Adams’s own design was, as he says, that of the engraving by Gribelin,
Paulo de Mathæis, artist, which appeared as frontispiece to the Earl of
Shaftesbury’s Treatise VII, Vol. III, edition of 1773, on the
Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times.[7] It is a fine
allegorical picture and Adams gives a good description of it in his
letter, but it is wholly unsuited to a coat of arms. In this respect,
however, the pictures suggested by Franklin and Jefferson were no
better. In Du Simitière’s final design, which was the best of the four,
the Goddess of Justice was substituted for the American rifleman as the
sinister supporter, and Franklin’s suggestion was accepted for the
reverse.