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 Simitière_, 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 God." 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 assumed. 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: