J* * * ‘ • "t ' GV .

UhiUla not pi upvily Wauced between liberty and law. But, powever prosperous onr nation may bo, however populous it may become, even though our states ami territories excel -in the number of their inhabitants the old Mistress of the Earth, yet when a majority loeq sight of tlie significance and forget the influence of our motto — when K 1 Hurt hug Unum is trampled tinder loot—thut ilfly wiTT"our nation become a second Rome and go down in oblivion, for tlie great ftimirtinenud doctrines upon whiejp the fabric is erected would be destroyed. Vet they, whether in Europe or America, who believe that the ITnioii will one day be death-stricken from this cause have tlie balance of probabilities in their favor only a« they err by underrating the potency of those intellectual and Providential forces which in our age operate with accelerated power and activity in behalf us Liberty, Intelligence and Civilization; for as long an that motto continues to he our potential guide will our country increase ii] strength, power mid honor, and rise above tlie nations of the earth as nn example of the blessedness and security of a republican form of government; lor who will deny that in union there is strength, and in strength there is security from the Broil* and tumults which have afflicted other nations? Though many hikl Bright are tlie stars tliat appear * In that Uni; l>v our country unfurled. Abil uu> tlint'iiw svudling in yiuJ'catji I lici t'. Like a rainbow adorning the world, Tlit-fr H»trt-t arcymsntltPi! as those in the sky it;, n iii-.'J that our Bubers have done; Am; Ukjj i i- leagued jji a> trimami its Imlv a tic, in ii.cir motto ol Mtut) in Oac. Tiicn up with Unit lnotlo—let it stream on the air,— 1 hoiu.li oar father- are coi l in their graves They bait hands taai eould strike, had souls that could flare, =~== “ —— ■. Arul lb on sons « ere not born to lie Waves, Up, «ip wiili that umtlii; n Ihiru'er rtiiiay call < ini’ mil. 100 - shall rally around;— A niitiou cf freemen that miiinejit .-hall fall Whoa it- words shall lie trailed oh the ground!