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| | Kentucky's State Seal - Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives |
 | | The official seal of the Commonwealth was described in a bill passed by the General Assembly on December 20, 1792, shortly after Kentucky joined the Union. |
 | | Most historians believe that the patriotism of Kentucky's first governor, Isaac Shelby, was the inspiration for the state's choice of the motto "United We Stand, Divided We Fall." Shelby, a hero of the Revolutionary War for his victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain, was fond of "The Liberty Song," written 1768 by John Dickinson. |
 | | Although Isaac Shelby's initial conception of the seal depicted two pioneers in buckskins, with their hands clapsed as they stood on a precipice, Humphries' version imposed the men, dressed in swallowtail coats, embracing in a bear hug so tight that one of the men's heads is obliterated by the other's. |
| www.kdla.ky.gov /resources/kyseal.htm (651 words) |
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