Many variations and new committees dealt with the issue for more than eight years, but those three drafters, with help from French émigré Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, decided on the unifying motto E pluribus unum.78 The three fearmongers of the 1860s sought to undo the work of these great men. The original idea expresses the belief that people or states with differences can come together to form a great country. The religious motto expresses an inherently divisive religious belief and applies to only a portion of the population. That language would not only trump the unifying sentiment on our
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