r : ' ' THE GEEAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES. VOLUME I. ITS HISTORY AND HERALDRY. > < Q w < O EC H >- c THE SEAL OF HISTORY. VOLUME I. OUR INHERITANCE THE GREAT SEAL OF " MANASSEH," THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. ITS HISTORY AND HERALDRY; AND ITS SIGNIFICATION UNTO "THE GREAT PEOPLE" THUS SEALED. BV CHARLES A. L. TOTTEN. " Thou hast ordered all things in measure, in number, and weight." Wisdom xI. 20. NEW HAVEN, CONN. : THE OUR RACE PUBLISHING COMPANY. 1897. - / Copyrighted 1882 and 1883 A. D.; Revised 1896 and 1897 ; Re-copyrighted 1897, by CHARLES A. L. TQTTEN. (All rights reserved.') To My Son JAMES TOTTEN and to all 'The Sons of the Revolution " ★ X- This Volume .fa Is Thoughtfully Dedicated trusting that they may be Heartily Sealed ** WITH ¥-» ★ ★ The Glowing Emblems which are their Birthright and Inheritance In Manasseh's Great People M139362 ' ' It is in and through symbols, that man consciously or unconsciously, lives, moves and has his being. Those ages, moreover, are accounted the noblest which can best recognize " symbolical worth and prize it at the highest. Carlyle. Study No. 18 OF The Our Race Series. The Seal of History. TOTTEN. ' ' Every man of the Children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard, with the ensign of his father s house." Num. ii. 2. " On the west side shall be the Standard of the Camp * * * of Ephraim, And by him the Tribe of Manas- seh." Num. ii. jS, 20. '' What nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh unto them, as the LORD our God is, in all that we call " upon Him for. Deut. iv. 7. Study Number Eighteen. THE SEAL OF HISTORY: (MANASSEH'S) Its History and Its Heraldry. CONTENTS: PA OK Frontispiece, . ii Title, .... iii Dedication, . V Table of Contents, ix List of Illustrations, x, xi Prefaces, ... xiii, xv Introductions, . xvii, xix Heraldic Terms, ... xxi First Pkriod. July 4th, 1TT6. First Committee ; Franklin, Adams, Jefferson, 3-48 Second Period. Second Committee, Lovei.l, Scott and Houstoun, . x 49-60 Third Period. Third Committee, Middleton, Boudinot and Rutledoe; Bar ton, Lee, Thomson in Assistance, 61-1i2 Fourth Period. Secretary Thomson as Referee. The Seal Adopted June 20, 1782, 1i13 118 Fifth Period. Legal History of the Seal, and the Seal Among the People, . 119-284 OUR RACE. Editorials, 28", X List of Illustrations. PAGE Page Frontispiece, .. ii. Faulty Illustration. 206 Joseph's Double Cross, . xi. The Great Seal 1841-1885. 208 Du Simitiere's Device, . 9 Confederate Half Dollar. 21 1 Franklin's Proposition, . 11 Great Seal Since 1885 (die) . 215 Jefferson's Seal, 12 Great Seal Since 1885 (bla Inscription. Judges' Cave, 18 zonry) 3-21 The Judges* Cave, .21 Seal. Thomson's Pattern, . 225 Tablet at Judges' Cave, . 22 Great Seal, Webster's Pat The Judgment of Hercules. 25 tern 2i6 Israel in the Wilderness. Jef Great Seal Treaty Pattern . 223 ferson's Device, . .27 Great Seal, Present Pattern, 230 Seal of Attica, , . .29 Auspicium Salutis, .. 242 Flag of the Life Guard. 31 Sub Clypeo 242 Washington's Armory, .. 33 A Continental Design. 243 The Eagle 36 We AreOne (Early Design). 244 The First Design, 44 Mind Your Business Design, . 244 The Second Design, . .52 The Pyramid Design, . 245 The Third Design, , . 55 The Massachusetts Copper, . 246 Design Submitted in 1780, . 5tJ The Nova Constellatio Coin, . 24'S The "Prestwick Shield, . 64 Other Samples of Same, .. 246 One of Barton's Designs, . 78 The Confederatio Copper, . 247 Official Tracing of Same, 79 The Res Publica Copper, . 247 Barton's Crest and Canton, . 84 New York Coppers 1787, .. 248 Secretary Thomson's Device, . 86 New York Gold Coins 1787, . 248 Barton's Final Obverse, .. 9<) The Immunis Columbia Cop Flag The of the Hessians, . 97 per, ... 248 Barton's Crest and Canton, . 106 The New Jersey Cent, . 249 Thomson's Obverse and Re The Carolina Token, . 249 Kentucky verse, . ... 106 The Penny, .. 250 Barton's Obverse and Re The Annapolis Three-pence, . 250 verse, . ... 106 The Connecticut Penny, . 250 The Obverse Used, . 107 The Massachusetts Cent, . 251 The Great Seai 109 The Massachusetts Half Cent, 251 Arms and Crest, Columbian A Washington Coin, . 252 Magazine, 131 A Washington Cent, .. 252 Reverse Arms and Crest, Co A Cent of 1808 253 lumbian Magazine, . 133 Gold 20-dollar Piece of 1797, . 253 The St. Paul Blazonry, . 136 Gold 5-dollaR Piece 1834, .. 253 The Washington Medal, . 145 Silver 50-cents 1837, .. .254 The Diplomatic Medal, . 153 Silver Half Dollar 1840, . 254 The Grand Army Badge, . .160 Silver Quarter Dollar 1853, . 254 The Great Treaty Seal, .. 163 The Seal of the President The Great Seal Medal, . 188 (Cont.), . 