392 Ohio Arch. and His.
Society Publications.
and honor is not deserving of praise.
The historical data are heavily,
conclusively against Burr. Burr was a
man with the inordinate ambition
of Bonaparte and equally unscrupulous,
cold blooded and selfish. There
was no sacrifice of friends or country
or honor or truth or morality he
would not make for self-gratification
and self-glorification. Burr was a
born intriguer and was associated with Lee
and Gates in their schemes
against Washington. He was detected by
the latter in gross immoral-
ities, and ever after he affected to
despise the military genius and
noble character of Washington. He basely
entrapped the simple minded
Blennerhasset. He wrecked his victim and
cowardly deserted him when
the game was up. More than that,
in the most dastardly manner he
scorned Blennerhasset in the hours of
the latter's distress and disgrace.
No historical novel can right the wrongs
committed by Aaron Burr,
though that novel be written by so
gifted and accomplished a writer
as Mr. Pidgin.
GREAT SEAL OF OHIO.
We have frequent inquiries concerning
the Coat of Arms of the
State of Ohio and especially whether
Ohio ever adopted the motto
Imperium in Imperio.
On April 6, 1866, the Legislature passed
the following act:
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the
General Assembly of the State of
Ohio, That 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 towards the right foreground;
supporting the shield, on the
right, shall be the figure of a farmer,
with implements of agriculture and
sheafs of wheat standing erect and
recumbent; and in the distance, a
locomotive and train of cars; supporting
the shield, on the left, shall
be the figure of a smith, with anvil and
hammer; and in the distance,
water, with a steamboat; at the bottom
of the shield there shall be a
motto, in these words: Imperium in
Imperio.
SEC. 2. The great seal of the state
shall be two and one-half inches
in diameter, on which shall be engraved
the devise included within the
shield, as described in the preceding
section, and it shall be surrounded
with these words: "The Great Seal
of the State of Ohio." Vol. 63,
page 185.
On May 9, 1868, the Legislature amended
the above act and passed
the following:
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the
General Assembly of the State of
Ohio, That the coat of arms of the State of Ohio shall
consist of the
Editorialana. 393
following device: A shield, in form, 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.
SEC. 2. The great seal of the state
shall be two and one-half inches
in diameter, on which shall be engraved
the device as described in the
preceding section, and it shall be
surrounded with these words: "The
great seal of the State of Ohio."
SEC. 4. The act passed April 6, 1868 (0.
L. 63, 185), entitled an act
to provide the devices and great seal
and coat of arms of the State of
Ohio, and said act as amended April 16,
1867 (0. L. 64, 191), be and
the same are hereby repealed.
It will thus be seen that the motto Imperium
in Imperio only existed
during the short life of two years. It
may not be uninteresting to note
that the Legislature which adopted the
"imperial" motto was a Repub-
lican one, while the repealing assembly
was Democratic, being the same
which elected Hon. Allen G. Thurman to
the United States Senate.
The coat of arms practically as we now
have it was originally adopted
in year 1802 or soon after the State was
admitted into the Union.
HARPERS MONTHLY AND SERPENT MOUND.
Harper's Monthly for January current,
has an interesting article by
Prof. Harlan Ingersoll Smith, Department
of Anthropology, Ameri-
can Museum of Natural History, entitled
the Great Pyramid. In this
sketch, which treats of a few of the
most prominent archaeological monu-
ments in the United States, Prof. Smith
describes Fort Ancient and the
Serpent Mound. After speaking of the
preservation by our Society of
these valuable relics of a prehistoric
day, Prof. Smith says: "It ( Fort
Ancient) is now preserved in a public
park, like the Great Serpent, Ohio's
other famous aboriginal earth-work, and,
like that, is controlled for the
public good and preserved for posterity
by the Ohio State Historical So-
ciety. Nor should it be forgotten, that
the good work initiated by Pro-
fessor Putnam of the Peabody Museum at
Harvard, and followed by the
Ohio State Historical Society, is of the
highest value to the country at
large and to future generations, as well
as deserving of the highest praise
in our own time." We quote in full
Prof. Smith's description of Serpent
Mound. "Of all these mounds, the
Great Serpent appeals peculiarly to the
imagination. About its story, which is
yet to be told, the fancy of the
twentieth century weaves traditions of
serpent-worship in a forgotten ci-
vilization, or dreams of Eden and man's
first disobedience. On the top of
a rocky promontory extending into the
beautiful valley of Brush Creek, in
Adams county, Ohio, in the year 1848,
Squier and Davis, the pioneers of
American archaeology, located the
Serpent in a dense forest, and first de-
scribed it. An earthen effigy, complete
and symmetrical, the Great Serpent