South Carolina State Motto

South Carolina's General Assembly passed a resolution on April 2, 1776 — more than three months before the Declaration of Independence — authorizing President John Rutledge and the Privy Council to design a Great Seal. Two designers divided the work: William Henry Drayton designed the obverse with the palmetto tree and the motto Animis Opibusque Parati (Prepared in Mind and Resources); Arthur Middleton designed the reverse with the goddess Spes and Dum Spiro Spero (While I Breathe, I Hope).

Both mottos received simultaneous adoption and carry equal legal standing. The two phrases together describe complementary virtues: readiness before battle and perseverance through it. South Carolina's decision to create a two-sided seal with two distinct mottos — rather than one phrase — was unusual among colonial states designing seals in 1776.

An engraver in Charles Town crafted the original seal as a four-inch circle, four-tenths of an inch thick, made from coin silver. President Rutledge first used the completed seal on May 22, 1777, more than a year after authorization.

The phrase 'Dum spiro spero' predates South Carolina by over a century. King Charles I of England used it as a personal motto during his imprisonment by Parliament in the 1640s, and inscribed the words in a Shakespeare folio. The phrase expressed his determination to maintain hope as long as he lived — which ended with his execution in January 1649.

Over fifty families in the British Isles bore 'Dum spiro spero' as their family motto before South Carolina adopted it. The phrase had also appeared in classical literature — Greek poet Theocritus wrote a similar sentiment in the 3rd century BC: 'While there's life there's hope, and only the dead have none.' Cicero used the Latin phrasing in his letters.

Arthur Middleton, who chose the phrase for South Carolina's seal, would have known its royal history. A Charleston planter and member of the Provincial Congress, Middleton received a classical education that included both the classical sources and the British heraldic tradition. He selected a phrase that carried centuries of meaning about perseverance under duress.

The reverse of South Carolina's Great Seal shows the Roman goddess Spes — the personification of hope — walking on a beach at dawn. She holds a laurel branch in one hand. At her feet lie discarded British weapons: swords, muskets, and military equipment. The image translates the motto's abstract concept into a specific historical scene.

Spes was a standard figure in Roman religious practice, often depicted carrying flowers or reaching toward the future. South Carolina's version places her in a Revolutionary War context: dawn represents the new beginning of independence, the beach setting anchors the scene in the Atlantic coast, and the discarded weapons represent the specific enemy being defeated. The goddess is not avoiding weapons — she is stepping over them.

The two elliptical areas of the seal are linked by palmetto branches, connecting both mottos and both sides of the seal design. 'Dum Spiro Spero' appears on a ribbon above the Spes scene on the reverse, while 'Animis Opibusque Parati' appears on the obverse above the palmetto tree.