{"id":1498,"date":"2019-03-08T12:46:34","date_gmt":"2019-03-08T12:46:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2019-03-08T15:21:42","modified_gmt":"2019-03-08T15:21:42","slug":"3-8-19-eagles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/3-8-19-eagles\/","title":{"rendered":"3.8.19 Eagles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Asa Hunt\nHouse Update Part Three<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the afternoon of July 4, 1776, right after signing the Declaration, the Continental Congress appointed three men \u2013 John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin \u2013 to create a design for a national seal. They each had different ideas, but ultimately agreed on a Lady Liberty holding a shield defending the United States. The idea was presented to Congress, and it was roundly rejected. The colonies were at war with England, and folks were naturally looking for something a little tougher, a little fiercer. Moreover, the Founding Fathers were heavily influenced by Roman imagery and symbols, due to the miraculous discovery of Pompeii just a few years earlier. So, in their ambition, they looked to that earlier empire…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026where the very first battle standards were\nnothing more than a handful of straw attached to the top of a spear or pole. Later,\nas Rome developed, the straw was replaced by one of five animals: a Wolf, a Horse,\na Boar, an Ox with a man\u2019s head, or\u2026an Eagle. In 104 BC, as part of a military\nreform, Rome standardized and simplified its imagery, and the four-legged\ncreatures were dropped. From that point on, the Eagle became the defining\nsymbol of Roman power, and was enshrined for all time on Roman coins, public\nbuildings and memorials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this in mind, the Founding Fathers turned\nto Philadelphia artist William Barton, and asked for a neo-classical design\nfeaturing an Eagle. Sure, said Barton and started on a design using a Golden\nEagle. But then folks realized that several European powers were already using\nthat bird. And so the brief was changed: Mr. Barton, can you give us something\nnice featuring a Bald Eagle? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ben Franklin hated the idea, saying, \u201cI wish\nthe Bald Eagle had not been chosen the representative of our country. He is a bird\nof bad moral character. He does not get his living honestly. You may have seen\nhim perched on some dead tree near the river, where, too lazy to fish for\nhimself, he watches the labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent bird\nhas at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to his nest for the support of\nhis mate and young ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him\u2026 the\nTurkey is in comparison a much more respectable bird, and withal a true\noriginal native of America…he is besides, though a little vain & silly, a\nbird of courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British\nGuards who should presume to invade his farm yard with a red coat on.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Franklin was denied, but his comments may have\ninfluenced the artist, as Barton\u2019s final design features a bird that is\ntechnically a Bald Eagle, but is frankly a bit of a Turkey. No matter, the\nFounding Fathers loved it, and this design was officially approved on June 20,\n1782, a mere six years after the beginning of the project. (You can see it here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And thus, the birth of the nation\u2019s mascot. The\nimage was quickly adopted and applied to the country\u2019s coins, documents and\npublic buildings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, in the first decades of the nascent American\nempire, a new architectural style was being developed – called Federalism – which\nmade use of neo-classical Roman lines, and which, not surprisingly, took up the\nraptor imagery in a big way. Eagles in the architecture, Eagles in the\ndecoratives, Eagles in the fabrics. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Federal style first popped up in Boston,\nand then made its way south through New York and Philadelphia. (You can read\nmore about Eagles and Federalism via Boston\u2019s own This Old House, here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And by 1830, Federalism had become commonplace,\nand reached the nation\u2019s heartland. Even so far as the little country\ncrossroads of Pennington, New Jersey, where several grand Federal-style\nfarmhouses were built, and still stand to this day. With lots of Eagles\neverywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Asa Hunt House had\nlots of Eagles in it before the fire, and a few remain, one mounted on the\ngarage wall, and two perched atop porch sconces. The house is now gutted, but\nwe\u2019re \u201crebuilding the nest\u201d and watching the treeline. The Eagles will return.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Asa Hunt House Update Part Three On the afternoon of July 4, 1776, right after signing the Declaration, the Continental Congress appointed three men \u2013 John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin \u2013 to create a design for a national seal. They each had different ideas, but ultimately agreed on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1725,1724,450,1273],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-eagles","tag-federalism","tag-founding-fathers","tag-united-states"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Eagle.jpg?fit=4000%2C2248&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1501,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions\/1501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicksilverhg.com\/thequicksliver\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}