E Pluribus Unum

Within any group, no matter how homogeneous, diversity exists. This has been the reality within the United States from the very beginning. The Latin phrase E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one) found on American coinage illustrates the recognition and balance of plurality and unity. Throughout the history of the United States, the motto E Pluribus Unum has been interpreted in numerous and sometimes even contradictory ways. This ideal is based on the hope that one nation can be simultaneously supportive of diversity and sufficiently unified.

Attempts at balancing these conflicting values have been seen in various political and cultural debates, with each side wrestling for domination. In a unitary system, like that with which the colonists were familiar in England, government entities strive for national unity and in the process suppress individual or regional identities, resulting in a unum, or totalizing, government. In a confederated system such as the one established by the Articles of Confederation, local government agencies dominate, thus emphasizing the pluribus, or many. By contrast, the federal system as established in the Constitution is designed to balance the needs of the states with the needs of the country by balancing the many and the one.

Historical Background

The Continental Congress of 1776 appointed Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson to draft the design of the Great Seal of the United States. These Founding Fathers employed three Latin phrases within the design: Annuit Coeptis (God has favored our undertaking), Novus Ordo Seclorum (a new order of the ages), and E Pluribus Unum (out of many, one). All three Latin phrases possess both a religious and a political connotation that significantly are blended together.

There is some debate on the literary source of E Pluribus Unum. Some attribute the phrase on the Great Seal, E Pluribus Unum, to a poem, More-tum, attributed to Virgil, in which a farmer mixes various ingredients together to form a relish. A more likely candidate for the origin of the phrase is Saint Augustine. The phrase, “out of many, one,” is a classical Catholic ecclesiological principle stressing the universal nature of the Catholic faith. It is used by Saint Augustine to describe the ties of brotherly love and friendship in book IV of his Confessions (397 c.e.). By just examining the three Latin phrases of the Great Seal, in both their likely sources and intended meanings, one finds a high degree of religious reference and significance. The case is made only stronger when one considers the multiple religious symbols incorporated into the design of the Great Seal (such as the Eye of God, cloud of God's glory, and olive branch).

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A fresco by Constantino Brumidi pronouncing E Pluribus Unum, which is Latin for “out of many, one,” graces the rotunda at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. The central idea was that out of many colonies emerged a single nation.