surmounted by thirteen stars. These two features, it maybe remarked, were also pre served in the final design, but the device as proposed was not accepted. A third committee was thereupon ap pointed, consisting of Messrs. Middleton and Rutledge of South Carolina and Boudinot of New Jersey, and later Arthur Lee of Vir ginia was added. These gentlemen, making but slow progress, called to their aid Wil liam Barton, an ingenious and cultivated citizen of Philadelphia, familiar with the mysteries of heraldry, and within a short time he submitted a pyramid of thirteen layers, typifying the thirteen States, and this idea was preserved in the final design. Charles Thomson, Secretary of Congress, then submitted a design of his own, which included a wide-winged American eagle with a shield on its breast and bearing in its right talon an olive branch, in its left a bundle of thirteen arrows. Above the bird he drew a constellation of thirteen stars, and in the eagle's beak he placed a scroll with the words " E Pluribus Uuum." For the reverse side he approved Bar ton's idea of an unfinished pyramid, and suggested the addition of an eye above it in a radiant triangle, as pictured by Messrs. Franklin, Adams and Jefferson. He pro posed, besides, an inscription to surmount it, reading, " Annuit Cocptis" and an in scription below, "MDCCLXXVI, Novus Ordo Seculorum." These were long strides toward the de sired consummation. The Latin phrases, "Annuit Cocptis," meaning, "It (the Eye of Providence) favors our undertakings," and "Novus Ordo Seculorum," meaning "A new order of the centuries has begun," were doubtless inspired by passages in the Georgics and Eclogues of Virgil. Mr. Barton in turn proceeded to revise Mr. Thomson's plans in some minor partic
ulars, and the seal as decided upon was at last in shape. The reverse side of the seal was not cut in 1782, when the face was engraved, nor has it ever been cut since. It could not conveniently be used for purposes of a seal, and therefore it has been allowed to go unno ticed to the present day. This original great seal was used first by Congress. The oldest document that has been preserved bearing its imprint is a parchment commission dated Sept. 16, 1782, granting full power and authority to General Washington to arrange with the British for an exchange of prisoners of war, signed by John Hanson, President of Con gress, and countersigned by Charles Thom son, Secretary. The seal, impressed upon the parchment over a white wafer fastened by red, was in the upper left-hand cor ner. The present method is to attach the seal to the lower left-hand corner of a docu ment. As adopted by the old Congress, the great seal was continued in force and effect by the present Federal Government under the Constitution by the Act of Congress of Sept. 15, 1789, creating the Department of State. Ever since it has been confined to the custody of the Secretary of State. He was at first required to affix it to all civil commissions of officers of the United States appointed by the President, either alone or with the advice and consent of the Senate, after the commissions had been signed by the President. The President's signature to an official instrument is re garded as a warrant in itself for affixing the great seal. Later on, as the duties of the Govern ment expanded, the practice of affixing the great seal to all commissions was gradually abandoned, and now it is required to be af fixed only to the commissions of members
