(
Originally Published Early 1911 )
The
following official statement has been published under authority of an Act of
the State Legislature of California :
At the
time when the question of designing the great seal for the new State was being
agitated in the Constitutional Convention which met in Monterey in 1849, there
happened to be sojourning temporarily in that little town an accomplished and
cultivated officer of the United States Army, Major Robert Selden Garnett. He
was a gentleman of modest demeanor, and excelled in the use of his pencil. One
evening he sketched a design for a seal of the State, and it was exhibited to
various members of the Convention. One of the delegates asked leave to present
it to the body, but the quiet Major declined, upon the ground that he believed
that a knowledge of the source whence it had come would prevent its adoption.
There existed at that time quite a hostility between the military authorities
and the nascent civil powers, and there was an especial distrust of the secret
mission of Thomas Butler King, with which Garnett was understood to be connected.
Caleb Lyon, one of the clerks of the convention, learned of the design, and
readily obtained the consent of Garnett to appropriate it and present it as his
own production. As the design came from the hands of its author, it was chaste
and beautiful, and somewhat different from the present seal. It represented the
figure of Minerva, with the Golden Gate, and a ship in full sail in the
foreground, and the Sierra Nevada range in the background, with the word
"Eureka" above. The design was referred to a committee, and on
September 29, 1849, the report of the committee was considered by the
convention. W. E. Shannon deemed the design a most happy one, but more
appropriate for a coat of arms than for a seal. He said that it was unusual for
a State seal to contain a motto, and that it ordinarily comprehended the main
emblems, and the words "Great Seal of the State.''
An
explanation accompanying the design was entered in the Journal, as follows :
"Around
the bend of the ring are represented thirty-one stars, being the number of
States of which the Union will consist upon the admission of California. The
foreground figure represents the Goddess Minerva, having sprung full grown from
the brain of Jupiter. She is introduced as a type of the political birth of the
State of California, without having gone through the probation of a territory.
At her feet crouches a grizzly bear feeding upon the clusters from a grapevine,
emblematic of the peculiar characteristics of the country. A miner is engaged
with his rocker and bowl at his side, illustrating the golden wealth of the
Sacramento, upon whose waters are seen shipping, typical of commercial
greatness; and the snowclad peaks of the Sierra Nevada make up the background,
while above is the Greek motto "Eureka" (I have found it), applying
either to the principle involved in the admission of the State, or the success
of the miner at work."
After
various amendments had been suggested, the matter was laid on the table. On
October 2nd the report of the committee was again considered. Rodman M. Price
submitted a resolution that the design for the seal reported by the committee
be accepted. O. M. Wozencraft submitted the following, which was rejected:
"That the seal be amended by striking out the figures of the gold-digger
and the bear and introducing instead bags of gold and bales of
merchandise." M. G. Vallejo submitted an amendment that the bear be taken
out of the design; or, if it do remain, that it be represented as made fast by
a lasso in the hands of a vaquero.
After the
debate, the amendment proposed by Vallejo was rejected by a vote of sixteen to
twenty-one. Price's resolution was then adopted. W. S. Sherwood moved that the
seal be the "coat of arms" of the State of California, and the motion
was then carried by a vote of twenty-one to sixteen. Price then submitted a
resolution that Lyon be authorized to superintend the engraving of the seal ;
that he furnish the same, in the shortest possible time, to the Secretary of
the Convention, with a press and all necessary appendages, and that the sum of
$1000 be advanced to him in full compensation for the design and seal. This
resolution was not considered until the 11th, when a substitute was adopted,
authorizing Lyon to superintend the engraving and to furnish the seal as soon
as possible to the Secretary of the Convention, to be delivered to the
Secretary of State under the Constitution : and the sum of $1000 was to be
paid, in full compensation for the design, seal, press, and all appendages. It
was also resolved that the words "The Great Seal of the State of
California" be added to the design. Henry W. Halleck inquired if any
gentleman present knew what had become of the original design, and said the
gentleman by whom it was designed (Major Garnett) requested that it should be
found if possible and handed to the gentleman who occupied the chair. Mr.
Sherwood said that he believed the seal was not the entire production of the
gentleman who had been authorized to have it engraved, and that Lyon did not
claim it as such. He said that the original design had been given to Lyon by a
gentleman who did not wish his name to be made public, but expressed a desire,
in a confidential letter to Lyon, that he (Lyon) might be known as the author.
The bear
was added chiefly to gratify Major J. R. Snyder and the men of the Bear Flag
revolution. Then was added the figure of a man with an uplifted pick-ax, as an
emblem of the great mining interests of the country.
There is
some dispute as to whether Lyon ever got the $1000 voted him by the convention.
The following article was published in the Alta California of February 19,
1850, and presumably written by Edward Gilbert, the editor, a member of the
Constitutional Convention, and one of the two Congress-men elected from
California at the first election of 1849:
THE STATE
SEAL—We observe that a petition has been made to the Legislature, on behalf of
Caleb Lyon, for $1000 for the State Seal, "designed and executed by
him." It may as well be understood at once that if any credit belongs to any
person for the design of the seal, it is not to Caleb Lyon, of Lyonsdale. The
original design for the seal was made by an officer of the army, sojourning
temporarily at Monterey during the time the convention was in session. When the
subject of a seal was mooted, this design was shown to various members of the
Convention, who suggested some amendments and the insertion of other matters.
