Face p. 12
]
A note following the report says: “The figure of Liberty standing on a
Column, on which are the emblems of commerce, agriculture and arms.”
Two features alone of the designs of this committee were preserved in
the final seal, the eye of Providence, which figured in the final
reverse, and the motto “E pluribus unum,” which appeared in the final
obverse. The eye was an adoption of a very ancient symbol of the
overseeing God. It was probably suggested by Du Simitière himself, since
Adams does not mention it as having been proposed by any member of the
committee.
The motto formed a part of Du Simitière’s design, but has been generally
attributed to Jefferson.[12] Adams’s letter shows nothing to suggest the
possibility that he himself chose the motto; on the contrary, his mind
was full of a moral rather than a political allegory for the arms.
Jefferson’s mind had, on the other hand, already been engaged on the
subject of a suitable device for a seal to express the idea of weakness
in separation of the States and power in their combination. In 1774 he
made this note in his almanac:
A proper device (instead of arms) for the American states united would
be the Father presenting the bundle of rods to his sons.
The motto “Insuperabiles si inseperabiles” an answer given in
parl[iament] to the H[ouse] of Lds, & comm[ons].[13]
Jefferson’s preference for a “device” rather than a coat of arms was due
to the fact that he thought more allegorical meaning could be obtained
by using the former. The idea he wished to convey was from one of Æsop’s
fables. A father called his family of discordant sons about him, and
taking a bundle of rods bound compactly together bade each one try to
break it, which none could do. He then gave each one a single rod from
the bundle and they were broken easily.
The motto “E pluribus unum”[14] was in familiar use in the United States
and naturally suggested itself as a fitting description of the union of
the States depicted in Du Simitière’s design.
Franklin suggested the motto “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God,”
which, as we have seen, was incorporated in the proposed reverse of the
seal. It so much pleased Jefferson that he took it as his own motto, and
had it cut upon his private seal. It was current in the colonies as part
of a fictitious epitaph over the body of John Bradshaw, president of the
court which condemned Charles I to death.
Thomas Hollis, of England, born in London in 1720, and one of the early
patrons of Harvard College, in his memoirs, states:[15]
The following Epitaph is often seen pasted up in the houses in North
America. It throws some light upon the principles of the people, and
may in some measure account for the asperity of the war carrying on
against them. The original is engraved upon a cannon at the summit of
a steep hill near Martha Bray [Bay] in Jamaica: