On the 4th of July, 1776, the very day of Independence, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson were appointed a committee to prepare a device for a great seal. They were of the identical committee that had reported the Declaration of Independence itself. Their report on the seal was made 20th August, 1776; and here we first meet the national motto, in such entire harmony with the Declaration, making us “one people.” Questions of detail intervened, and no conclusion was reached until 20th June, 1782, when the present seal was adopted, being the American bald eagle, with the olive-branch in one talon and a bundle of thirteen arrows in the other, and in his beak a scroll, bearing the inscription, _E pluribus unum_. Familiar as these Latin words have become,--so that they haunt the memory of manhood, youth, and childhood alike,--it is not always considered how completely and simply they tell the story of our national life. Out of Many Colonies was formed One Nation. Former differences were merged in this unity. No longer Many, they were One. The Nation by its chosen motto repeats perpetually, “We are One”; and the Constitution echoes back, “We, the people of the United States.” 3. There is next the National Name, which of itself implies National Unity. The States are not merely allied, associated, coalesced, confederated, but they are _United_, and the Constitution, formed to secure a more perfect union, is “for the _United_ States of America,” which term was used as the common name of the Nation. A regret has been sometimes expressed by patriots and by poets, that some single term was not originally adopted, which of itself should exclude every denationalizing pretension, and be a talisman for the heart to cherish and for the tongue to utter,--as when Nelson gave his great watchword at Trafalgar, “_England_ expects every man to do his duty.” Occasionally it is proposed to call the country _Columbia_, and thus restore to the great discoverer at least part of the honor taken from him when the continent was misnamed _America_. _Alleghania_ has also been proposed; but this word is too obviously a mere invention, besides its unwelcome suggestion of Alligator. Another proposition has been _Vinland_, being the name originally given by the Northmen, four centuries before Christopher Columbus. Professor Lieber, on one occasion, called the nation _Freeland_, a name to which it will soon be entitled. Even as a bond of union, such a name would not be without value. As long ago as Herodotus, it was said of a certain people,[60] that they would have been the most powerful in the world, if they had been united; but this was impossible, from the want among themselves of a common name.