Massachusetts state symbols

How to read it

Chapter 2 of the Massachusetts General Laws names all four. It makes the chickadee (Penthestes atricapillus) the bird emblem of the commonwealth, the mayflower (Epigaea repens) its floral emblem and the American elm (Ulmus americana) its tree emblem, and it writes the motto into the coat of arms, in gold on a blue ribbon. The Secretary of the Commonwealth dates the mayflower to 1 May 1918 and the chickadee and the elm to the same day, 21 March 1941. The motto is far older: the Provincial Congress adopted it in 1775. The mayflower is the plant also called ground laurel or trailing arbutus, not the ship, and the Secretary notes that it has been on the endangered list since 1925.

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Massachusetts’s symbols and when each was adopted

Where the motto comes from

The Secretary of the Commonwealth says the motto is the second of two lines written by Algernon Sydney, the English soldier and politician, in the Book of Mottoes in the King’s Library in Copenhagen. The elm has its own story from the same years: George Washington took command of the Continental Army beneath one on Cambridge Common in 1775.

The law protects the mayflower

The same section that names the mayflower sets a fine of up to $50 for pulling up or digging up the plant on a state highway or other public way, or on another person’s land without written permission. The fine rises to $100 for doing it in disguise or secretly at night.