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VIII
THE FOURTH SEAL
In 1902, John Hay being the Secretary of State, it was determined that
the seal, which had been in constant use for eighteen years, required
recutting, and that the press and stand which held it could be improved
upon. An act was, accordingly, passed by Congress (July 1, 1902)
appropriating $1,250 “To enable the Secretary of State to have the Great
Seal of the United States recut.” Some discussion arose among the
officers of the Department as to whether the design then in use must be
adhered to strictly or could be improved upon, and, after examination of
the question, it was determined that the careful investigation which had
preceded the acceptance of the design of 1884 rendered a reconsideration
of the decision then arrived at unwise, and that the design should be
preserved with absolute accuracy. The work of recutting not having been
done before the appropriation had expired, it was renewed the following
year (act of March 3, 1903) and the act settled definitely any remaining
doubts about the design, besides making the appropriation cover the
necessary accessories for the seal. It read:
To enable the Secretary of State to have the Great Seal of the United
States recut from the original model, and to purchase a suitable press
for its use and a cover to protect the same from dust, the sum of one
thousand two hundred and fifty dollars, appropriated by the deficiency
act approved July first, nineteen hundred and two, “To enable the
Secretary of State to have the Great Seal of the United States recut,”
is hereby reappropriated for the purposes above mentioned.
The words “original model” in the law precluded any change in the
device, and the new seal was accordingly cut as a precise copy of the
seal then in use, the work being done by Messrs. Bailey, Banks & Biddle,
of Philadelphia.
IX
USES OF THE SEAL
When the Continental Congress made the obverse of the great seal the
national arms it intended that the device should pass into common use
among the people, as the flag has done, and like the flag the arms at
first met with general approval, which soon gave place to an acceptance
of it as an emblem of the power and sovereignty of the United States,
which placed it above criticism.
Not all of the fathers of the Republic, however, were pleased with the
selection of the eagle as the national emblem. When the badge of the
Order of the Society of the Cincinnati was made in France in 1784 it was
objected to by some because the displayed eagle resembled a turkey.
For my part [wrote Benjamin Franklin January 26, 1784, to his
daughter], I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the
representative of our 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, 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 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; the little _kingbird_,
not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and drives him out of
the district. He is therefore by no means a proper emblem for the
brave and honest Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the
_kingbirds_ from our country; though exactly fit for that order of
knights, which the French call _Chevaliers d’Industrie_.
I am, on this account, not displeased that the figure is not known as
a bald eagle, but looks more like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey
is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true
original native of America. Eagles have been found in all countries,
but the turkey was peculiar to ours; the first of the species seen in
Europe, being brought to France by the Jesuits from Canada, and served
up at the wedding table of Charles the Ninth. He is, besides, (though
a little vain and silly, it is true, but not the worse emblem for
that,) a bird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a grenadier
of the British guards, who should presume to invade his farmyard with
a _red_ coat on.[32]
The seal itself has, of course, a very limited use, which is strictly
guarded by law. The Secretary of State is its custodian, but even he has
no authority to affix it to any paper that does not bear the President’s
signature.
In 1803 Chief Justice Marshall, in delivering an opinion of the Supreme
Court, used the following language relative to the seal. It may be
considered applicable to all instruments to which the seal is affixed.
The signature [of the President] is a warrant for affixing the great
seal to the commission, and the great seal is only to be affixed to an
instrument which is complete. It attests, by an act supposed to be of
public notoriety, the verity of the presidential signature.
It is never to be affixed till the commission is signed, because the
signature which gives force and effect to the commission, is
conclusive evidence that the appointment is made.
The commission being signed, the subsequent duty of the Secretary of
State is prescribed by law, and not to be guided by the will of the
President. He is to affix the seal of the United States to the
Commission, and is to record it. (1 U. S. Reports, 374.)
As the duties of the Government have expanded, the impracticability of
having the seal of the United States attached by the Department of State
to the commissions of officers who are under some other Department has
been recognized by Congress. By the act of March 18, 1874,[33] the
commissions of postmasters were directed to be made out under the seal
of the Post-Office Department; the act of March 3, 1875,[34] placed the
commissions of officers of the Interior Department under that
Department; by act of August 8, 1888,[35] all judicial officers,
marshals, and United States attorneys were ordered to be appointed under
the seal of the Department of Justice; and by an Executive order of June
16, 1893, President Cleveland directed that all warrants of pardon and
commutations of sentence granted to offenders convicted in the courts of
the United States should thereafter be made out under the seal of the
Department of Justice.
At the present time the seal of the United States is affixed to the
commissions of all Cabinet officers and diplomatic and consular officers
who are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate; all
ceremonious communications from the President to the heads of foreign
governments; all treaties, conventions, and formal agreements of the
President with foreign powers; all proclamations by the President; all
exequaturs to foreign consular officers in the United States who are
appointed by the heads of the governments which they represent; to
warrants by the President to receive persons surrendered by foreign
governments under extradition treaties; and to all miscellaneous
commissions of civil officers appointed by the President, by and with
the advice and consent of the Senate, whose appointments are not now
especially directed by law to be signed under a different seal.
[Illustration: [Fleuron]]