Thomas Jefferson, a Democrat; John Adams a Federalist; and Benjamin Franklin an iconoclast we're tasked with creating the Great Seal of the United States that now appears on the back of the United States Dollar.
The Founders sought to invent a machine of government that restrained itself, to create the broadest swath of American life that could be free from politics and the government. This private sphere would be the domain of commerce, industry, religion and the endless pleasures of private life.
On the front of the Great Seal is an eagle to represent the strength of America. Above the eagle is the Latin phrase “E Pluribus Unum,” meaning "Out of many, one", to represent the coming together of different peoples.
On the back of the seal is an unfinished pyramid to represent the unifying principal that the nation is a massive undertaking that would involve wealth, resources and labor. The pyramid as a work in progress, ties the Republic for which it stands to the product of intense labor by the people who continue to build it.
The Great Seal projects that building the pyramid will compel work to proceed in a certain way. The people must first make the brick, then make the mortar, then lay the brick in an endless cycles. Although there will be moments of crisis and triumph, the building of the pyramid must continue.
Above the pyramid is the second motto in Latin: “Annuit coeptis,” which means “He has favored our undertaking.” Although there is no mention of Christ or God in either the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution, the “He” represents “God,” who is always looking down from above humanity to judge and favor the great undertaking.
Beneath the pyramid. Is the third motto in Latin: “Novus ordo seclorum, which means a ” New Order of the Ages.” The founders not only believed that the United States was a new form of government, but that it represented a dramatic shift in the history of humanity that would transcend the European Age built on oppression and inequality with the “New American Era” that would reshape the world.