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 SIGILLOLOGIA. 
 BEING SOME ACCOUNT . 
 
 OF THli 
 
 GREAT OR BROAD SEAL 
 
 THE 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 A MONOGRAPH. 
 
 >N OMN IS MOBIAE. 
 
 DEDICATED TO THE SACRED MBMOBY 010 
 
 "The gallant died in vain, 
 
 For those who knew not to resign or reign." 
 
 BY EOLOGOS. 
 
 {Honi so talypense!) 
 
 PBICE 25 CENTS. 
 
 *-»-• 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 Published by Kebvand & Towers. 
 
 Printed by Powell & Ginck, 
 
 . 032 F Street. 
 1873. 
 
 ' i fv t y f>ff»T WT Vvy ?? TV T» 7vvv y Tvv f V fT yyvir 7vnr yy v?vT f vtf v^ yy » »*' » »< *» 
 
SIOILLOLOGIA.. 
 
 BEING SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF. THE 
 
 GREAT OR BROAD SEAL 
 
 OP THE 
 
 CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 A MONOGRAPH. 
 
 XON OMNIS MORIAR. 
 DEDICATED TO THE SACKP^D MEMORY 
 
 "The gallant cavaliers who died in vain, 
 For those who knew not to resign or reign.'" 
 
 BY IOANNES DIDYMUS ARCHiEOLOGOS. 
 
 (Honi soit qui mal y pense !) 
 
 <jir 
 
 PRICE 25 CENTS. ° J 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. 
 
 Published by Kervand & Towers. 
 
 Printed by Powell & Ginck, 
 
 630, 632 F Street. 
 
 1873. 
 
r V 
 
 
 
THE GREAT SEAL 
 
 OF THE 
 
 ©@ii i i©iM4^; 
 
 In Harper's Monthly Magazine for February, 1869, there 
 is an interesting paper entitled " The Executive Depart- 
 ments and Seals," in which occurs the following passage : 
 
 " In our day the extraordinary spectacle has been seen 
 of the efforts of an oligarchy, small in numbers, but power- 
 ful in influence, to establish another nation within the 
 bounds of the Republic — imperiumin imperio — and to give to 
 it the symbol of sovereignty in the form of a Great Seal. 
 The youngest of us, old enough to reflect and reason, have 
 seen that ' nation,' so-called, spring up from the late slave- 
 labor States which formed the northern portion of the great 
 golden circle of empire devised by conspirators. It was a 
 Caliban in features ; barbaric in its proclivities ; awfully 
 potential in mischievous works ; protesting with fire, sword 
 and torture against the civilization of the age ; and yet 
 impudently insisting upon its recognition as one of the 
 family of legitimate and respectable sovereignties. Its titu- 
 lar initials were * C. S. A.' Its fathers resolved that it, 
 like the nation it was attempting to overthrow by internal 
 convulsions, should have a Great Seal, and in * Congress ' 
 resolved, in the spring of 1863, that it should bear ' a de- 
 vice representing an equestrian statue of Washington 
 (after the statue which surmounts his monument in the 
 capitol square at Richmond), surrounded with a wreath 
 
composed of the principal products of the Confederacy, 
 and having around its margin the words i Confederate 
 States of America, Feb. 22, 1862/ with the following motto : 
 
 * Deo Vindice? God, the protector, defender, deliverer, or 
 ruler — indicative of the expected longevity of the ' nation ' 
 because of divine protection and sustenance. Alas ! that 
 
 * nation ' so notably ' conceived in sin and born in iniquity,' 
 died of political and moral marasmus in its infancy, un- 
 honored by any recognition of its existence excepting by 
 a Latin ghost of sovereignty. It had repeated history* by 
 a delay in providing itself with the usual symbol of nation- 
 ality. That symbol— the Great Seal of the infant Con- 
 federacy — sent to it by its nurse, England, reached the ap- 
 pointed seat of the empire of the ' C. S. A.' just as its self- 
 constituted guardians were flying from the wrath of God, 
 whose protection they had impiously invoked. The ill- 
 favored bantling died, and was left to decay, without real 
 mourners, without burial, and without a monument, for 
 no true man desired to perpetuate its memory. Anti- 
 quaries, in the future, will search in vain for any impres- 
 sion of an emblem of sovereignty of the ' C. S. A.' 2sone 
 was ever made. The broad seal of the Republic kindly 
 covers the dishonored ashes of that child of sin." 
 
 Although we cannot but think the language of archae- 
 ology should be more temperate than the foregoing, yet it 
 is not the intention of the writer of this simple monograph 
 to take any exceptions thereto. The de mortals nil nisi 
 bonum, is wholly out of fashion, at least in this land, both 
 as to States and statesmen. In fact an amiable friend of 
 the writer lately published a newspaper article in the en- 
 deavor to prove the generous, time-honored latin maxim 
 to be a delusion and a snare, or, to speak after the Ameri- 
 can manner, a humbug and a fraud. 
 
