24z Benjamin Franklin [1784 
all such things are criticised. Some find fault with 
the Latin, as wanting classical elegance and correct- 
ness; and, since our nine universities were not able 
to furnish better Latin, it was pity, they say, that the 
mottoes had not been in English. Others object to 
the title, as not properly assumable by any but Gen- 
eral Washington, and a few others, who served with- 
out pay. Others object to the bald eagle as looking 
too much like a dindon, or turkey. For my own 
part, I wish the bald eagle had not been chosen as the 
representative of our country; he is a bird of bad 
moral character; he does not get his living honestly; 
you may have seen him perched on some dead tree, 
where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the 
labor of the fishing-hawk; and, when that diligent 
bird has at length taken a fish, and is bearing it to 
his nest for the support of his mate and young ones, 
the bald eagle pursues him and takes it from him. 
With all this injustice he is never in good case; but, 
like those among men who live by sharping and rob- 
bing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. 
Besides, he is a rank coward; the little king-bird, 
not bigger than a sparrow, attacks him boldly and 
drives him out of the district. He is therefore by 
no means a proper emblem for the brave and honest 
Cincinnati of America, who have driven all the king- 
birds from our country; though exactly fit for that 
order of knights which the French call Chevaliers 
d’ Industrie. 
I am, on this account, not displeased that the 
figure is not known as a bald eagle, but looks more 
like a turkey. For in truth, the turkey is in com- 
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