The Galaxy, May, 1877 Part 22

The result of all this faithlessness is seen in the present condition of life insurance affairs. Is the remedy to be found in legislation, in new attempts to make supervision on the part of the State more than a name, or in the abandonment of the whole scheme of supervision and in leaving the business to be carried on without any State control or supervision?

This is really the momentous question of the hour, and one that cannot be too thoroughly discussed or too carefully considered.

In its consideration the status of a policy-holder in a life insurance company must be taken into consideration. To thoroughly understand what that status is, it is necessary to examine carefully the contract on which it rests. Each policy in a life insurance company provides for a life-long engagement on the part of the a.s.sured. He is to continue to pay premiums as long as he lives, if he does not antic.i.p.ate them by a single payment, or by several payments. On its part the company agrees to pay to the a.s.sured, or rather to his nominee at the death of the a.s.sured, a certain sum. In addition, however, to this simple contract, the policy-holder is ent.i.tled to a share in the profits of the company.

That share is greater or less as the case may be, as the organization of the company provides. The policy-holder is thus in a certain sense a partner in the business. He has an expectation of profits, either in the shape of reduced premiums, increased insurance, or actual money. The contract is not one of indemnity merely. It is a contract to pay at death a fixed sum, in consideration of the payment during life of certain sums known as premiums. It is an arrangement by means of which the pecuniary hardships incident to premature death are borne by a great number of persons instead of the family of the person who dies before his expectation of life has been reached. It is apparent from this contract that the company which issues it must in the nature of things have the custody and management of large sums of money. It is contemplated by the parties that acc.u.mulations in the hands of the company must exist, and it is an incident of the contract that the officers of the company shall have the management of that fund. Is the fund a trust to be held by the company for the benefit of the policy-holders? If it be, then the courts of equity have complete and entire jurisdiction, and to them it should be left. They are competent to enforce the proper execution of other trusts, and presumably of this.

Give perfect freedom of individual action to each policy-holder, take off the leading-strings of State supervision, and leave the parties to a life insurance contract where the parties to other contracts are left, to themselves and the courts.

THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES.

CONCERNING SOME IRREGULARITIES IN IT.

It is a somewhat singular fact that although the United States a.s.sumed all the rights, powers, and dignities of a nation on the Fourth of July, 1776, no great seal was adopted until about five months before the signing of the preliminary treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1782. This is the more remarkable when we consider that our forefathers were brought up under the shadow of the English law, which prescribed that no grant nor charter was _factum_ until it was sealed, and of English custom, which taught that even the sign manual of the sovereign must be authenticated by an impression from the privy seal.

But the inception of our government was attended with other informalities than the neglect to provide a seal. Silas Deane, our first political agent to France, wrote from Paris to the secret committee of Congress, under date of November 28, 1776, acknowledging the receipt of the committee's letter of August 7, enclosing a copy of another letter of July 8, the original of which never came to hand, and also a copy of the Declaration of Independence, which, he complains, had been circulated in Europe two months before. This last letter conveyed what was intended to be the official notification to the court of France of the act of separation of the colonies, but was so unofficial in form that Mr. Deane was prompted to say in answer that he would have supposed that "some mode more formal, or, if I may say, respectful, would have been made use of, than simply two or three lines from the committee of Congress.... I mention this as something deserving of serious consideration, whether in your applications here and your powers and instructions of a public nature, it is not always proper to use a seal?

This is a very ancient custom in all public and even private concerns of any consequence."

But although Congress neglected to provide a seal, it was not because it had not antic.i.p.ated the need of one, for this record appears in its journal, under date of Thursday, July 4, 1776:

_Resolved_, That Dr. Franklin, Mr. J. Adams, and Mr. Jefferson be a committee to prepare a device for a seal for the United States of America.

We obtain an insight of the acts of this committee in a letter from John Adams to his wife, under date of Philadelphia, August 14, 1776.

After discussing matters irrelevant to the question at issue, he says:

I am put upon a committee to prepare ... devices for a great seal for the confederated States. There is a gentleman here of French extraction, whose name is _Du Simitiere_, a painter by profession, whose designs are very ingenious, and his drawings well executed.

He has been applied to for his advice. I waited on him yesterday, and saw his sketches.... For the seal, he proposes the arms of the several nations from whence _America_ has been peopled, as _English_, _Scotch_, _Irish_, _Dutch_, _German_, etc., each in a shield. On one side of them, Liberty with her pileus; on the other, a Rifler in his uniform, with his rifle-gun in one hand, and his tomahawk in the other: this dress, and these troops, with this kind of armour, being peculiar to _America_, unless the dress was known to the Romans. Dr. Franklin showed me a book containing an account of the dresses of all the _Roman_ soldiers, one of which appeared exactly like it.... Doctor Franklin proposes a device for a seal: Moses lifting up his wand, and dividing the _Red Sea_, and _Pharaoh_ in his chariot overwhelmed with the waters. This motto, "Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to G.o.d."

Mr. Jefferson proposed the children of _Israel_ in the wilderness, led by a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night; and on the other side _Hengist_ and _Horsa_, the _Saxon_ chiefs from whom we claim the honor of being descended, and whose political principles and form of government we have a.s.sumed.

I proposed the choice of _Hercules_, as engraved by _Gribelin_, in some editions of Lord _Shaftesbury's_ works. The hero resting on his club; _Virtue_ pointing to her rugged mountain on one hand and persuading him to ascend; _Sloth_, glancing at her flowery paths of pleasure, wantonly reclining on the ground, displaying the charms both of her eloquence and person, to seduce him into vice. But this is too complicated a group for a seal or medal, and it is not original.

