Great Seal of the United States

“ Soon after the seal was adopted the obverse was cut in brass; but the identity of the engraver is unknown. It was intended to be impressed in wax over a paper wafer, and is found on a commission dated September 16, 1782, granting full power and authority to General Washington to arrange with the British for exchange of prisoners of war. The commission is signed by John Hanson, President of Congress, and countersigned by Charles Thomson, Secretary, the seal being affixed in the upper left-hand corner, instead of the lower left-hand corner as is now the custom. ”

“ Canada became convinced that Russia, Japan, and the United States would combine in an effort to have the seals carefully preserved, and therefore she urged England to refuse to take part in the conference, and thus give her time to consider what may be the best course for her to take under the circumstances.
Experts who have been in London examining the year's take of seal-skins are ready to state before the conference that eighty per cent of the skins sold by the Canadian companies are those of the mother seals, and that most of these animals have been shot. ”

“ It has also been frequently stated that the Seal Arbitration Committee, which met in Paris in 1893, decided that we must pay this sum. People are inquiring why we don't pay it before we ask for England's help in protecting the seals.
As a matter of fact, the United States does not owe any such sum.
The Paris tribunal said we had no right to prevent other ships from entering the Bering Sea, and that we must pay damages to Canada for having done so. ”

“ Arms. Paleways of [25] thirteen pieces, Argent & Gules; a Chief Azure:—The Escutcheon placed on the Breast of an American (the bald-headed) Eagle, displayed, proper; holding in his Beak a Scroll, inscribed with this Motto, viz.
“E pluribus Unum”— And in his dexter Talon a Palm or an Olive Branch—in the other a Bundle of 13 Arrows; all proper.
For the Crest. Over the Head of the Eagle, which appears above the Escutcheon, a Glory, Or; breaking through a Cloud, proper, and surrounding thirteen Stars forming a Constellation, Argent, on an Azure Field.
In the Exergue of the Great Seal—
“Jul. ”

“ John Adams, 9in a letter to his wife, August 14, 1776, told the story of the committee’s efforts to make the seal:
[Du Simitière is] a painter by profession, whose designs are very ingenious, and his drawings well executed. He has been applied to for his advice. I waited on him yesterday, and saw his sketches. * * * For the seal he proposes the arms of the several nations from whence America has been peopled, as English, Scotch, Irish, Dutch, German, etc., each in a shield. ”

“ Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God, motto proposed, 9, 10; origin of, 14, 15, 16. Rutledge, Edward, on seal committee, 23. Scott, John Morin, on seal committee, 19. Seal, Great, of England, 8. Seal, Great, of France, 7, 8. Seal of the United States, first committee to design, 7; first designs for, 8; motto for, 13; need of, 18; second committee for, 19; Barton’s designs for, 24, 28, 35; Thomson’s designs for, 34, 37; Sir John Prestwich’s connection with, 38; adopted, 41; cutting of, 43; proposed less seal, 44; correct name for, 46; second seal, 48; correction of, 49; treaty seal, 52 ”

“ Article XV It is further agreed between the United States and Great Britain that the provisions of this Convention shall supersede, in so far as they are inconsistent therewith or in duplication thereof, the provisions of the treaty relating to the fur seals, entered into between the United States and Great Britain on the 7th day of February, 1911. ”

“ The reverse of the seal has never been engraved by the Government. The original die of the obverse, after being in use for about sixty years, was replaced by the present die, which has become very much worn and no longer gives clear impressions. It is also to be observed with respect to the latter that it does not strictly conform to the device established by law. It seems to me, therefore, to be eminently important that a new and correct die be made without delay. ”

“ 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 most casual inspection of the famous Guildhall collection will show, stamped upon Seal after Seal through a long succession of Anglo-Norman kings, the same equestrian figure which, obviously of Norman origin, had appeared in England before the Conquest; and which centuries later was designed by an Anglo-Norman engraver upon the Great Seal of the American Confederate States. The artist was Wyon (engraver to the Queen) , and the original of the symbolic figure was that immortal Cavalier, George Washington—a man of Anglo-Norman blood. ”

“ The seal of the War Department is the only public instrument in use, exhibiting evidence of the rattlesnake's having played an important part as a device in the American Revolution. The old seal of 1778, and the more modern seal now in use, both bear the rattlesnake (with its rattles as the emblem of union) , and a liberty cap in contiguity with it; the liberty cap enveloped by the body, so that the opened mouth may defend the rattles, and liberty cap, or union and liberty, with the motto, "This we'll defend." ”

“ The great seal was a very important badge and emblem of the royal prerogative. No decree was of legal authority until an impress from this seal was attached to it. The officer who had charge of it was called the chancellor. A new seal was prepared for each sovereign on his accession to the throne. The devices were much the same in all. They consisted of a representation of the king seated on his throne upon one side of the seal, and on the other mounted on horseback and going into battle, armed from head to foot. ”

“ He then settles down to defend it; for more and more "old man" Seals come, all eager to own the best places. The roaring and fighting go on day and night. The gentle Seal is now a savage beast, covered with wounds. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The galley in which the queen and the princess were embarked, being probably of superior construction to the others, and better manned, succeeded in weathering the point and getting round into the harbor, but two or three other galleys which were with them struck and were wrecked. One of these ships was a very important one. It contained the chancellor who bore Richard's great seal, besides a number of other knights and crusaders of high rank, and many valuable goods. The seal was an object of great value. Every king had his own seal, which was used to authenticate his public acts. ”

