New Jersey State Motto

Pierre Eugene du Simitiere was a Swiss artist living in Philadelphia who became one of the most influential designers of American revolutionary symbols. He designed the Great Seal of Delaware, the Great Seal of Georgia, and the Great Seal of New Jersey — all within a few years of each other during the Revolutionary War period. He also submitted a design proposal for the Great Seal of the United States and is credited with suggesting the Latin motto 'E Pluribus Unum' (Out of Many, One) for it.

Francis Hopkinson, a New Jersey legislator and signer of the Declaration of Independence, created the initial conceptual sketches for the New Jersey seal. Hopkinson is also credited with designing the American flag in 1777 and worked as a consultant on the U.S. Great Seal. The New Jersey legislature then contracted du Simitiere to create the artistic version from Hopkinson's concepts.

Du Simitiere presented his completed design to the legislature in May 1777 while they were meeting at the Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield. The design included elements beyond the original legislative resolution — including a horse's head above the shield and a specific helmet design. The legislature accepted the design. The 1928 Joint Resolution 8 later standardized all the seal's design details, confirming the motto 'Liberty and Prosperity' as part of the permanent description.

New Jersey declared independence from Britain in 1776 when the Provincial Congress created a new state constitution. In 1776, the legislature decided the governor's seal should become the state seal. The committee worked on the design through 1777 — the year Hopkinson conceptualized the design and du Simitiere executed it.

The legislature was meeting at the Indian King Tavern in Haddonfield, New Jersey when they accepted the completed seal in May 1777. Taverns were common meeting places for colonial and early state legislatures — many official decisions were made in such settings before dedicated government buildings existed. The Indian King Tavern still stands and is a New Jersey state historic site.

The shield on the seal depicts three plows honoring New Jersey's agricultural identity. Liberty stands on the left holding a staff topped with a Phrygian liberty cap — a symbol worn by freed Roman slaves adopted by American revolutionaries. Ceres, goddess of agriculture, stands on the right holding a cornucopia. The motto 'Liberty and Prosperity' appears on a scroll beneath, pairing the political freedom the war was fought for with the economic abundance that freedom would enable.

New Jersey ratified the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, becoming the third state to do so. But New Jersey holds a more specific distinction: it was the first state to ratify the Bill of Rights, on November 20, 1789. The motto's emphasis on 'Liberty' was not merely decorative — New Jersey was among the most consistent advocates for individual rights in the early republic.

The year 1776 appears on the Great Seal to commemorate New Jersey's declaration of independence, not the adoption of the seal itself (which was 1777). This distinction — marking independence rather than the seal date — reflects the founders' desire to anchor the state's identity to the moment of self-governance, not the administrative moment of seal approval.