Diary of John Adams, volume 3
1776-07-04
July
This paragraph is interlined in the MS and mistakenly placed between the last two paragraphs of the entry dated 1 July. The editors have placed it where JA no doubt intended to put it. This committee reported on 20 Aug., but its report was tabled, and no device for a Great Seal of the United States was adopted until 1782. See the proposals and report of 1776 and a summary of later developments in Jefferson, Papers, ed. Boyd, 1:494–497; also JA to AA, 14 Aug. 1776 (Adams Papers; JA-AA, Familiar Letters
, p. 211). In his abstract of Congress' proceedings on 20 Aug. JA overlooked the report of this committee.