' said he, 'whenever in my power, to avoid
becoming the draughtsman of papers to be reviewed by a public body. I
took my lesson from an incident which I will relate to you. When I was a
journeyman printer, one of my companions, an apprenticed hatter, having
served out his time, was about to open shop for himself. His first
concern was to have a handsome signboard, with a proper inscription. He
composed it in these words, _John Thompson, Hatter, makes and sells Hats
for ready Money_, with a figure of a hat subjoined. But he thought he
would submit it to his friends for their amendments. The first he showed
it to thought the word _hatter_ tautologous, because followed by the
words _makes hats_, which showed he was a hatter. It was struck out. The
next observed that the word _makes_ might as well be omitted, because
his customers would not care who made the hats; if good and to their
mind they would buy, by whomsoever made. He struck it out. A third said
he thought the words _for ready money_ were useless, as it was not the
custom of the place to sell on credit. Every one who purchased expected
to pay. They were parted with; and the inscription now stood, 'John
Thompson sells hats.' '_Sells_ hats?' says his next friend; 'why, nobody
will expect you to give them away. What, then, is the use of that word?'
It was stricken out, and _hats_ followed, the rather as there was one
painted on the board. So his inscription was reduced ultimately to _John
Thompson_, with the figure of a hat subjoined.'"

"We must all hang together," said Mr. Hancock, when the draft had been
accepted and was ready to be signed.

"Or else we shall hang separately," Franklin is reported to have
answered.

John Hancock, President of the Congress, put his name to the document in
such a bold hand that "the King of England might have read it without
spectacles." Franklin set his signature with its looped flourish among
the immortals. In the same memorable month of July Congress appointed
Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams to prepare a national seal.

The plan submitted by Franklin for the great seal of the United States
was poetic and noble. It is thus described:

"Pharaoh sitting in an open chariot, a crown on his head and a sword in
his hand, passing through the divided waters of the Red Sea in pursuit
of the Israelites. Rays from a pillar of fire in the cloud, expressive
of the Divine presence and command, beaming on Moses, who stands on the
shore, and,