 Ours be it, therefore, to show, with moderation of style, 
 
 *An allusion to the delay of the United States in procuring their 
 broad seal. 
 
that the paper from which \ve have quoted is in error when 
 it says " antiquaries, in the future, will search in vain for 
 any impression of an emblem of sovereignty of the ' C. S. 
 A.' None was ever made." 
 
 At the third session of the first Congress* of the Con- 
 federate States of America, the uecessary legislation was 
 had for the establishing of a seal, as follows : 
 
 [No. 4.] Joint resolution to establish a seal for the Confed- 
 erate States. 
 
 Resolved, by the Congress of the Confederate States of 
 America, That the seal of the Confederate States shall 
 consist of a device representing an equestrian portrait of 
 Washington, (after the statue which surmounts his monu- 
 ment in the capitol square at Richmond,) surrounded with 
 a wreath composed of the principal agricultural products 
 of the Confederacy, (cotton, tobacco, sugar cane, corn, 
 wheat and rice,) and having around its margin the words: 
 " The Confederate States of America, twenty-second Feb- 
 ruary, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, with the following 
 motto : " Deo vindice" 
 
 Approved, April 30, 1863. [C. S. Statutes at Large.] 
 
 And thus we have a succinct and accurate description of 
 that which symbolized the once formidable but ephemeral 
 Confederacy. 
 
 Accordingly the Hon. J. P. Benjamin, Secretary of 
 State of the Confederate States, in l}is dispatch of May 20, 
 1863, (No. 23) to the lion. James M. Mason, Commissioner 
 of the Confederate States near the government of Great 
 Britain, expresses the will of Congress with regard to the 
 proposed seal in the following very judicious and interest- 
 ing manner: 
 
 *It must be borne in mind that the previous and original Congress 
 was provisional ; the permanent government of the Confederate States 
 not having been established until February 22, 1862. 
 
6 
 [ « No. 23.] 
 
 " Department of State, 
 
 " Richmond, May 20, 1863. 
 
 " Hon. James M. Mason, 
 
 &c, &c, &c, 
 
 " London. 
 
 " Sir : 
 
 # . .# # * # * # # 
 
 H Congress lias passed a law establishing a seal for the 
 Confederate States. I have concluded to get the work ex- 
 ecuted in England, and request that you will do me the 
 favor to supervise it. You will receive herewith a copy 
 of the act of Congress describing the sea], and a photo- 
 graphic view of the statue of Washington. The photo- 
 graph represents the horse as standing on the summit of 
 an obelisk, but in the seal the base ought to be the earth, 
 as the representation is to be of a horseman and not of a 
 statue. The size desired for the seal is the circle on the 
 back of the photograph. The outer margin will give space 
 for the words < The Confederate States of America, 22d 
 February, 1862.' I do not think it necessary that the 
 date should be expressed in words, the figures 22, 1862, 
 being a sufficient compliance with the requirement of 
 the law. Indeed, I* know that in the drawing sub- 
 mitted to the committee that devised the seal, the 
 date was in figures and not in words. There is. not 
 room for the date in words on the circumference of the 
 seal without reducing the size of the letters so much as to 
 injure the effect. In regard to the wreath and the motto, 
 they must be placed as your taste and that of the artist 
 shall suggest, but it is not deemed imperative, under the 
 words of the act, t\\'<xt all the agricultural products (cotton, 
 tobacco, sugar cane, corn, wheat and rice) should find place 
 in the wreath. They are stated rather as examples. I am 
 
inclined to tliink that in so small a space as the wreath 
 must necessarily occupy, it will be impossible to include all 
 these products with good effect, and in that event I would 
 suggest that cotton, rice and tobacco, being distinctive pro- 
 ducts of the southern, middle and northern States of the 
 Confederacy, ought to be retained, while wheat and corn 
 being produced in equal abundance in the United States 
 as in the Confederacy, and therefore less distinctive than 
 the other products named, may better be omitted, if omis- 
 sion is found necessary. It is not desired that the work be 
 executed by any but the best artist that can be found, and 
 the difference of expense between a poor and a fine speci- 
 men of art in the engraving is too small a matter to be taken 
 into consideration in a work that w r e fondly hope will be 
 required for generations yet unborn. 
 
 •" Pray, give your best attention to this, and let me know 
 about what the cost will be and when I ma} r expect the 
 work to be finished." 
 
