One of the pitfalls of running a web site that passes on anecdotes is sometimes you find out an anecdote you passed on to hundreds of students was actually false. I can’t go find every student to rectify an anecdote that was actually apocryphal or just plain wrong. What I can do is to keep teachers from telling stories that are not true. And since my website is for everyone, I can revise some stories some of you were told in history class. This story is a classical example of this.
When I taught my students the basic facts about the U.S., I told them that the national symbol is the bald eagle. This opened the door for me to point out that Benjamin Franklin had wanted the turkey instead. Ha ha! Imagine if he had had his way. Well, I was telling a lie. So here’s what actually happened. Historians read it into textbooks based on a letter that Franklin wrote to his daughter Sarah. (The letter was not delivered.) In the letter, he supposedly was critical of the eagle on the Great Seal of the U.S. He accused it of having bad moral character that was too lazy to catch its own fish. The turkey, on the other hand, was more respectable and although vain and silly, it had courage. We now know that he was making fun of the new medal issued by the Society of Cincinnati, a fraternal organization of Continental Army veterans. It had an eagle on it.
Franklin did have some connection to the Great Seal. Soon after the Declaration of Independence, Franklin, Jefferson, and John Adams were given the task of designing the Seal. Franklin suggested one side have Moses overseeing the drowning of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea. His motto was “Rebellion to tyrants is obedience to God”. Jefferson wanted the Israelites trekking to the Promised Land. Adams wanted “The Judgment of Hercules” which showed Hercules having to choose from an easy versus a difficult path. Thankfully, Congress was not impressed with any of them and the assignment was tabled. A fourth attempt succeeded. It borrowed some ideas from the other committees.
The approved design was mainly the work of Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Congress, with input from William Barton. On one side is an eagle holding arrows and an olive branch in each talon. “E Pluribus Unum” means “out of many, one”. On the other side, there is an unfinished pyramid with the Eye of Providence above it. Carved on the pyramid is MDCCLXXVI meaning 1776. “Annuit Coeptis means “[Providence] has favored our undertakings.” Novus Ordo Seclorum means “New Order of the Ages”. It was approved on June 20, 1782.
Bonus myth broken: The eagle has always faced the olive branch. It does not change sides when the country is at war. It was the President’s Seal that faced the arrows. President Truman changed this by way of Executive Order #9676. When he mentioned this change to a visiting Winston Churchill, Winston quipped: “Maybe the eagle’s head should be on a swivel”.
https://www.fi.edu/benjamin-franklin/franklin-national-bird
https://www.history.com/news/did-benjamin-franklin-propose-the-turkey-as-the-national-symbol
https://www.greatseal.com/symbols/turkey.html
https://www.livescience.com/benjamin-franklin-turkey-national-bird
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