The Seal of the Confederate States<!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not add the words "Great" or "of America" as it would be historically inaccurate. Those words were not in the 1863 law passed by the C.S. Congress establishing the Seal. Thank you. --> was used to authenticate certain documents issued by the federal <!-- EDITORS NOTE: Please do not remove the word "Federal" as it is historically accurate. The Preamble of the Confederate States Constitution specifically uses the word (i.e. "in order to form a permanent federal government...". Thank you. --> government of the Confederate States of America. The phrase is used both for the physical seal itself (which was kept by the Confederate Secretary of State), and more generally for the design impressed upon it. On May 20, 1863, C.S. Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin instructed James Mason to arrange for its manufacture in London. The seal was first used publicly in 1864.
Design
left|thumb|[[Virginia Washington Monument|Statue of Washington at Richmond]]
The Seal of the Confederate States prominently features the Statue of Washington in the capitol square at Richmond. The bottom margin contains the national motto, Deo vindice, meaning '(With) God (as) our defender/protector'. Confederate Senator Thomas Semmes, in proposing the motto, took pains to stress that both the provisional and the permanent Confederate constitution "had deviated in the most emphatic manner from the spirit that presided over the construction of the Constitution of the United States, which is silent on the subject of the Deity."
History
thumb|left|Seal on a 1864 [[Confederate States dollar|CS$500 banknote]]
According to the Richmond Whig of September 25, 1862, a design that passed the Senate represented in the foreground a Confederate soldier, in position to charge bayonet; in the middle distance, a woman with a child in front of a church, both with hands uplifted in the attitude of prayer; for a background, a homestead in the plain, with mountains in the distance beneath the meridian sun; the whole surrounded by a wreath composed of the stalks of sugar-cane, the rice, the cotton and the tobacco plants, the margin inscribed with the words 'Seal of the Confederate States of America' above, and 'Our Homes and Constitutions' beneath. This seal was never used.
The final design was approved on April 30, 1863, The seal was first used publicly in 1864. The dies eventually reached Richmond before the end of the war. The dies (crafted in silver) were thus unlikely to ever have been used in any official capacity. Both sets of artifacts initially passed through private ownership before ultimately entering museum collections. The press is in the BNT Museum at the Globe Hotel, St. George's.