These were drawn in by the original designer, who did not wish it to be known
who was the author, and the seal was presented by Mr. Lyon. After a pretty hard
fight it was adopted, and $1000 appropriated to Mr. Lyon to procure a die and
proper press. This duty he performed after a fashion. The design was marred in
the engraving; the die was not sunk near deep enough, and the press was not
sufficiently powerful for the purpose. The commissions of the congressional
delegation were without the slightest impress of the seal before they left the
country. If we are not very much mistaken, Mr. Lyon, of Lyonsdale, received his
money out of the Civil Fund, and is now conveying it to the sylvan retreats of
Lyonsdale. But this has nothing to do with the paternity of the seal. All we
wish to state, and that most distinctly, is that Mr. Lyon has no right or title
to the honor of either designing or executing the seal any more than the Khan
of Tartary.
The
Legislature of 1850 did not make any appropriation in response to the petition
mentioned.
In
October, 1855, a peculiar complication occurred between Governor Bigler and the
Secretary of State, James W. Denver. Under the Constitution, as it then stood,
the Secretary of State was the appointee of the Governor. Denver had been
appointed by Bigler on February 19, 1853. Afterwards a difference arose between
the Governor and Secretary of State. Denver had been elected to Congress in
1854, and on October 5, 1855, Bigler addressed a letter to Denver demanding the
great seal of the State, and said that he desired to keep it in his own office,
where he claimed the Constitution contemplated that it should be kept. On the
same day Denver replied, declining to permit the seal to pass out of his
possession, and immediately departed for Washington to attend his congressional
duties, leaving his deputy in charge of the Secretary's office. He also left a
resignation to take effect November 5th. On the 6th of October the Governor
again visited the office of the Secretary, demanded the seal of the deputy, and
was again refused its possession. He then handed to the deputy the commission
of Charles H. Hempstead as Secretary of State, and directed the deputy to affix
to it the seal, but the deputy refused to do so, on the ground that it was a
constitutional office, and could not be vacated except by death, resignation,
or impeachment. The deputy of Denver held possession of the office for a month,
during which time his acts were not recognized as valid by the Governor, and it
is said that the latter caused a duplicate great seal to be made, with which
his official acts were attested by his newly appointed Secretary. Years
afterwards it was stated that forged patents for State lands were in
circulation, and that one of these old seals had been stolen and used for
attesting them. However this may be, two dies of the State seal remain in the
possession of the Secretary of State.
In 1858
the State seal was damaged so that it failed to give a true impression, and a
bill was introduced in the Senate by Mr. Thom to authorize the Secretary of
State to procure a new seal, to be engraved on steel, and to be substituted for
and used instead of the seal then in existence; and requiring him to destroy
the then State seal in the presence of the Governor and Controller. The bill
was accompanied with a design which reduced the size of the seal a twelfth part
of an inch, and to admit of this contraction some of the details of the
original design were omitted. The bear was made to crouch submissively at the
feet of Minerva, the miner's cradle was left out, and the miner was brought
nearer the water. On March 10, 1858, the Senate amended the bill by providing
that the design and size should be the same as the seal then in use, and on
April 16th another amendment was adopted that "the design of the present
seal shall be preserved intact in the new one, but the size thereof shall be
reduced six-tenths of an inch in diameter." The bill with this amendment
passed the Senate on April 21st, but was not considered in the House.
Garnett,
the designer of the original seal, was born in Virginia about 1821; entered
West Point 1837; graduated twenty-seventh in his class July 1, 1841, and
appointed Brevet Second Lieutenant of artillery; was assistant instructor of
infantry tactics at the military academy from July, 1843, to October, 1844; was
Aid-de-camp to General Wool in 1845, and distinguished himself in the battles
of Palo Alto and Reseca de la Palma ; was promoted to first lieutenancy August
18, 1846; was Aid-de-camp to General Taylor during the Mexican War and until
1849: Brevetted Captain and Major for gallant and meritorious conduct at Monterey
and Buena Vista; transferred to the infantry in 1848; promoted to a captaincy
in 1851; from 1852 to 1854 was commandant of the corps of cadets and instructor
in 1855, and Major of the Ninth Infantry in the same month ; was commander in
the operations against the Indians on Puget Sound in 1856, and commanded the
Yakima expedition in 1858. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he took the
side of the Confederates, was promoted to a brigadier general-ship and assigned
to the Department of West Virginia. Here General McClellan attacked him, and
after several days of alternate fighting and retreating, at the battle of
Carrick's Ford, on July 15, 1861, Garnett was killed and his forces routed. His
body was carefully cared for by the Federal commander, and after being embalmed
was forwarded to his friends.
Caleb Lyon
was appointed Consul at Shanghai, China, by President Polk in 1845. On his
return to New York he served in both branches of the Legislature, and in 1853
was elected from that State to Congress. In 1864 he was appointed Governor of
Idaho Territory, and retained the office three years. He died at Rossville, New
York, on September 9, 1875.
Albrecht
Kuner, a native of Lindau, Bavaria, a member of the California Pioneers, was
the engraver of the original seal as designed by Caleb Lyon. Mr. Kuner died on
January 23, 1906, at his home in San Francisco.