The second City Government was organized substantially like the first.

In Common Council Febr. 19, 1838.

Read and the next meeting of the Board

In Common Council
March 5, 1838

tee on the part of this Board who re-
ported said Bill

Read and committed to the commit

Mr. Saltonstall was again Mayor, and at 8 o'clk assigned for the 2d Reading. Mr. King President of the council. On the 18th of December, 1837, an order originating with the Mayor, was introduced into the Board of Aldermen, which provided that two members, "with such as the Common Council may join, be a committee to consider and report. on the expediency of procuring a City Seal." This was passed and sent down for concurrence, the Mayor and Alderman Northey being the committee.

In the Common Council, January 1st, 1838, the order was concurred in, and the President, Gen'l Putnam, and Col. Oliver were joined.

On the 19th of February, 1838, an order was introduced and acted upon as follows:

CITY OT SALEM.

In the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and thirty-eight.

An ordinance to establish the City
Seal.

Nath Cleaves Clerk

of Common Council

The matter having been thus referred to the Committee of the Common Council, we next have their report under date of March 12th, 1838:

CITY OF SALEM,

In Common Council March 12, 1838. The committee of the Board to whom was committed a Bill in the Second Reading entitled "an ordinance to establish the City Seal" have had the same under consideration, and ask leave to Report;

That a diversity of opinion seems to exist among the members of the city council as to what might be a suitable Be it ordained by the City Council devise for the City Seal, and particularof the City of Salem, that the following ly as to the expediency of adopting that be the devise of the seal of the said city, which is described in said Bill. As the viz: [In the centre thereof the word seal of the city, when once engraved, "SALEM" enclosed in an olive wreath, will probably be used by the corporaand in a circle around the margin the words, "FOUNDED, SEPT 1628. CITY INCORPORATED, 1836."]

Board of Ald" Feb'y 19, 1838. Read twice and passed to be ordained. Leverett Saltonstall.

Mayor.

tion as long as it shall continue to exist, without alteration, your committee are of opinion that the subject should be carefully and fully considered before the city council act finally in relation to it; and, as it is a matter of some public importance, and of no immediate urgency, they respectfully recommend that

the further consideration of this Bill be from the fact that, with a few modificareferred to the next City Council.

for the Committee

Jno. Glen King.
Ch"

In Common Council

March 12th 1838.

Read & accepted
Nath Cleaves Clerk of
Common Council.

tions, it has been adopted.

The following communication was received from "Alderman Peabody," bearing upon the subject.

The Records probably contain the Report of the Committee appointed to procure a Design for a City Seal, and the action of the City Council thereon.

On the fourth Monday of March, 1838, the third City Government was inaugurated, and found the matter as the above report left it. But it was I was chairman of that committee, not neglected. April 9th, it was ordered and the only design offered was my own "that the report relating to the adop- which was accepted by the committee tion of a City Seal, which was referred without any modification and reported, by the last City Council to the present I think, by Gen. H. K. Oliver to the Board, be now taken from the files and Common Council with a description and referred to a special Joint Committee." full explanation of the emblems, motto,

&c.

The Latin form in the outer circle of the seal is the style in general use for a similar purpose.

The commonly received Historical
date of the origin of the town, viz 1628,
was changed by a vote of the council to
1626 and Salem was substituted for
Solyma.

the present City Seal remains as it was
With these exceptions, the design of
made by me, viz. its Form, Shield, Crest,
Emblems, and Motto.

I find that I have still in my posses

sion my original drawing which was
submitted to the City Council and from
which the seal was engraved. I have
also the first impression in wax taken
by the engraver.

I am happy that it is in my power to
give you the facts in relation to the
subject, although it did not occur to me

at the time it was made, that the origin the shield, this motto, "Divitis India of the "City Seal" might be a matter usque ad ultimum sinum"-Signifying of interest in the future. "To the farthest port of the rich east' & above the shield, a dove bearing an I olive branch in her mouth-In the circumference encircling the shield, the words,

These reports show that the central ing be the device of the Seal of said figure of the seal was intended to be a City-To wit-In the centre thereof, male figure, and so it was drawn in the a shield, bearing upon it a ship under

full sail, approaching a coast, designated original colored designs by Mr. Peaby the costume of the person standing body, now kindly deposited in the colupon it & by the trees near him, as a lections of the Institute. The substiportion of the East Indies;-beneath tution by the engraver of a female fig

ure was without authority, so far as has of some argument, but the committee been discovered. It is not easy to see are of opinion that it would be better upon what ground the word "Salem" to fix the period of foundation of the town as it has been generally regarded, was preferred to "Solyma". If a par- and will be found stated in many of our tiality for the vernacular were to pre- valuable gazetteers and other similar vail over the behests of harmony, the books in 1628, as this was undoubtedly form, it would seem, should have been the first permanent settlement".

