1. the use of seals to give authority to documents, and to establish their genuineness, comes down to us from a remote antiquity. it is much easier to counterfeit a signature alone, than the impression of a seal, and when both occur on a document it is considered fairly safe to be relied on as a sign of authority.
they are usually emblematic of some event, or sentiment attaching to the history or prevailing tendency and feeling of a country. they are used on documents or papers issued by the government. some of the departments have a special seal for their own use, in cases where the signature of the president is not required. if it is not affixed to the proper papers they fail to become legal and have no authority.
2. the usual mode of affixing the seal formerly was by placing melted wax on the paper and pressing the seal on it giving a fac simile or perfect representation of it. as this required time and business increased with the growth of the country, congress passed an act making it lawful to affix the seal by making the impression directly on paper.
the custody of the great seal is with the secretary of state, whose duty it is to affix it to all civil commissions issued to officers of the united states appointed by the president and senate, or by the president alone. but it is forbidden to be affixed before the president has signed it. the seal alone without the signature has no value. it is used to show the genuineness of the president’s signature.
3. the secretary of state and all the other secretaries of the great departments, each have a seal of office which is affixed to[586] commissions, and to other instruments emanating from their respective offices.
several of the most important bureaus are required by law to have seals of office; for example, the land office and the patent office. when the united states gives a patent (title) to land, it must be sealed by the land office seal. a patent right must be issued under the seal of the patent office.
4. one of the most common and important uses of seals arises from the necessity people are often under to have copies of records, maps, and various other papers, the originals of which are in some of the departments at washington, to be used as evidence in courts, where trials and other legal proceedings are pending. in order to provide for this necessity, congress has enacted that copies of such records, maps and papers belonging to any of the government offices, under the signature of the head of such office, or of its chief clerk, with the seal affixed, shall be as competent evidence in all cases as their originals would be.
history of the great seal.
1. soon after the formal establishment of the republic by the declaration of independence, benjamin franklin, john adams, and thomas jefferson were appointed a committee to prepare a seal. they employed an artist and furnished various devices; jefferson combining them all at the request of the others. the paper still exists in the office of the secretary of state at washington. they reported aug. 10th, 1776, but for some unknown reason, probably neglect, it was not acted on.
in 1779 another committee was appointed, to make a device. they reported may 10th, 1780. it was not acceptable, and was recommitted, being again reported a year afterwards, but not adopted. in 1782 a third committee was appointed, but could not satisfy congress in their report. it was then referred to the secretary of congress, charles thomson, who procured various devices that were unsatisfactory.
after vainly striving to perfect a seal which should meet the approval of congress, thomson finally received from john[587] adams, then in london, an exceedingly simple and appropriate device, suggested by sir john prestwitch, a baronet of the west of england, who was a warm friend of america, and an accomplished antiquarian. it consisted of an escutcheon bearing thirteen perpendicular stripes, white and red, with the chief blue, and spangled with thirteen stars; and, to give it greater consequence, he proposed to place it on the breast of an american eagle, displayed, without supporters, as emblematic of self-reliance. it met with general approbation, in and out of congress, and was adopted in june, 1782; so it is manifest, although the fact is not extensively known, that we are indebted for our national arms to a titled aristocrat of the country with which we were then at war. eschewing all heraldic technicalities, it may be thus described in plain english: thirteen perpendicular pieces, white and red; a blue field; the escutcheon on the breast of the american eagle displayed, holding in his right talon an olive-branch, and in his left a bundle of thirteen arrows, and in his beak a scroll, inscribed with the motto e pluribus unum. for the crest, over the head of the eagle, which appears above the escutcheon, a golden glory breaking through a cloud, and surrounding thirteen stars, forming a constellation of white stars on a blue field.
reverse.—a pyramid unfinished. in the zenith, an eye in a triangle, surrounded with a glory. over the eye, the words annuit c?ptis—“god has favored the undertaking.” on the base of the pyramid, are the numeral roman letters mdcclxxvi; and underneath the motto, novus ordo seculorum—“a new series of ages”—denoting that a new order of things had commenced in the western hemisphere. thus, after many fruitless efforts, for nearly six years, a very simple seal was adopted, and yet remains the arms of the united states.