255 An Ideal Obverse, . .196 Old Seal Dept. of State, . 257 Obverse and Reverse in One, . 200 Seal of Treasury Dept., . 259 An Ideal Reverse, , . .201 Seal of Dept. of Interior, . 259 List op Illustrations. xi Page Page Seal of Attorney General, . 260 ; Seal op Massachusetts, . 276 Seal of War Deft 260 Seal of Texas, . .277 Arms on Military Buttons, .260 Seal of Colorado, . .277 The Artillery Button, . 261 Examples of Fai.sk Heraldry, 278 The Helmet Device, . .261 When the Stars Sang To The Shoulder Knot (Col.), . 262 gether 286 The Shoulder Strap Devices, . 268 A Crest 287 Seal of the Navy Dept., . .264 < The Obverse and Reverse of Seal of the Post Office Dept., 265 the Universe 287 Place for ColumbianEnvelope I The Hexagonal Crest, . 292 ■ Stamp, . 267 The Double 153, . .202 j Skal of the Lost Cause, . .271 I The Metius Ratio, . , .202 I S R AEL 3j He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Matt. xiii. 11. ORIGINAL PREFACE. There are mysteries connected with the birth of this Republic. They link themselves to those which surround the very discovery of the continent upon which it stands ; and they vanish even further back into the traditions of the people whom we have sup planted here. The same haze of mystery surrounds those legends of the old world which preserved at least the memory of the Lost Atlantis. Rumor has ever made mention of America as the land of Republican ideas — a country set apart, at the very birth of nations, as the Land of Freedom. Long before even Columbus put his foot upon its sacred " soil, it had been " spied out by our Northern ances tors; perhaps the very ships of Dan, "the Pioneer of Israel," had grazed their keels upon its golden sands. The fame thereof, however, worked its way but slowly back toward the Eastern World, and this her itage, reserved for "a great people" of the latter days, continued desolate. Rich in the exhaustless resources brought forth by the sun and moon, in the blessings of the everlasting hills, and of the deep, its broad plains clothed with verdure, the land enjoyed its Sabbaths, and grew fallow all along the ages. At xiv THE SEAL OF HISTORY. last the morning dawned, the Heir arrived, and in due time the Golden Age was born anew. This sunrise has been sketched from many points of view, and its story told in many ways, but there is one summit, loftier than the rest, from which it has not yet been seen, one chapter in the record of the incidents that marked our nation's birth, which has not yet been set in perfect order. It is from this standpoint that the picture is arrayed in its most mysterious proportions, and the object of this volume is to describe from thence the beauties of the scene. Fort Adams, Newport, R. I. November 27, 188a, PREFACE TO REVISION. Following the general principle of premonition whether as to things small or great, that "coming events cast their shadows before," the whole world in the generation that preceded our national birth was anticipating the establishment of Empire here, and the sealing of it down in perpetuity. -Our land, that is,according to their notion, was to be the Seal is of History and in fact it is, for there no land west of us. We occupy as it were the Reverse of the globe. Its Obverse is the Old or Eastern Hemi sphere; our own is the New World. Beyondour western shores Empire cannot pass but must then rise, as at a bulwark, and flood back until it overflows both faces of History. But even then the impression will be only that of the under face of God's universe, its terrestrial or Reverse side; for over us is the canopy of Heaven, the celestial side or Obverse of all things—unto which in the ages of the ages all earthly institutions are to grow until they reach the measure of a man, that is of an angel. The Great Seal of the United States of America is the Prophecy of this, and in those Millennial days Manasseh will indeed mean Peace. New Haven, Conn., February 22, 1897. "There was also a lot for the Tribe of Manasseh: for he was the first-born of Joseph; to wit, for Machir the first-born of Manasseh, the father of Gilead: because he " was a man of war: therefore he had Gilead and Bashan. fosh. xvii. 1. " Out of the tribe of Manasseh in Bashan, thirteen " cities. / Citron, vi. 6s. "The daughters of Manasseh had an inheritance among his sons," fosh. xvii. 6. ORIGINAL INTRODUCTION. The year 1882 was important in our annals as the Centennial anniversary of the adoption of our Great Seal. This fact was duly celebrated at the United States Mint in Philadelphia by the striking and issue of a Commemorative Medal, in which for the first time since its original adoption, the entire heraldry of this important instrument has been officially dis played.