“E Pluribus Unum,” Latin for “Out of many, one,” appears on the Great Seal of the United States and coins. Its roots lie in Virgil’s poem Moretum, but in America, it symbolized political unity among the thirteen states during the Revolutionary era, not diversity as the left and PragerU claim.
The phrase entered American use in the Great Seal’s design process. On July 4, 1776, Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams to create a seal. They consulted artist Pierre Eugene du Simitière, who suggested “E Pluribus Unum” as a motto contained in the seal. The committee’s August 20, 1776 report noted simply: “Motto e pluribus unum.” No explicit explanation accompanied it.
It appears that Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams left no direct quotes on the motto. Franklin proposed a seal with Moses parting the Red Sea and the motto “Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God.” Adams described the design in an August 14, 1776 letter to Abigail, focusing on other symbols but omitting the motto. Jefferson prioritized motifs like the pillars of Hercules.
The clearest primary source explanation of the motto comes from Charles Thomson, Secretary of the Continental Congress. In his June 20, 1782, report to Congress, he explained the obverse of the seal: “The Escutcheon is composed of the chief & pale, the two most honorable ordinaries. The Pieces, paly, represent the several states all joined in one solid compact entire, supporting a Chief, which unites the whole & represents Congress. The Motto alludes to this union.” He added: “The pales in the arms are kept closely united by the chief and the Chief depends upon that union & the strength resulting from it for its support, to denote the Confederacy of the United States of America & the preservation of their union through Congress.”
Thomson’s words tie the motto strictly to the states’ political union under confederation. The “many” refers to the states; the “one” to their compact. No mention appears of people, cultures, or diversity.
This fits the 18th-century context. The Articles of Confederation (1781) stressed a “firm league of friendship” among sovereign states. Franklin’s quip of the time, “We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately”, captured the practical need for unity against division.
Modern interpretations often view “E Pluribus Unum” as celebrating diversity, with immigrants blending into one nation. This emerged in the late 19th and 20th centuries during heavy immigration. Israel Zangwill’s 1908 play The Melting Pot popularized cultural assimilation. Today, rhetoric highlights “diversity as strength,” extending the motto to racial, ethnic, and ideological pluralism.
The fact is that the diversity angle is ahistorical and nonsensical. Again, Thomson’s exact phrasing was, “The Motto alludes to this union” which refers only to the states’ confederacy.
History shows that “E Pluribus Unum” meant a union of thirteen independent states for strength and survival. Thomson’s report offers the definitive 18th-century view. The modern diversity focus is a propaganda tool for the big central government politicians and globalists to strengthen allegiance to the center. This erodes freedom and further lulls a compliant and ignorant populace into feeling good about the corrupt center. Most damaging, it is a further departure from the founders’ federalism.
The views expressed at AbbevilleInstitute.org are not necessarily those of the Abbeville Institute.
OH MY! The Founders referred to the original states as a “Confederacy”?! Zounds and sacre bleu!! The Yanks and lefties are going to lose their minds — not that they haven’t already. The 1619 agitators will say it’s proof of systemic racism, blah, blah because ‘everyone knows’ that anything Confederate is proof of racism. Enjoy squaring this circle Yanks. I look forward to hearing your far out rationalizations.