 Monographic as w r e have designed this paper to be, we 
 cannot refrain from transcribing the remainder of this dis- 
 patch of Mr. Benjamin, affording, as it does, a vivid pic- 
 ture of those times, as well as of its writer's hopeful and 
 somewhat credulous nature, and of his ardent devotion to 
 the now Lost Cause.* 
 
 " I am happy to apprise you that the information from 
 all parts of the Confederacy is most encouraging, as re- 
 gards the growing crops. In the more southern portions 
 of our country they are just beginning to gather the wheat 
 harvest, and no complaint is heard from any part of the 
 country of rust or other injury. The production of wheat 
 
 *The present writer is not one of those who expects ' to go to Mr. Ben- 
 jamin when he dies,' and although regarding at the time and still re- 
 garding the undue influence which he (Mr. B.,) exercised over Mr. Da- 
 vis as a great calamity to ' The Cause,' justice requires that he should 
 be vindicated from the suspicion of unfaithfulness to the Confederacy. 
 
8 
 
 and other small grain will be very large this year, while . 
 that of corn will be enormous, probably enough for two 
 year's consumption, unless some very unexpected and un- 
 usual calamity shall occur. Our enemies must find some 
 other instrumentality than starvation before they succeed 
 in breaking the proud spirit of this noble people. How 
 it makes one's heart swell with emotion, to witness the 
 calm, heroic, unconquerable determination to be free, that 
 fills the breast of all ages, sexes and conditions. 
 
 " What effect may be produced in Europe by the repulse 
 at Charleston and the defeat of Hooker is not now even 
 the subject of speculation among the people. It is the 
 evident purpose of foreign governments to accord or re- 
 fuse recognition according to the dictates of their own in- 
 terests or fears, without the slightest reference to right or 
 justice, and we have thus learned, at heavy cost, a lesson 
 that will, I trust, remain profitable to our statesmen in all 
 future time. 
 
 " We have now, by our system of taxation, so arranged 
 our financial affairs as to be entirely confident of the ability 
 to resist, for an indefinite period, the execrable savages 
 who are now murdering and plundering our people, and 
 no prospect of peace is perceptible from any other source 
 than the growing conviction among all classes in the 
 United States that they are waging a war as ruinous in the 
 present as it is hopeless for the future." 
 
 We have been unable to find anything among the Con- 
 federate archives, from Mr. Mason, in reply to the fore- 
 going instructions as to the seal, until his dispatch to Mr. 
 Benjamin, dated London, February 18, 1864, wherein 
 occurs the following passage : 
 
 " In regard to the seal, too, I have now a report from 
 Mr. Foley, who, it seems, has been some time absent from 
 London. He says that the artizan, Mr. Wyon, employed 
 to engrave it, informs him that it will yet require six 
 
9 
 
 weeks or two months to to finish it, as he is very anxious 
 to bestow upon it all the pains so important a work de- 
 mauds. He is executing it in silver, (the metal the state 
 seals of England are executed in) which offers the advan- 
 tage of proof against rust so often destructive to seals ex- 
 ecuted in steel. 
 
 " The above is from Mr. Foley's note of the 10th instant, 
 from Dublin, to me at Paris, He tells me, further, that 
 the cost of engraving the seal, including the press for work- 
 ing it, will be eighty guineas, and that it is customary in 
 England to receive one-half the amount on commencing 
 the work. He advises that I should conform, as it will at 
 least prevent excuse for delay, and which I will do as soon 
 as I can obtain the address of Mr. Wyon." 
 
 "We next hear from Mr. Mason, on the subject of the 
 seal, under date of Paris, April 12, 1864. 
 
 Mr. Mason to Mr. Benjamin : 
 
 " .Before I left London I called on Mr. Wyon, the artist 
 employed to make the Confederate seal referred to in my 
 No. 4, and paid him forty guineas, equal to forty-two 
 pounds, one-half the cost of the seal, in advance, and ar- 
 ranged that when it was ready it should be carefully packed, 
 with the press, &c, in a box lined with tin, and put in 
 charge of Mr. Hotze until it could be sent over. He 
 promised it should be ready by the middle of May." 
 
 We again indulge in a little episode by admitting the 
 following illustrative paragraph from the same dispatch of 
 Mr. Mason : 
 
 " In regard to the spurious report of Mr. Mallory, as 
 Secretary of the Navy, about which I wrote in my No. 5, 
 Lord Russell took occasion, a few days since, to say in the 
 House of Lords, that since it was communicated to him 
 Mr. Seward had admitted that it was a forgery, fabricated, 
 as he said, by some i gentleman ' in New York !!!!!!!!!! 
 i t i i I t i i i i i » 
 
10 
 
 We give the precise number of his notes of exclama- 
 tion. Noble old Virginian ! we fear he was not the man 
 for that place and those times. But one cannot read his 
 dispatches without a feeling of profound admiration for 
 his exalted character. 
 
