3. “Holding in his dexter talon an olive branch, and in his sinister a bundle of thirteen arrows, all proper, and in his beak” etc. The olive branch and arrows should, of course, be of the conventional form as no other is specified.
4. Crest—“A glory, or, breaking through a cloud, proper, and surrounding thirteen stars forming a constellation, argent, on an azure field.” This is bad, very bad, heraldically, but I see no way out but to reproduce the original, which I think is done in the drawing.
Reverse. “A pyramid unfinished.” The law does not call for a pyramid of thirteen courses of stone. * * *
Mr. Champlin did not give an opinion on the propriety of cutting the reverse, but so general was the criticism of it, and so palpable were its shortcomings, that it was determined not to cut it, and Mr. Whitehouse’s design of it was not accepted. Its fate has been singular. It was prescribed as part of the seal by the act of 1782, but went unnoticed. The act of September 15, 1789, continued the seal as prescribed in 1782, but no effort was then made to design or cut the reverse. When the seal of 1841 was made it was still ignored, and in 1883 it was definitely determined, after designs had been drawn, to abandon it.
The act of July 7, 1884, made appropriation “to obtain dies of the obverse and reverse” of the seal, the act following the State Department’s request, and it had undoubtedly been the intention of the Department, when the appropriation was asked for, to cut the reverse; but its purpose was changed after fuller consideration, and it felt at liberty to leave this part of the new law unexecuted, as the law of 1782 had remained in part unexecuted for a hundred years. It may be added that when the exhibit of the State Department was prepared for the Chicago Exposition in 1892, large emblazonments of the obverse and reverse of the seal were painted, but the appearance presented by the reverse was so spiritless, prosaic, heavy, and inappropriate that it was never hung.
The design of the obverse of the seal of 1884 was determined upon, as we have seen, with great care. It was an enlargement with some modifications of the seal of 1782, the modifications being in the direction of a closer adherence to the law creating the seal. For example, the eagle’s head bears no crest, as in the European type and as advised against by Mr. Whitmore for the American eagle specified by the law.
THE SEAL (1902)
Face p. [63]
VIII
THE FOURTH SEAL
In 1902, John Hay being the Secretary of State, it was determined that the seal, which had been in constant use for eighteen years, required recutting, and that the press and stand which held it could be improved upon. An act was, accordingly, passed by Congress (July 1, 1902) appropriating $1,250 “To enable the Secretary of State to have the Great Seal of the United States recut.” Some discussion arose among the officers of the Department as to whether the design then in use must be adhered to strictly or could be improved upon, and, after examination of the question, it was determined that the careful investigation which had preceded the acceptance of the design of 1884 rendered a reconsideration of the decision then arrived at unwise, and that the design should be preserved with absolute accuracy. The work of recutting not having been done before the appropriation had expired, it was renewed the following year (act of March 3, 1903) and the act settled definitely any remaining doubts about the design, besides making the appropriation cover the necessary accessories for the seal. It read: