Arkansas State Motto: Regnat Populus
Regnat Populus
Regnat Populus
The motto appears on the state seal of Arkansas
- Motto
- Regnat Populus
- Language
- Latin
- Translation
- The People Rule
- On seal since
- 1836
Arkansas State Motto
Arkansas's state motto is Regnat Populus, Latin for The People Rule. The phrase has been on the Arkansas state seal since the state entered the Union on June 15, 1836.
The phrase declares that governing power belongs to the people. Arkansas became a state in 1836, during the height of the Jacksonian era, when popular sovereignty was reshaping American politics.
Arkansas State Motto Meaning
Regnat is the third-person singular of the Latin verb regnare, meaning to rule or to reign. Populus means the people. Together they read as the people rule, or the people reign.
The phrase places governing power with the citizens rather than with a monarch or ruling class. For an American state in 1836, it was both a description of how the government worked and a statement of what it stood for.
History of Arkansas's State Motto
Arkansas was admitted to the Union on June 15, 1836, as the 25th state. The state seal, which carries the motto, was adopted at the time of statehood. Regnat Populus has appeared on it since the beginning.
The motto was not borrowed from another state or country. It was chosen to express the democratic foundations of the new state at a moment when the United States was expanding westward and debating the meaning of self-government.
"Regnat Populus" on the Arkansas State Seal
The motto appears at the top of the Arkansas state seal. The seal shows a central shield with a steamboat, a beehive, a plow, and a sheaf of wheat. An eagle sits below the shield. The figures of the Sword of Justice and the Angel of Mercy appear above it, with a figure of Liberty holding a sword and pole.
The seal is displayed on official state documents and government buildings. The motto circles the top of the design, above all the other imagery.
Arkansas State Motto Facts
- Motto: Regnat Populus — Latin for "The People Rule."
- The motto has appeared on the Arkansas state seal since statehood in 1836.
- Arkansas entered the Union on June 15, 1836, as the 25th state.
- Regnat is Latin for "rules" or "reigns." Populus means "the people."
Can You Match All 50 State Mottos?
Some questions show the original motto — Latin, Italian, Chinook — and ask which state it belongs to. Others give you the English translation and ask you to work backward. Both directions are harder than they look.
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Arkansas State Symbols
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