On September 16, 1782, the Great Seal of the United States was used for the first time on an official American document. The first brass die—made after the Continental Congress adopted the seal’s final design on June 20—was used by Charles Thomson, secretary of the Continental Congress, on a commission granting General George Washington full authority to negotiate and sign an agreement with Great Britain concerning the exchange, subsistence, and better treatment of prisoners of war. The document was signed by John Hanson, president of Congress, and countersigned by Thomson.
The occasion came during the final months of the Revolutionary War, when prisoner exchanges and the treatment of captives remained urgent diplomatic matters. By affixing the new seal to Washington’s commission, Congress authenticated a formal instrument authorizing its commander in chief to deal with British representatives on the nation’s behalf.
The seal’s obverse featured the American eagle holding an olive branch and a bundle of arrows, imagery that expressed the new nation’s capacity for both peace and defense. Its first use did not create American independence—already declared in 1776—but it marked an important practical expression of self-government: the Confederation Congress now had a distinctive national seal for validating official acts, including diplomatic commissions and international agreements.
That September 16 validation therefore stands as a meaningful milestone in the development of American institutions. It connected the political ideals of independence with the administrative machinery of government, giving the United States an enduring emblem of national authority that remains in official use today.
Image via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
