Saint Paul weekly Minnesotian. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1858-1859, 1858-09-18
The MettO Selected for our state Seal
Mr.. SibleY trying Oh his French.

With that assumption of authority and pre-
tense of learning characteristic of chronic
Indian Trader, Mister SIBLEY, as we under
stand, is about to change the motto on the
Great Seal of the State.
The words he has selected are l. etoile
du .Nord," or The Star of the North.
Now, if he has authority to change the
motto at all, we protest in the first place
against the barbarism and contemplate
boarding Missishness of putting it in
French.
The Anglo Saxon language is sufficiently
copious, nervous, and terse, to find within it
an appropriate motto for the State Seal, with
out having recourse to foreign tongue, COM
polling our people to pronounce French
phrase badly when they would enunciate one
in English correctly.
How many in thousand would ever know
that L. etoiie du .Nord" should be pronounc-
ed Letphile du .N'ord?
if motto is allowable in any language
other than our own, the LATIN, as that OF the
Schools and of Science, would seem to be the
one we should draw it from. But Mr.. SHELLEY
tried his had on Latin motto for the Terri
torial Seal, and had one engraved which no
graduate of any college could interpret, until
the Rev. Mr.. NEIL, under the idea that it was
a mistake, had it altered so as to make sense
of it.
Aware of his old failure in choosing Latin
mottos Mr.. SIBLEY now eschews them alto
gether: and having acquired the patois of the
Canadian voyageurs, over whom he so long
bossed it as Grand Segnor of Mendoza, he
now thinks he is safe in selecting a motto
from the French!
If motto in English would not do, and
lie refused to try the Latin again, the Ian
guage of our Native Indian tribes had better
have been resorted to, and would have been
more appropriate source from whence to have
drawn it than Mr.. SIBLEY's patois French.
His relation to the Sioux for instance, have
been go intimate that he could hardly fail to
find a happy watchword for Minnesota
amidst the copious gutturals Of the tribe
which gave to our State her name, and to
Mr.. SIBLEY his fortune and so forth
Thus the words un icahya siceca or to give
| them their English sound, DON e-chah-yah
she-chay- cha, meaning "aoe groao children n
would have been an excellent motto for a
Young State-wOuldn't it
Then there's the Chippewa, with its smooth
liquids, soft as the Italian the single word
pah-ne-maA or " by-and-by," in allusion to the
great future before US, would have answered
right well
Or, if none of these suited, there is still
left the sonorous Winnebago tongue, from
which to select a motto as is motto : say
the word hocng-oh rah, or "the chef" which
would be a little boastful over our Sister
States to be sure, but would not be much
more vain glorious than to call ourselves "The
Star of the North"
Mr.. SIBLEY's choice is Objectionable also
on this account, If for no other: it is an ar
rogant description of ourselves, instead of
containing moral or political sentim emit !:
which we take to be the proper vocation of a
motto, as a reference to the notices on all
other State seals will prove.
But over French or Latin or Indian, we
think the people OF the State will agree with
US in prefering right down Anglo-Saxon
motto-such one, for instance, as "ON-
WARD which has the ring of an energetic flu
ture in its sound, characteristic of Minnesota
now and we believe in all time to come.
While however, our pseudo Governor is
changing the motto of the State, we beg he
will likewise fix up a seal for us descriptive of
our present political condition; and we sug-
gest as design for it A HUGE MOCcAsIN, ram
pant; on PRAIRIE vert; with the motto In
hoe signum vinco issuing from the mouth of
an Indian Trader "of over twenty years
standng!" For the benefit Of Mr.. Sibley's
poor atinity we will translate this latin phrase
for him. In English it would read sander
this sign (to-wit, the moccasn) zoe conquer"
Who will dare dispute, that ruled as we are
at present exclusively by Indian Traders,
there would be an eminent fitness in this
whole design!
There is only one objection however to
adopting it for permanent seal. The "Star
of the North" may be shorn of its bright,
particular BEEN" by the removal of Mr..
Sibley from his usurped throne, and then his
friends may excaim ''Sic itur ad astra" If
he don't understood this, let him get Henry
| Nj. Rice or Frank Steele to translate!