Proposal For The Great Seal of The United States
On July 4, 1776, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were named to be the committee to come up with a seal and a motto for the United States, in addition they brought in Eugène Pierre Du Simitière , a distinguished painter at the time as the founders had little knowledge of creating prominent pieces of heraldry (MacArthur, 2003). Each man took time to develop then put forward a design.
On August 14, a letter from John Adams to his wife Abigail announced that he had proposed the “Choice of Hercules, as engraved by Gribeline in some Editions of Lord Shaftsbury’s Works. The Hero resting on his club. Virtue pointing to her rugged Mountain, on one Hand, and persuading him to ascend. Sloth, glancing at her flowery Paths of Pleasure, wantonly reclining on the Ground, displaying the Charms both of her Eloquence and Person, to seduce him into Vice. But this is too complicated a Group for a Seal or Medal, and it is not original” (Adams, 1776). Thomas Jefferson, who later created his own Bible by cutting out all mentions of the miracles of Jesus Christ as well as his birth and resurrection (Foster, 2011), envisioned ideas for both sides of the seal with “The Children of Israel in the Wilderness, led by a Cloud by day, and a Pillar of Fire by night, and on the other Side Hengist and Horsa, the Saxon Chiefs, from whom we claim the Honor of being descended and whose Political Principles and Form of Government We have assumed” (Adams, 1776). The three men working with Eugène Pierre Du Simitière, whose own first atempt was also rejected by Congress which was a use of the Eye of Providence and the motto “E Pluribus Unum” which is over a shield with 6 symbols representing the nations that the colonists had immigrated from these being England, Ireland, Germany, France, Scotland, and the Netherlands but no symbol to include the part of the population that came from Africa. The proposal from Benjamin Franklin, who was a deist and did not believe in Jesus Christ’s divinity, proposed “Moses lifting up his Wand, and dividing the Red Sea, and Pharaoh, in his Chariot overwhelmed with the Waters, and this motto. Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to God” (Adams, 1776) It would take years and several more committees before Congress would approve the final design, still in use today. Only the motto “E Pluribus Unum” which means “from many, one” survived from the committee on which Adams, Jefferson, and Franklin were on. This phrase had offered a great symbol of the American perseverance to create a single nation from the many states, throughout time the phrase also served as a symbol for the United States’ attempt to create a unified nation from people of many diverse backgrounds, beliefs and ethnicities.
Benjamin Franklin’s motto proposal echoes the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government.” (US, 1776) I believe the events that had occurred previously to make these men secede had such a great impact on Franklin that he made his motto in clear reference to that.
Franklin’s motto proposal also reminded me of one of the most popular book of colonial times. The Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos: A Defense of Liberty Against Tyrants which was written in 1579 by a man called Junius Brutus I have spent a vast amount of time reading this document and am familiar with its content. The Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos is contending for a world underneath God’s order, it argues that human authority should draw from God to operate through his revelations (Carson, 1976). When a king or any ruler for that matter, opposes God’s law and acquires tyrannical powers, that other rulers or even common people are allowed to oppose and even overthrow him. When a ruler is a tyrant they should be challenged in God’s name by anyone who has the faith and courage to do so. In today’s society that could even be other people that hold power like state legislatures, those in congress or even governors. The Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos symbolizes the political play that moved the Christian colonists of that time to fight for the colonies’ freedom and independence. It stands firmly in the tradition of the Reformation. It is an unfortunate problem that many Christians in the United States today don’t understand the arguments for liberty that the Colonists made, let alone the theology of the Reformation that made those arguments possible.
The seal that Franklin proposed was a portraying the escape across the red sea where Moses is leading the Israelites out of Egypt and into the promised land. However as the Israelites were leaving Pharaoh had changed his mind in letting them leave and decided to call his army to pursue the Israelites on chariots and horseback. Moses informed his people to not fear as God would help them, God told Moses to stretch out his staff over the Red Sea then the sea began to part leaving a trail of land for the Israelites to walk through unharmed. Following behind the Israelites was Pharaoh and his army charging at them, as they approached the trail where the sea had parted Moses again lifted up his staff and the waters returned back to their original shape closing the gap and in doing so, swallowing up Pharaoh and his army (Zavada, 2017).
Sources Cited
Carson , Clarence B. “The Rebirth of Liberty, The Founding of the American Republic 1760-1800” Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., 1976.
Foster , Thomas A. “‘In God We Trust’ or ‘E Pluribus Unum’? The American Founders Preferred the Latter Motto.” Origins.osu.edu, Ohio State University History Department, 9 Nov. 2011.
Founders Online: Proposal for the Great Seal of the United States, National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration.
Letter from John Adams to Abigail Adams, 14 August 1776 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts Historical Society
MacArthur , John D. “Pierre Eugène Du Simitière.” Pyramid on Reverse Side of US Great Seal, 2003.
Mulinix, Jonathan. “Rejected Designs for the Great Seal of the United States.” Mental Floss, Mental Floss, 13 June 2012.
Zavada, Jack. “What the Crossing of the Red Sea Can Teach Us About God.” Thoughtco., Dotdash, 6 Mar. 2017.