 The official and pecuniary history of the seal ends with 
 the following dispatch from Mr. Mason to Mr. Benjamin, 
 audits appendix — being the bill of the engraver, amounting 
 to 122 pounds 10 shillings, equal to about $700 United 
 States currency, at present (July, 1873,) price of gold. 
 Other appendices, being " directions tor using the Great 
 Seal of the Confederate States," we omit, as they relate to 
 a purely mechanical subject: 
 
 " London, July 6, 1864, 
 
 " 24 Upper Seymour Street, 
 " Postman Square. 
 
 " Hon. J. P. Benjamin, 
 
 " Secretary of State. 
 
 " Sir : I have the pleasure to inform you that I send by 
 Lieutenant Chapman, C. S. A., who bears this, the seal of 
 the Confederate States, at last completed. It is much ad- 
 mired by all who have seen it here, and I hope you will 
 approve it as a fine work of art. 
 
 " The seal is carefully put up in a separate small box, 
 and Lieut. Chapman is charged, under no circumstances, 
 to run the risk of its being captured. He takes the route 
 to Bermuda, via Halifax, to sail on Saturday, 9th instant, 
 and I ship through Messrs. Fraser, Trenholm & Co., by the 
 steamer that takes him to Halifax, two boxes containing 
 the iron press, with a full supply of wax and other 
 materials for the use of the seal. Although not expressly 
 ordered, in the difficulty of obtaining these in the Con- 
 federacy at present, at least of approved quality, I have 
 thought it best to have them supplied here, all which I 
 hope you w T ill approve. 
 
 " The enclosed duplicate bill will furnish a list of those 
 
11 
 
 materials, with the prices. The original I have paid and 
 retain. 
 
 " I have requested Lieutenant Chapman to take charge 
 of the boxes at Bermuda, and to see to their safe delivery. 
 To relieve him of expenses on the route, I have further 
 requested Messrs, Fraser, Trenholm & Co., here, if they can 
 do so, to pay the freight all the way to Bermuda, and write 
 to Major "Walker at Bermuda to pay the freight thence to 
 the Confederacy, should they not go in a Government 
 ship. 
 
 " Still it is possible that some part of this may not be done, 
 and I have accordingly told Lieutenant Chapman, should 
 any expenses in the transportation devolve on him, it 
 should be paid promptly at the Department of State, which 
 oblige me by having attended to. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, &c, &c, &c, 
 
 [Signed.] « J. M. MASON." 
 
 [Duplicate Account.] 
 
 J. M. Mason, Esq. 
 
 To Joseph S. Wyon, 
 Chief Engraver of Her Majesty's Seals, &c, 
 
 287 Regent Street, London, W. 
 
 1864. July 2. — Silver Seal for the Confederate States of 
 America, with ivory handle, box with 
 spring lock and screw press. . . £84 
 
 3,000 wafers 4 10 
 
 1,000 seal papers 7 
 
 1,000 strips of parchment 18 
 
 100 brass 'boxes 16 5 
 
 100 cakes of wax 7 
 
 100 silk cords 6 5 
 
 1 perforator 5 
 
 3 packing cases lined with tin.. 3 
 
 £122 10 
 By cash, 21 March, £42. 
 Settled by cheque for balance, 6th July, 1864. 
 
 L.oV 
 
12 
 
 The article in Harper's Magazine from which we have 
 quoted, lays stress upon the fact that, " that symbol, the 
 Great Seal of the Confederacy, was sent to it by its nurse, 
 England." But the author seems to have forgotten that 
 in his paper on the Great Seal of the United States, which 
 is in the same magazine, for July, 1856, he dwells with 
 some complacency upon the fact that the earlier and more 
 enduring symbol was " invented by an English aristocrat, 
 Sir John Prestwich." He will accord to the Confederates 
 at least the merit of having " invented" their own symbol ; 
 though it must be confessed there is not much that is 
 heraldic about it beyond the inevitable man on horseback. 
 And it will be noted, that the Confederates were indebted 
 to England solely for the mechanical execution of their 
 Great Seal. We (the writer speaking as a quondam Con- 
 federate) should have been too happy to have found an 
 alma mater in old England. Eheu ! 
 
 It may be not out of place here to observe that there 
 are two faces to the Great Seal of the United States, but 
 only the obverse is used, and, as in the case of the moon, 
 we never see the reverse ; the design of which consists of 
 a truncated pyramid with the Omniscient eye above ; at 
 the base of the pyramid " 1-776 " in numeral letters. Over 
 the eye the words Annuit Coeptis, and underneath all the 
 legend Novus Ordo Seclorum. 
 
 It is quite germane to our subject that we make some 
 reference to the seals of the mother country. We find in 
 the Congressional Library a curious little book published 
 just 200 years ago. The following is its title : 
 
 Jus Sigilli or the Laio of England, Touching His Majesties 
 four principal Seales, viz : the Great Seale, the Prime Seale, 
 the Excheqer Seale, and the Signet. Also of those grand 
 officers to whose custody these Seales are committed. 
 
13 
 
 London, 1673. 
 
