Ohio History Journal

The Great Seal of Ohio.               489       THE GREAT SEAL OF OHIO.   BY S. S. KNABENSHUE. Artists and engravers take great liberties with the coat-of- arms of the United States when they use it in illustration. Every one knows that the great seal of the nation contains the eagle, the shield, and the motto "E pluribus unum"; but there are com- paratively few who are familiar with the design properly dis- played, according to the letter of the statute. The same is true

of the state seals, and notably of that of Ohio. Some artist, a half century or more ago, in a newspaper cut, introduced an "ark" or flat-boat with a roof, which was the mode of trans- portation used by the settlers of southern Ohio a century and a quarter ago, and larer. They came overland to Pittsburg and thence by ark down the Ohio. This innovation has been repeated so often that many people suppose the ark - or canal-boat, as it is often mistakenly called--belongs on the Ohio seal. It does not, and never had a place there. The first legislature, after Ohio became a state, provided by law for a great seal. The act was passed March 25, 1803. It provided for the design as follows: "On the right side, near the bottom, a sheaf of wheat, and on the left a bundle of seven-

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490      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

teen arrows, both standing erect; in the background, and rising

above the sheaf and arrows, a mountain, over which shall appear

a rising sun. The state seal to be surrounded by these words:

'The great seal of the State of Ohio.' "

The engraver who cut the seal departed slightly from the

letter of the law. In place of a mountain he made three; and he

also placed a river flowing along the base of the range. The

state capital was then Chillicothe, and it is a local tradition there

that he used the outline of Mount Logan, which stands east of

the city, for the central peak, and represented the Scioto river,

which washes the base of the hill. This story is very probably

correct.

This remained the legal design of the state seal until 1866.

Some one, who realized what a nice job it would be to replace all

the seal presses used for county, judicial, notarial and other official

seals, with new dies, succeeded in getting the design changed.

The act of April 6, 1866, provided as follows:

"The coat-of-arms of the State of Ohio shall consist of the

following device: A shield, upon which shall be engraved on

the left in the foreground, a bundle of seventeen arrows; to the

right of the arrows, a sheaf of wheat, both standing erect; in

the background, and rising above the sheaf and arrows, a range

of mountains, over which shall appear a rising sun; between the

base of the mountains and the arrows and the sheaf, in the left

foreground, a river shall be represented flowing toward the right

foreground. * * * At the bottom of the shield there shall

be a motto, in these words: "Imperium in imperio."

It will be seen that the design really followed the old Chil-

licothe engraver's idea, in the points in which he did not follow

exactly the law of 1803. The only really new thing was the

addition of the motto. When its meaning -"An empire within

an empire"--was fully understood, there was a great deal of

objection. It savored of the old southern state rights doctrine,

which was one of the dogmas settled adversely by the civil war,

then just over.

The next General Assembly got rid of the motto by the act

of May 9, 1868, which says: "That the coat-of-arms of the

State of Ohio shall consist of the following device: A shield, in

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The Great Seal of Ohio.              491

form of a circle. On it, in the foreground, on the right, a sheaf

of wheat; on the left, a bundle of seventeen arrows, both standing

erect; in the background, and rising above the sheaf and arrows,

a mountain range, over which shall appear a rising sun."

This simply restored the original design of 1803, except that

it used the phrase "a range of mountains" instead of "a moun-

tain." In engraving the seal, however, the river was left in,

although not mentioned in the act, as will be seen by the cut.

Ohio was the seventeenth state admitted to the Union, there-

fore the bundle of seventeen arrows typifies the American Union;

the sheaf of wheat is symbolic of agriculture, the state's original

and still most important industry. The rising sun is an allusion

to the advance of the state in wealth and power. The moun-

tains are an allusion to the fact that this was the first state west

of "the mountains"-that is, the Alleghanies. Though not

authorized, the river is altogether appropriate, it referring to the

Ohio river, from which the state was named.

[For note concerning great seal of Ohio and motto Imperium in Im-

perio, see page 392 supra. - EDITOR.]

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