New Mexico State Motto

Lucretius wrote De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) around 50 BCE as a six-book poem explaining the natural world through atomic theory. In Book VI, lines 340-344, he describes how a thunderbolt gains momentum as it travels through the sky: 'Denique quod longo venit impete, sumere debet mobilitatem etiam atque etiam, quae crescit eundo' — 'What comes with a long rush must acquire more and more mobility, which grows by going.'

The phrase 'crescit eundo' — 'it grows by going' — describes the physics of a lightning bolt accelerating through the atmosphere. Lucretius was a materialist philosopher who believed everything in the universe followed natural laws. His poem was lost for over a thousand years before being rediscovered in 1417. It influenced Renaissance thought and eventually became part of classical education.

William G. Ritch extracted the two-word phrase from this scientific passage and applied it to New Mexico Territory's potential for growth. He provided no written explanation for his choice in 1882. The phrase fit a territory arguing it deserved statehood: a region that grows as it goes, gaining strength through forward motion.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo ended the Mexican-American War in 1848, and the Compromise of 1850 established New Mexico Territory on September 9, 1850. For the next 62 years, New Mexico remained a territory — one of the longest territorial periods of any contiguous state. Congress delayed admission repeatedly, partly due to the territory's Hispanic majority, concerns about population diversity, and debates over whether the population was sufficiently 'American' for statehood.

The motto's meaning — growth through forward motion — described New Mexico's actual experience. The territory expanded economically as the Santa Fe Railway arrived in 1879, mining developed, ranching grew, and population increased. New Mexico kept arguing for statehood while demonstrating the development that should qualify it. President William Howard Taft finally signed the statehood proclamation on January 6, 1912, making New Mexico the 47th state.

A state seal commission consisting of Governor William C. McDonald, Attorney General Frank W. Clancy, Chief Justice Clarence J. Roberts, and Secretary of State Antonio Lucero filed their 1913 report recommending they keep the territorial seal almost unchanged — updating only the date from MDCCCL (1850) to 1912. The motto 'Crescit Eundo' continued without modification.

New Mexico's motto has a layered adoption history. William G. Ritch first added 'Crescit Eundo' to the territorial seal design in 1882, when he created a version for the first New Mexico Blue Book. The territorial legislature formally adopted a territorial coat of arms in 1887, including the motto. The state seal commission officially adopted the state seal design in June 1913, carrying the motto forward unchanged.

The motto therefore has three dates associated with it: 1882 (first use), 1887 (territorial adoption), and 1913 (state adoption). The official adopted_year for state purposes is 1913, but the phrase had been on territorial documents for 31 years before statehood.

New Mexico's 1915 state flag initially featured the state seal including the motto. In 1925, the legislature replaced the seal-based flag with a new design featuring the Zia sun symbol on a yellow field — the current flag. The motto still appears on the state seal but no longer on the flag.

The motto 'Crescit Eundo' appears on a scroll below two eagles that together represent New Mexico's history of sovereignty transfer. An American bald eagle with outstretched wings spreads above a smaller Mexican harpy eagle that holds a snake in its beak and cactus in its talons. The design shows the change of sovereignty from Mexico to the United States in 1846 — the only state seal in the country to explicitly depict the transition between two national symbols.

The date '1912' appears between the eagles, marking New Mexico's statehood year. The overall circular seal is surrounded by the words 'Great Seal of the State of New Mexico.' This design has remained essentially unchanged since the territorial seal of the 1860s, making it one of the most historically continuous state seals in the country.