Department papers to the government, and that the Great Seal was presented to Lieutenant, now Rear Admiral Selfridge, in recognition of his aid in that transaction.
The Pickett papers were given critical study by Gaillard Hunt, chief of the manuscript division of the Library of Congress in Washington, who became convinced that the Great Seal had been in the hands of Admiral Selfridge. Mr. Hunt announced his purpose of publishing the Pickett papers, together with his conclusions as to the Great Seal. With his secret about to be divulged, Admiral Selfridge admitted that he had the seal, and expressed willingness to part with it for a consideration. Mr. Hunt communicated, through Lawrence Washington, with Messrs. Hunton, Bryan and White, of Richmond, who purchased the seal for $3,000 and personally brought it to Richmond.
Mr. Hunt furnished to the purchasers the following statement of the records now in the Library of Congress, serving to prove the authenticity of the seal, his statement being accompanied by copies of a large number of official papers and manuscripts. The statement follows, with marginal reference to the various exhibits from which the information is drawn:
Statement Concerning the Seal of the Confederate States of America:
At the third session of the First Congress of the Confederate States of America a joint resolution was passed, which was approved April 30, 1863, establishing a "Seal for the Confederate States." The device was to be a representation of the equestrian statue of Washington in the Capitol Square at Richmond, surrounded with a wreath composed of the principal agricultural products of the Confederacy (cotton, tobacco, sugarcane, corn, wheat and rice), and having around the margin the words, "The Confederate States of America, twenty-second February, eighteen hundred and sixty-two," with the following motto, "Deo Vindice." (Exhibit A, copy of resolution.)
On May 20, 1863, Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of State of the Confederacy, sent an instruction to James M. Mason, envoy of the Confederacy at London, informing him of the law,
