The Bald Eagle: America's Enduring Symbol of Strength and Unity

As we watch the natural world and celebrate the 250^th anniversary year of our founding, one is put in mind of the question: How did we get our national bird? Famously, Ben Franklin joked about a turkey, while the Founders formed a committee to find the answer – already likely the eagle.

In short, our national symbol – found on the Great Seal and countless emblems for our country – was decided on in 1782, meant to symbolize strength and unity. The road there was bumpy.

The idea was hatched in 1776, not long after the Declaration of Independence was signed,  that we would need a clear, strong, national symbol, as we were resolved to become our own nation.

In a crazy turn, it took six years and rejection of symbols from the Bible, from nature, from mythology and other realms, to finally arrive at the American Bald Eagle. In the end, it fell to Charles Thompson to sift the ideas, setting aside a “smaller white eagle” to arrive at a seal we now know,

His final offer to the Congress was an Eagle with an olive branch – for peace – held in one talon, and arrows – for strength in war – clutched in the other. This idea was the combination of others, and with the Eagle holding branch and arrows would be a motto, “E pluribus unum,” “Out of many, one.”

Truth be told, Franklin was a quick-witted man of enormous humor- the funniest of all the founding fathers – and had never actually proposed the turkey, just observed in his wry, offhand way that the turkey was “a much more respectable bird” in his view, no specific reason ever given.

Today, proudly, we find the apex of the sky-ranging food chain, the American Bald Eagle, on our currency, flags, and seals, and the bird has recovered well from a threat to the species in the 1970s from DDT spraying.

All this said, the most noble attestation to the power and pride, singularity and regal nature of the Eagle to me comes from Lord Alfred Tennyson, whose poem by that name – “The Eagle” – reads this way:

“He clasps the crag with crooked hands;

Close to the sun in lonely lands,

Ring'd with the azure world, he stands.

The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls;

He watches from his mountain walls,

And like a thunderbolt he falls.”

In times of peace and war, hope and uncertainty, individually and as a nation, the Bald Eagle remains a source of consolation, inspiration, and aspiration. He is a sight to behold, and one often visits a tall pine in my yard. Always, he is a joy to see, far more so … than the wandering turkeys.