 Consecrated to the Clarissimo, Consultissimo, Dissertis- 
 simoque Viro, Domino Johanni Churchill, In agro Sorn- 
 ersetensi Eqaiti Aurato, &c, &c, &c, by Johannes Brydall, 
 Armiger, ac Somersetensis. 
 
 [We will now give the leading sentence of each of the 
 several chapters.] 
 
 I. Of the Great or Broad Seal* of England. 
 
 This Great Seal is in the custody of the Lord Chancel- 
 lor or Lord Keeper, and there is a special officer in the 
 High Court of Chancery, called Sigillator, who hath the 
 sealing of writs, and other things that pass the Great Seale. 
 
 II. Of the Privie Seal. 
 
 Parvum Sigillum, the Little or Petit Seal, after called Pri- 
 vatum Sigillum, the Privie Seal, is a Seal that his most Sa- 
 cred and excellent Majesty useth sometime for a warrant, 
 whereby things passed the Privie Signet and brought to it 
 are sent further to be confirmed by the Great Seal of 
 England. Sometime for the strength or Credit of other 
 things, written upon Occasions more Transitory and of less 
 continuance than those be that pass the Great Seal. 
 
 III. Of the Exchequer Seal. 
 
 The seal belonging to the Court of Exchequer is in the 
 custody of the Chancellor, of whom these following authors 
 speak thus, &c. : 
 
 [We can give only one, and choose him for his quaint- 
 
 ness.] 
 
 3. Plowden: L 'es chequer ad Chancellor et Seal etles Brief es 
 usuall en le Chancery en L'eschequer de seiser le Terre en tiel 
 Case, sont pluis antient, que le Register, ou le Treatise Prce- 
 rogatica Regis. 
 
 *It will be observed that the orthography of the English language was 
 not fixed at that time, nor is it at the present. 
 
14 
 
 IV. Of the Signet. 
 
 This Seal is in the custody of the Principall Secretary, 
 as well for Sealing his Majesties private Letters, as also 
 such grants as pass the King's Hands by Bill assigned. 
 And there are four Clerks of the Signet called Clerici 
 Sif/neti, attending on this Secretary in their Course, and 
 were used to have their Dyet at his table. 
 
 Our subject is not, strictly speaking, connected with 
 numismatics, but by referring to Prime's work on coins, 
 medals and seals, (Harper & Brothers, 1861,) plates will be 
 seen of many of the Great Seals of England, beginning 
 with William the Conqueror, and including Magna Carta 
 John. It seems that each succeeding sovereign of that 
 realm has his own broad seal. 
 
 The use of the seal is very ancient, almost coeval with 
 historic man, for antique intaglii are found wherever 
 the least degree of art has nourished. These antiquated 
 seals, especially Etruscan, Grecian, Roman, Carthaginian, 
 &c, are become almost common, even in this country, of late 
 years, the more prized, perhaps, by reason of the fact that the 
 polishing of the intaglio ranks among the lost arts, although 
 there is now an artist in Paris whose work passes even with 
 the virtuosi, but it is more expensive than the genuine, ex- 
 cept as to those specimens which are so costly as to be 
 termed " priceless." We have before us at this writing an 
 impression from a head of Antinous, for which gem the 
 owner has refused $2,000 ; and we, ourselves, have a head 
 of Jupiter valued at $500. But very handsome ones can 
 now be had in New York, for $100 or so. 
 
 But turn -we now to high antiquity. 
 
15 
 
 From the " Sabsean* Researches " of John Landseer,t 
 Fellow of the Eoyal Society, &c, and engraver to the King, 
 a work published in London just fifty years ago, and for 
 the use of which we are indebted to the well-furnished 
 library of that Learned Theban, Genl. Albert Pike, we 
 extract the following in illustration of our theme : 
 
 Mr. Landseer, in a letter to Sir Joseph Banks, in re- 
 ference to certain cylindrical gems iintaglii) disinterred at 
 Babylon and in Phoenicia, proceeds most satisfactorily to 
 his reader to show why he conceives the gems to have 
 been orignally not worn as talismans or amulets, but used 
 as signets, that is to say, impressed for the purposes of ratify- 
 ing such social and religious transactions as called for a 
 sacred pledge. 
 
 He then treats of them with reference to the ancient 
 customs of Chaldea and Assyria, (Sabsean nations of 
 course), and observes that. Herodotus, in detailing those 
 customs as they existed in his time, says that every Assy- 
 rian possessed a signet or seal. But this father of history 
 does not inform us as to the shape of the seal, nor the 
 manner in which mounted. 
 
 Reference in the Pentateuch to the engraver's art shows 
 that in the time of Moses, it was no recent invention, and 
 
 "This word signifies worshippers of the stars, and is applied to all 
 those very ancient nations which cultivated astronomy, deified the sun, 
 &c. 
 