“ Within the last two centuries their pursuit has been brimful of incident and adventure. As articles of commerce, the oil and the furs of certain kinds of the Seal tribe are of immense importance; whilst the mere hides of all, besides the Walrus tusks, are commodities of great value. Indeed, to the natives of the Arctic regions, Seals are indispensable as a means of every-day existence. ”

“ In the British Museum there is the skin of a very young Seal, which was presented by Sir John Richardson as the Falkland Island Fur-Seal, with the observation appended that the adult is 5 feet long, and its skin is worth fifteen dollars. It is without its skull. The fur of this young Seal is dark brown, reddish beneath, and very like that of the young specimen sent by Capt. Abbott; but the hairs are smoother, and the white tips to them are longer and more marked, giving the animal a more grizzled appearance. ”

“ The present device was legally adopted and all we can do is to follow the provisions of the act, having an eye, of course, to general heraldic propriety; but even if the laws of heraldry are transgressed in some minor particulars, I think we still are bound to follow the letter of the law, despite the rules of heraldry. If we must have a strictly heraldic seal, let us go to work ab initio and change the law. ”

“ The earless, or true species, are often seen in considerable numbers on the British coast, and the Great Seal of England—only to be found in the vicinity of the Thames—is of such remarkable size and weight, that it never makes its appearance without producing a strong Impression.
The Green Seal, a much admired variety, is peculiar to Madeira, and seals of various colors are often seen in close proximity to the British. ”

“ It was also their view that the seal to be used by the King on a particular document of the kind referred to should be a seal struck, kept and released by the Government of the Irish Free State, on whose advice the document was issued by the King. ”

“ Casts of these seals were taken by the indefatigable Mr. Doubleday, to whom the Seal department of the British Museum, over which he presides, is so much indebted; and impressions were exhibited by Sir Henry Ellis at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, on the 12th of December, 1833. Engravings of them, accompanied by the following notice, were communicated by Sir Henry to the Archæologia, and will be found in that publication, vol. xxv. plate lxx. fig. 2, 3. page 616., and ibid. pp. 619, 620.:
"The great seal has an obverse and reverse. ”

“ The object I held beneath her gaze was insignificant in itself, merely a small brass seal, but it bore the Warnham arms in exact imitation of the cut amethyst worn by the Earl. It was the seal which had been used to manufacture the duplicate of the envelope containing England’s secret alliance with Germany. ”

“ Probably, therefore it can catch fish in both. In regard to the female of the great seal, Dr. Edmondstone says, "The skin is of a paler colour, more or less patched with darkish blue, and becomes lighter with age. In two aged individuals, of different sexes, the one appears a pale grey, and the other black." There were no patches whatever on the skin of my bottle-nosed seal, as I first called it, but a uniform "pale grey" describes it pretty well. I have called it a uniform silver, and so, indeed, it looked; but pale grey and silver come pretty close to one another. ”

“ It is nearly six feet long, and its fur is yellowish grey, sprinkled above with dark-brown spots. It has no exterior ear. To the inhabitants of the north the seal is a most useful animal; its flesh and fat form their chief food, with its oil they illuminate the long winter nights, its sinews they use as thread, from its bones they make various domestic implements, and with its fur they cover their tents and sledges. Seals are gentle animals, and when tamed exhibit great attachment to man. When wounded they snap savagely in all directions. ”

“ Seals are gregarious as well as polygamous, and when they forsake the open seas for their breeding-places on shore, are very shy of intrusion, and take great care to insure the safety of their retirement, particularly in localities which have been previously visited by human beings. ”

“ As for the personal appearance of the sealers, as they labour at the work of slaughter, they look the most ruffianly set of men in existence. They are dressed in the queerest caps and coats of various shapes, with smuggler-looking breeches and long boots; moustaches and beards are covered with a mass of frozen tobacco-juice, hoar-frost, and Seal’s blood. Their matted hair, gory, greasy, unwashed faces and hands, reek and smell with a strong taint of butchery. ”

“ Seals delight to lie upon the ice, or on the shore, exposed to the sun [17] ; they there sleep very profoundly, and fall an easy prey to the sailors, who dispatch them by a blow on the nose.
Their voice has been not unaptly compared by Buffon to the barking of a hoarse dog; when attacked, they make a more doleful kind of noise.
Pliny expressly states this animal to be of a docile and tractable nature, and in this he is supported by the more enlarged experience of modern times. The seal described by Dr. ”

“ They spin and shoot about, slap each other with their fins or tails, and, every now and again, one hears a curious burst of sound, like subaqueous thunder; whether caused by the swirl, as they go down, or being a growl, half-choked under the water, I do not know. Seals seem to lead a most happy life. I have mentioned one leaping out of the water, as it went along, in pure enjoyment—for what else could it have been? But how different is all this to the lonely sleep of that great thing yonder!—Falstaff—Proteus—Bottle-nose—but that last is a calumny on a very respectable feature. ”

“ The proper rules are that no mother seals, baby seals, or father seals shall be killed, but that the hunters shall watch until the badly behaved bachelor seals have got tired with fighting, and gone up above the rookeries to rest. The hunters ought then to creep in between the seals and the water, and making a noise to frighten them drive them inland.
Every hunter should be armed with a wooden club, and when he has chosen a seal that seems to be about two or three years old, he should strike it with this club and kill it. ”