Excerpt from The History of the Seal of the United States The committee to design the arms of the new nation had no national precedent to follow, for the arms Of a kingdom are nearly always those of the sovereign or his family, and the new Republic could accept no individual's arms. The several colonies, however, each had a seal, and these, as they were generally significant and simple, would have been a fair guide to the exigencies Of a national seal. The members of the committee, however, had an idea that an allegorical picture significant of the fortunes and destiny of the United States would be more appropriate; but as none of them could draw they called into consul tation Eugene Pierre Du Simitiere, a West Indian Frenchman who lived in Philadelphia and had a reputation as an artist and author. John Adams, It so appears attached to the exchange copy of the treaty of peace with the United States. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.