 The Sabacans are frequently mentioned in the Pentateuch, the book 
 of Job, &c. 
 
 The charmingly poetical expression of " Sabamn odors from Araby 
 the Blest," refers to the Arabian town of Saba, famed for its aromatic 
 plants. Arabia Felix. 
 
 fFather of Sir Edwin Landseer, the celebrated painter of animals, 
 especially canines, to whom the Rev. Sidney Smith said, when asked 
 hy him to sit for his portrait, " is thy servant a dog that he should do 
 this thing?" When Landseer was presented to the King of Portugal 
 that youthful monarch said, "I am delighted to make your acquaint- 
 ance, Sir Edwin : I am so fond of beasts !" 
 
1G 
 
 that among the surrounding nations signets were then com- 
 mon and in well-known use. 
 
 Joseph us, too, informs us that some ages before the time 
 of Moses, when Pharaoh invested the youthful Joseph with 
 power over the land and people of Egypt, he entrusted to 
 his discretion the use of the royal signet, along with and as 
 the ostensible mark of the royal authority. 
 
 The Chaldean progenitors of the Jews were engravers; 
 and it is by no means improbable — considering the nume- 
 rous uses to which the signet may have been applied in a 
 rude age, when writing could have been practiced but by 
 few persons; considering too, the great number of signets 
 that must in consequence have become necessary — that 
 Terah, the Chaldean, the father of Abraham, and the first 
 artist whose name is anywhere upon record, was an en- 
 graver of signets as well as a sculptor or modeller of such 
 small idols as Rachel, in three generations from Terah, is 
 recorded to have hidden under the furniture of a camel. 
 
 The dimensions of these curious antiques are various, 
 some being ten times as large as others. Speaking gener- 
 ally, they are from three-fourths of an inch to more than 
 two inches in length. These elaborately wrought instru- 
 ments of ratification, these pledges of honor or of super- 
 stitious faith, were easily portable and served as personal 
 ornaments. 
 
 Ferdosi, the poet, records that when Sohrab, the son of 
 his hero, (Roostum) had received his death wound from 
 the hand of his unknown father, he tore open his coat of 
 mail, and showed the seal which his mother had placed on 
 his arm when she revealed to him the secret of his birth, 
 and bade him seek his father. " The sight of his own 
 signet (says Ferdosi) rendered Roostum quite frantic," kc. 
 
 The passage in the Idyl of Solomon, " set me as a seal 
 upon thine arm," doubtless alludes to the same oriental 
 custom, and is of a date between Juclah and Roostum. 
 
 " Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days ? 
 

 17 
 
 Hast thou caused the day-spring to know his place, that it 
 might take hold of the ends of the earth ? It is turned 
 as clay to the seal," &c. job., chap. 38. 
 
 The sealing substances of the land of ITz and probably 
 that of the nations on the banks of the Euphrates, at this 
 remote period, was clay, the ooze of that river, the very 
 same substance, levigated, perhaps, of which the stamped 
 Babylonian bricks are formed ; and our instructive author 
 adds, that of the various substances (such as wax, pastes, 
 &c.,) on which he has tried to impress these ancient signets, 
 he has found clay the fittest both for receiving and retain- 
 ing the impression. The durability of well-made bricks, 
 whether burnt in the fire or in the sun, is well known. 
 
 Our excellent author gives us much learned discourse 
 on the philology of the nouu signet, and the verb to seal, 
 showing how the latter came to be used, both as a noun 
 and as a verb. When the King of Babylon closed up the 
 entrance to the temple of Baal, and that of the den of 
 lions to which the prophet Daniel was consigned, by ap- 
 application of the royal signet, — in the latter instance 
 there were added impressions from the signets of his 
 nobles. The sacred text also alludes to the irrevocability 
 of the seals of the Medes and Persians, by adding " that 
 the purpose might not be changed." 
 
 Signet is from the same root and belongs to the same 
 verbal family, with Signal, Ensign, Signature, Insignia, 
 Assignment, Signify, Assignation ; and the root, or etymon, 
 from which all these, with a long et cetera, have grown 
 lies deep, far deeper than the later signum, from which the 
 dictionaries derive them, but which is itself derived, along 
 with them, from the Hebrew root Ath, by some Hebraists 
 pronounced Oth, but he believes more properly Ath, which, 
 in our language, is rendered with sufficient fidelity by the 
 word Sign. And by the expression of Hebrew root, is 
 meant that from which the idea or meaning, not the word 
 signet, has grown. It is not pretended to trace, with the 
 
 
18 
 
 etymologists, the progress of a sound from one language, 
 age and country to another, but rather the progress or 
 transmission of an idea from the primitive ages to the 
 present. Anything so anomalous as that the English 
 word Sign can have been derived from a sound so dissimi- 
 lar as the Hebrew Ath, it is hoped he will not be supposed 
 to mean. If our ivord sign came from the Hebrew at all, 
 it probably came, with the Greek Sema, from Shem., which 
 is Name. 
 