Geo. Peabody.

Chairman.

This seems to have been "accepted

The seal as amended, and at present

made wholly English. The final arrangement of the legend is less congruous as well as less euphonious than the first, which had almost the universal but not adopted". usage of other cities to sustain it. The inevitable question as to the date of the used, was finally adopted, we have seen, founding of Salem, the Banquo of the March 11th, 1839, and was at once enfeast, was finally disposed of by vote of graved, so that the first impression in the City Council, but was not laid to wax, now presented to the Institute, rest without a report from the commit- was in the hands of the chairman of tee to which it was referred February the committee on the 23d of April. 25th, which was as follows: But questions were still raised in connection with the matter, and in the next The committee to whom was recom city government there seems to have mitted the subject of a City Seal for the been a disposition to review the action purpose of ascertaining the correct of their predecessors. April 15th, 1839, date of the settlement of Salem, beg

leave to report "That they have inves in the Board of Aldermen, an order tigated the subject and do not find any came up for concurrence, appointing reason for changing the date as at Messrs Roberts, Lakeman and Sprague present affixed to the proposed seal. a committee with such as may be joined, As the history of the settlement of this to consider what alterations, if any, shall town is so well known, they do not think be made in the ordinance to establish it necessary to bring forward all the facts in relation to it. The whole ques- a City Seal. a City Seal.

Concurred, and Aldermen

CITY OF SALEM,

tion seems to turn upon the point Putnam and Emerton joined. whether the settlement is to date from Upon this, the following action was the time when Roger Conant, Peter had, and the matter rested. Palfray and others came here in 1626, and built a few houses, but without the means of remaining, or the time in 1628 when Endicott came out with colonists and all the means necessary for founding a colony. The subject may admit

In City Council, April 29, 1839. The Joint Special Committee to whom was referred an order to consider, if any, what alteration is necessary to

be made in an ordinance to establish a man whose donation afforded the occaCity Seal, and to report what measures sion for this paper. Sitting in judgeare necessary to carry said ordinance ment upon the work to-day, how shall

into effect.

Respectfully Report, that it is inex- we amend it? Our claim to antiquity, pedient to make any alteration in said distinguishing Salem among the cities ordinance, and for the purpose of car- of the United States, would hardly be rying the same into effect, the commit- recognized throughout the continent of tee recommend the adoption of the fol- America, and would be scouted beyond lowing order. that limit. This claim is made prominent enough by the place given to the date of our origin. The ecclesiastical History of the town, exciting the interIn City Council, April 29, 1839. est of students and travellers, is comOrdered, That the Mayor be, and mon to many a New England village, hereby is, authorized and requested, to though none has profited so largely by procure for the use of the City, a City

By order of Committee.
David Putnam Ch".

Order for procuring a City Seal.

Seal, agreeable to, and corresponding the diligence of the Analyst and the with, the Device provided in an ordi- glowing pen of the Romancer. This nance passed March 11th, 1839.

In the Board of Aldermen, April 29th, 1839, passed and sent to the Common Council for concurrence.

Jos Cloutman, City Clerk. In Common Council,

April 29, 1839.

Passed in concurrence.
Nath. Cleaves, Clerk of C. C.

In Common Council.

May 13, 1839. The above vote of concurrence reconsidered.

feature of our history, too, is in some sense recognized in the dove and olivebranch surmounting the design.

Was not the then recent and almost unparalleled commercial prosperity of the place fitly chosen as its one peculiar distinction among the cities of the earth? It was the enterprise of her merchants, well commemorated in the motto, from whatever source derived, Divitis Indiæ usque ad ultimum sinum, Nath. Cleaves, Clerk of C. C. which made Salem what she has been and Thus it will be seen that the seal made her known to the world. Denied the adopted and now in use, earned the en- best natural advantages for commerce, dorsement of still another City Gov- and lacking large accumulations of capiernment, namely that inaugurated in tal, they made her the emporium of EasMarch '39, after passing the ordeal of two former years' debate. It has come down to us substantially as designed by the taste and ingenuity of the gentle

tern trade. It was her shipping, fitly typified in this design, carrying the fame of her merchants as well as the flag of the country into unknown seas, that made her