E Pluribus Unum

Greetings, fellow Patriotic AntiCents! Today is latin-lesson day! Taken from the pages of the mightily informative Mental Floss Magazine, we learn the origin of our national motto. E Pluribus Unum! Selected, in part, with the help of THIS GUY, Benjamin Franklin. [a.k.a.: "General Stan's Favorite American," for obvious reasons]

The Statement of E Pluribus Unum is simple: Out of Many, One. Seen on every piece of US currency, it is, to be sure, a vital piece of American Ideologic convention.

Franklin had an earlier iteration of E Pluribus Unum in what many regard as the first political cartoon, the Join or Die snake cartoon.

Ben Franklin and our Friendly Framers worked toward the ideal of Unum; the sense that the divided culture of America could unite and operate as one entity, one being. In fact, if it did not meld the divergent social perspectives, than America, surely, would perish.

And So, AntiCentoniacs, I propose a moment of American reflection upon this noble ideal, this fantastic source of unifying principle and political disconnect. In a time when Americans themselves are increasingly distant politically [ and emotionally] from one another; at a time when it seems more and more difficult to approach your idealogic opposite. Today, we examine the rich literary history of poet Virgil, and his awe-inspiring treatise "Moretum," otherwise known as: The Source of the Mother of All American Unifying Mottos.

From Moretum:

His salis inspargit micas, sale durus adeso
caseus adicitur, dictas super ingerit herbas
et laeva vestem saetosa sub inguina fulcit:
dextera pistillo primum flagrantia mollit
alia, tum pariter mixto terit omnia suco.
It manus in gyrum: paulatim singula vires
deperdunt proprias; color est e pluribus unus,
nec totus viridis, quia lactea frusta repugnant,
nec de lacte nitens, quia tot variatur ab herbis.
Saepe viri nares acer iaculatur apertas
spiritus et simo damnat sua prandia voltu,
saepe manu summa lacrimantia lumina terget
immeritoque furens dicit convicia fumo.
Procedebat opus nec iam salebrosus ut ante
sed gravior lentos ibat pistillus in orbis.
Ergo Palladii guttas instillat olivi
exiguique super vires infundit aceti
atque iterum commiscet opus mixtumque retractat.
Tum demum digitis mortaria tota duobus
circuit inque globum distantia contrahit unum,
constet ut effecti species nomenque moreti.

It should be noted that the phrase has shifted from "e pluribus unus" to "e pluribus unum," once the Framers extracted the motto from the context of the poem.

And the English Translation:

His hand in circles move:
Till by degrees they one by one do lose
Their proper powers, and out of many comes
A single colour, not entirely green
Because the milky fragments this forbid,
Nor showing white as from the milk because
That colour's altered by so many herbs.
The vapour keen doth oft assail the man's
Uncovered nostrils, and with face and nose
Retracted doth he curse his early meal;
With back of hand his weeping eyes he oft
Doth wipe, and raging, heaps reviling on
The undeserving smoke. The work advanced:
No longer full of jottings as before,
But steadily the pestle circles smooth
Described. Some drops of olive oil he now
Instils, and pours upon its strength besides
A little of his scanty vinegar,
And mixes once again his handiwork,
And mixed withdraws it: then with fingers twain
Round all the mortar doth he go at last
And into one coherent ball doth bring
The diff'rent portions, that it may the name
And likeness of a finished salad fit.

YES! Our motto has been crafted by the careful poetic rendition of a recipe for a salad dressing!

So go forth, NobleCentenarians, and walk into the current political maelstrom with the pride of your newfound knowledge.