 It may not be superfluous to mention, that the ordinary 
 sense in which the names of common things are the ac- 
 credited signs of those things is not here treated of, nor 
 of that other branch of the meaning of Shem, which the 
 English word Notoriety would best express, but more re- 
 conditely, of mystic signs, prophetic of the future, or 
 emphatically denoting the past. 
 
 Ath or Sign, then, primarily meant and still means — 
 What ? A mystic mark, denoting and bringing to mind 
 something absent, or some material essence intellectually 
 apprehensible, but not cognizable by the senses. 
 
 To this family of words (Signal, Ensign, etc.), then 
 belongs, and from this genealogical root springs the word 
 Signet. Its termination et meaning no more in the abstract 
 than advancement to the accomplishment of a pur- 
 pose intended, which purpose, in the present case, is the 
 manifestation of the sign ; or else this termination is 
 merely a diminutive, like the ette of the French, in which 
 case signet, or signette, can mean no other than literally a 
 miniature sign. 
 
 It is well known that our Saxon ancestors, soon after 
 the introduction of Christianity, when few men were clerks 
 enough to execute a written deed by the subscription of 
 their names, were accustomed instead thereof, as illiterate 
 persons do at present, to sign with a cross; of which it 
 may be said either that they made the mystic sign of the 
 
19 
 
 cross, or that the cross which they made was the sign* 
 of their plighted faith. 
 
 [Another entertaining work, Oriental Fragments, by 
 the author of the Hindu Pantheon, London, 1834, says : 
 
 The impressions of seals or rings, which I suppose may 
 be called signets, were in days of yore extensively applied 
 in lieu of manual signature. In such days it was not usual 
 for any but the clergy to learn to write or read. Not 
 many centuries, say four or five, have elapsed since read- 
 ing and writing were in England deemed ungentlemanly 
 acts. Those must have been glorious days for the rev- 
 erend clergy.] 
 
 During the middle ages when the profession of arms 
 was regarded as the only pursuit worthy of a gentleman, 
 and learning was mostly confined to the ecclesiastical 
 orders, it was looked upon as an effeminacy flbr men to 
 know how to write their names ; and this habit of thought 
 lasted among the French noblesse long after the art of 
 printing had disseminated intelligence amongst the middle 
 classes. Even as late as 1789 a deed is of record in 
 France signed by a member of a noble family with 
 his + mark, to which the Scribener has added as explana- 
 tion : " Cannot write his name for too much nobility." 
 
 To resume Landseer : That mark of the cross was the 
 ordinary mode of signature among the Anglo Saxon 
 Christians, who were, with regard to their inability to 
 write, in the predicament of most of those Sabseans of 
 old, whose signets, or instruments of signing we are 
 about to consider, and some of whom lived, in all proba- 
 bility before writing was invented. 
 
 ♦Thus, John (his f mark) Smith, and hence, from the form of that 
 mark, the popular error as to the meaning of the expression to sign 
 one's name, as though it were derived from the sign of the cross. 
 
20 
 
 In the dark ages, which succeeded the overthrow of the 
 Roman power, not only few men could write, but there 
 were no artists capable of cutting seals ; signature with 
 the cross was therefore among the Christians, in a great 
 degree, a thing of necessity, though they sometimes made 
 use of other ceremonies as signs or tokens. But when 
 art began to reappear, and engraved stones to be raked 
 up from the ruins of past ages, sealing was added ; and as 
 writing gradually became more known and practised, 
 subscription of names came also into vogue, introduced at 
 first, perhaps, by learned clerks, and by way of noting 
 whose signature had ratified the deed that might be in 
 question, for even Charlemagne was not penman enough 
 to subscribe his own name, but was accustomed to sign 
 with an antique gem, which had been set for that purpose 
 in the pommel of his sword, saying, as he impressed it, 
 " what I sign with the hilt I will defend at the point of 
 my sword." 
 
 But it ought to be noted here that regal signets, used 
 as instruments of authority in the signature of public 
 edicts, appear to have crept into use after the age of Solo- 
 mon,* and perhaps from the time when the monarchical 
 power of Saul was superinduced on the republic of Moses. 
 Whether they contained celestial signs, or more than 
 verbal inscriptions of the names and office of the kings, is 
 nowhere recorded, but with one of these, Jezebel appears 
 to have signed her forged letters to the elders ; and in the 
 time of the prophet Jeremiah, very particular mention is 
 made of another signet, used as an instrument of legality 
 in the purchase of a field, from which it would appear to 
 have been the custom of the Hebrew conveyancers in the 
 
 *We have been unable to ascertain why the cabalistic star com- 
 posed of two equilateral triangles interlaced thus ^*g should be called 
 "the Seal of Solomon ;" much less why, having six angles, it should 
 be called npentacle, i. e. pentagon, as though it had but five angles. 
 [See the Ingoldsby Legends. A Lay of St. Dunstan.] 
 