On August 20 the committee reported to Congress as follows:

The great seal should on one side have the arms of the United States of America, which arms should be as follows:

The shield has six quarters, parts one coupe two. The first or, a rose, enamelled gules and argent for England; the second argent, a thistle proper for Scotland; the third vert, a harp or, for Ireland; the fourth azure, a flower de luce, for France; the fifth or, the imperial eagle, sable, for Germany, and the sixth or, the Belgic lion, gules, for Holland; pointing out the countries from which the States have been peopled. The shield within a border, gules, entwined of thirteen escutcheons, argent, linked together by a chain or, each charged with initial sable letters as follows: 1st. N.H.; 2d, Ma.s.s.; 3d, R.I.; 4th, Conn.; 5th, N.Y.; 6th, N.J.; 7th, Penn.; 8th, Del.; 9th, Md.; 10th, Va.; 11th, N.C; 12th, S.C; 13th, Geo.; for each of the thirteen independent States of America.

Supporters, _dexter_ the G.o.ddess of Liberty, in a corselet of armour, alluding to the present times; holding in her right hand the spear and cap, and with her left supporting the shield of the States; _sinister_, the G.o.ddess of Justice, bearing a sword in her right hand, and in her left a balance.

Crest. The eye of Providence in a radiant triangle, whose glory extends over the shield and beyond the figures. Motto, _E Pluribus Unum_.

Legend round the whole achievement: Seal of the United States of America, MDCCLXXVI.

On the other side of the said great seal should be the following device:

Pharaoh sitting in an open chariot, a crown on his head, and a sword in his hand, pa.s.sing through the divided waters of the Red Sea in pursuit of the Israelites. Rays from a pillar of fire in the cloud, expressive of the Divine presence and command, beaming on Moses, who stands on the sh.o.r.e, and extending his hand over the sea, causes it to overthrow Pharaoh.

Motto, "Rebellion to Tyrants is obedience to G.o.d."

Mr. Adams's letter fortunately gives us the key to this elaborate blazon, else we might have been left for ever in the dark in regard to its authorship. In the general achievement we easily recognize the hand of the "gentleman of French extraction," M. du Simitiere, who perhaps was induced to adopt the G.o.ddess of Justice, with her sword and balance, in lieu of his "Rifler with his rifle-gun," in deference to Mr. Adams's taste for allegory. Dr. Franklin's happy if not original design, ill.u.s.trative of the preservation of the children of Israel from the maw of Pharoah and the Red sea, with a squint also at the deliverance of the colonies from George III. and the billows of tyranny, though sent to the rear, was adopted in whole, as well as his motto. The pillar of fire in the cloud was doubtless taken from the design of Mr. Jefferson, who perhaps had to be propitiated because his children of Israel were discarded in favor of Dr. Franklin's. It needed but the addition of his Hengist and Horsa, and of Mr. Adams's irresolute Hercules between Vice and Virtue, to make a great seal such as the world had never looked upon.

We, who look back through the gloze of a hundred years and are accustomed to regard this trio of patriots as men with whom the degenerate legislators of the present have little in common, may well express astonishment that their work did not meet with immediate approval. But history is a stern mistress, and we cannot efface the record. The journal of Congress shows that the report of the committee was ordered "to lie on the table," and we hear no more of it for three long and momentous years.

On March 25, 1779, it was ordered that the report of the committee on the device of a great seal for the United States, in Congress a.s.sembled, be referred to another committee. On May 10 this committee reported as follows:

The seal to be four inches in diameter, on one side the arms of the United States, as follows: the shield charged in the field with thirteen diagonal stripes alternately red and white.

Supporters, _dexter_, a warrior holding a sword: _sinister_, a figure representing Peace bearing an olive branch.

The Crest, a radiant constellation of thirteen stars.

The motto, _Bello vel Pace_.

The legend round the achievement, "Seal of the United States."

On the Reverse the figure of Liberty, seated in a chair, holding the staff and cap.

The Motto, "Semper," underneath MDCCLXXVI.

This report was taken into consideration on May 17, and after debate ordered to be recommitted. The result was another report:

The seal to be three inches in diameter, on one side the arms of the United States, as follows: the shield charged in the field azure, with thirteen diagonal stripes, alternate rouge and argent.

Supporters, _dexter_, a warrior holding a sword; _sinister_, a figure representing Peace, bearing the olive branch.

The Crest, a radiant constellation, of thirteen stars.

The motto, _Bello vel Pace_.

The legend round the achievement, "The Great Seal of the United States."

On the Reverse, _Virtute Perennis_, underneath MDCCLXXVII.

A miniature of the face of the great seal and half its diameter to be prepared and affixed as the less seal of the United States.

But our critical forefathers were still dissatisfied, and exhibited no more disposition to adopt the false heraldry of the committee of 1779 than the allegorical and Biblical monstrosity of that of 1776. Three years more of incubation were needed to hatch the "bird o' freedom," and it is not until 1782 that we hear of a further movement. On June 13 of that year, William Barton of Philadelphia proposed the following for the arms of the United States:

Arms, Paleways of thirteen pieces argent and gules; a chief azure, the escutcheon placed on the breast of the American (the bald-headed) eagle, displayed proper; holding in his beak a scroll inscribed with the motto, viz., _E Pluribus Unum_, and in his dexter talon a palm or olive branch, in the other a bundle of thirteen arrows, all proper.

For the Crest, over the head of the eagle, which appears above the escutcheon, a glory, or, breaking through a cloud, proper, and surrounding thirteen stars forming a constellation, argent on an azure field.

In the exergue of the great seal, "Jul. IV. MDCCLXXVI."

In the margin of the same, "Sigil Mag. Repub. Confed. Americ."

Mr. Barton proposed also a second device, which needs no notice, as it did not meet with approval.