Harper's Encyclopedia of United States History
Benson Lossing, Ed.

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Union devices.

When the quarrel between the British Parliament and the English-American colonies became warm, the [154] patriotic newspapers in America, as well as handbills, bore devices emblematic of union. One was especially a favorite— namely, a snake, disjointed, each separate part representing one of the thirteen English-American colonies, with the words

A Union device.

“Unite or die.” This snake device first appeared when the Stamp Act excitement was at its height. John Holt, the patriotic publisher of the New York Journal, varied it after the adjournment of the first Continental Congress in 1774. He had a column standing upon Magna Charta, and firmly grasped, as a pillar indicating inalienable rights, by twelve hands, representing the twelve colonies (Georgia not having had a representative in that Congress). The hands belonging to bare arms coming

A Union device.

out of the clouds, denoting heavenly strength. The whole was surrounded by a large serpent, perfect, and in two coils, on whose body were the following words:

United, now, alive and free,
Firm on this basis Liberty shall stand.
And, thus supported, ever bless our land,
Till time becomes eternity.

After the Declaration of Independence a print appeared in London with a device combining a part of Holt's (the hands, thirteen of them), but instead of bare arms they were heavily mailed, denoting warfare, and symbolizing union by grasping an endless chain. These arms all came out of the clouds, indicating that their strength was from above. Within the chain was a radiant heart, and within the heart a lighted candle, denoting the sincerity, truth, rectitude, and divine emotions of those whose hearts were engaged in the cause. Above this device was a balance equipoised, with a naked sword, held in the paw of a lion couchant. The lion symbolized British power; the sword, in that connection, British valor; and the balance, British justice. These the Americans, who were yet a part of the British nation, invoked in aid of their cause. A noon-day sun, shining near, indicated that the Americans stood manfully, in broad daylight, before the world in defence of their rights, and invited the closest scrutiny of their conduct.