21 
 
 reign of Zedekiah to deposit a sealed copy of every deed 
 of transfer of landed property in some public office. 
 
 We here reluctantly take leave of our most fascinating 
 author, having extracted some of the the most apposite 
 passages from thirty-four pages quarto of the original. 
 
 But we hear our impatient readers exclaim, what about 
 that particular seal with the name of which. your so-called 
 monograph is headed ? Kind friends, read on : 
 
 The Great Seal of the Confederate States. 
 
 To Col. Charles C. Jones, jr., # 
 
 Attorney and Counsellor at Law, 
 
 *l Wall street, New York. 
 
 My Dear Sir : At considerable trouble and expense, I 
 have been so fortunate as to rescue this interesting memo- 
 rial from oblivion, and, possibly, a vandalic melting pot 
 (it is of pure silver, and weighs several pounds). I have had 
 many electrotype impressions! of it executed, and in defer- 
 ence to your antiquarian and archaeological tastes and 
 devotion to the Lost Cause, have the pleasure of handing 
 you, herewith, the first one finished, which you may regard 
 as a proof-impression before letters. 
 
 ' My object has been two-fold; first, to afford many of our 
 compatriots an opportunity of possessing and holding in 
 memoriam the fac simile of so unique and charming— in 
 spite of so many sad recollections — a souvenir, for which 
 purpose they will be offered for sale ; and, second, to use 
 the proceeds of the sale, less bare cost of the medals, cases, 
 &c, in the relief of as many as possible of the needy and 
 
 ♦Author of '•' Monumental Remains of Georgia ;" "Historical Sketches 
 of the Chatham Artillery during the Confederate Struggle for Inde- 
 pendence ;" wk Antiquities of the Southern Indians, particularly of the 
 Georgia Tribes;" <fcc. &e. 
 
 fVery skillfully and faithfully executed by Mr. S. H. Black, No. 4. 
 Marion street, New York. 
 
22 
 
 afflicted of the South, whose name, alas! is legion. And 
 with this motive I beg you to suggest the name of some 
 one in Savannah and in Augusta who would be willing to 
 assist me, as agents, in this benevolent sigiltary under- 
 taking. 
 
 With much regard, your friend, &c, 
 
 New York, June 20, 1873. 
 
 And where is that Seal ? It is in the possession of the 
 writer of this paper. Who rescued it? And to whom 
 does it belong ? We reserve a reply to these questions 
 for another occasion. Suffice it to say, at present, detur 
 digniori. 
 
 P. S. 
 
 We give the fac simile of Harper's wood-cut illustra- 
 tion of the Broad Seal of the Confederate States, which 
 is not half the diameter of the original, but otherwise 
 tolerably correct, by way of frontispiece to our brochure, 
 they having kindly sent us an electrotype of the same. We 
 would add that the writei in Harper is mistaken when he 
 says " antiquaries, in the future, will search in vain for any 
 impression of an emblem of sovereignty of the Confederate 
 States of America. None was ever made." The truth is 
 there were several documents, which went abroad, authen- 
 ticated with it, also a i'ew impressions given to officials, 
 clerks and others. 
 
 We trust that the loyal heart of the North, which was 
 so accutely sensitive to the sight of the Confederate gray 
 shortly after the war, will not be distressed by the exhibi- 
 tion of this symbol of the long extinct Confederacy — cere 
 perennius though it be. Fait Ilium! The alert fammam. 
 is no part of our motive. 
 
23 
 
 And we trust to be excused for indulging in this pleas- 
 ant task, jn the use of the first person plural. This trea- 
 tise was designed as a newspaper editorial, but it has grown 
 to an inordinate length for such purpose. The writer is 
 not unmindful of the fact that Prentice, of the Louisville 
 Journal, once said, " no man has the right to speak of 
 himself as 'we,' unless he be a king, an editor, or have a 
 tape-worm." 
 
 These medals of the Great or Broad Seal of the late 
 Confederate States are now ready for delivery to such 
 persons as may desire to possess a specimen. They are 
 finished in gold, silver and bronze (i. e. gilt, plated, &c.) 
 price live and seven dollars each — according to the cost of 
 the cases in which mounted. Orders will be received by 
 Messrs. M. W. Gait, Brother & Co., Jewellers, No. 1107 
 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, D. C. 
 
 N. B. They will not be furnished for speculative pur- 
 poses ; but to Charitable Institutions at half price — being 
 about prime cost. The number executed is limited. A 
 statement shall be published of the number distributed, 
 and of the disposition made of the surplus proceeds. 
 
 Washington, I). C, July, 1873.. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
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