Pledge of Allegiance
Pledge of Allegiance(Bellamy versions)(changes are bolded and underlined) | |
---|---|
1892 (first version)[1] | |
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." | |
1892 to 1923 (early revision by Bellamy)[2] | |
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." | |
1923 to 1924[3] | |
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." | |
1924 to 1954[3] | |
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." | |
1954 (current version, per 4 U.S.C. §4)[4] | |
"I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." |
The Pledge of Allegiance is a patriotic recited verse that promises allegiance to the flag of the United States and the republic of the United States of America. The first version, with a text different from the one used at present, was written in 1885 by Captain George Thatcher Balch, a Union Army officer in the Civil War who later authored a book on how to teach patriotism to children in public schools.[5][6][7] In 1892, Francis Bellamy revised Balch's verse as part of a magazine promotion surrounding the World's Columbian Exposition, which celebrated the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the Americas. Bellamy, the circulation manager for The Youth's Companion magazine, helped persuade then-president Benjamin Harrison to institute Columbus Day as a national holiday and lobbied Congress for a national school celebration of the day.[8] The magazine sent leaflets containing part of Bellamy's Pledge of Allegiance to schools across the country and on October 21, 1892, over 10,000 children recited the verse together.[9]
Bellamy's version of the pledge is largely the same as the one formally adopted by Congress 50 years later, in 1942.[10] The official name of The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in 1945. The most recent alteration of its wording came on Flag Day (June 14) in 1954, when the words "under God" were added.[11]
Recital
The current United States Flag Code says:
The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag: "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all," should be rendered by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove any non-religious headdress with their right hand and hold it at the left shoulder, the hand being over the heart. Persons in uniform should remain silent, face the flag, and render the military salute.[16] Members of the Armed Forces not in uniform and veterans may render the military salute in the manner provided for persons in uniform.[4]
Origins
Historians point to surges in American patriotic oaths and pledges to the flag after the Civil War, when tensions surrounding political loyalties persisted, and in the 1880s, as rates of immigration increased dramatically.[17][18][19]
Balch pledge
An early pledge was created in 1887 by Captain George T. Balch,[20] a veteran of the Civil War, who later became auditor of the New York Board of Education.[21] Balch's pledge, which was recited contemporaneously with Bellamy's until the 1923 National Flag Conference, read:[20]
We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag!
Balch was a proponent of teaching children, especially those of immigrants, loyalty to the United States, even going so far as to write a book on the subject and work with both the government and private organizations to distribute flags to every classroom and school.[22] Balch's pledge, which predates Francis Bellamy's by five years and was embraced by many schools, by the Daughters of the American Revolution until the 1910s, and by the Grand Army of the Republic until the 1923 National Flag Conference, is often overlooked when discussing the history of the Pledge.[23]
Bellamy pledge
The pledge that later evolved into the form used today was composed in August 1892 by
Bellamy's original Pledge :
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.[1][31]
The Pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be recited in 15 seconds. As a socialist, he had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity[29] but decided against it.
Francis Bellamy and Upham had lined up the National Education Association to support the Youth's Companion as a sponsor of the Columbus Day observance and the use in that observance of the American flag. By June 29, 1892, Bellamy and Upham had arranged for Congress and President Benjamin Harrison to announce a proclamation making the public school flag ceremony the center of the Columbus Day celebrations. This arrangement was formalized when Harrison issued Presidential Proclamation 335. Subsequently, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892, during Columbus Day observances organized to coincide with the opening of the World's Columbian Exposition (the Chicago World's Fair), Illinois.[32]
Francis Bellamy's account
In his recollection of the creation of the Pledge, Francis Bellamy said, "At the beginning of the nineties patriotism and national feeling was (sic) at a low ebb. The patriotic ardor of the Civil War was an old story ... The time was ripe for a reawakening of simple Americanism and the leaders in the new movement rightly felt that patriotic education should begin in the public schools."[28] James Upham "felt that a flag should be on every schoolhouse,"[28] so his publication "fostered a plan of selling flags to schools through the children themselves at cost, which was so successful that 25,000 schools acquired flags in the first year (1892–93).[28]
As the World's Columbian Exposition was set to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of Christopher Columbus in the Americas, Upham sought to link the publication's flag drive to the event, "so that every school in the land ... would have a flag raising, under the most impressive conditions."[28] Bellamy was placed in charge of this operation and was soon lobbying "not only the superintendents of education in all the States, but [he] also worked with governors, Congressmen, and even the President of the United States."[28] The publication's efforts paid off when Benjamin Harrison declared Wednesday October 12, 1892, to be Columbus Day for which The Youth's Companion made "an official program for universal use in all the schools."[28] Bellamy recalled that the event "had to be more than a list of exercises. The ritual must be prepared with simplicity and dignity."[28]
Edna Dean Proctor wrote an ode for the event, and "There was also an oration suitable for declamation."[28] Bellamy held that "Of course, the nub of the program was to be the raising of the flag, with a salute to the flag recited by the pupils in unison."[28] He found "There was not a satisfactory enough form for this salute. The Balch salute, which ran, "I give my heart and my hand to my country, one country, one language, one flag," seemed to him too juvenile and lacking in dignity."[28] After working on the idea with Upham, Bellamy concluded, "It was my thought that a vow of loyalty or allegiance to the flag should be the dominant idea. I especially stressed the word 'allegiance'. ... Beginning with the new word allegiance, I first decided that 'pledge' was a better school word than 'vow' or 'swear'; and that the first person singular should be used, and that 'my' flag was preferable to 'the.'"[28] Bellamy considered the words "country, nation, or Republic," choosing the last as "it distinguished the form of government chosen by the founding fathers and established by the Revolution. The true reason for allegiance to the flag is the Republic for which it stands."[28] Bellamy then reflected on the sayings of Revolutionary and Civil War figures, and concluded "all that pictured struggle reduced itself to three words, one Nation indivisible."[28]
Bellamy considered the slogan of the French Revolution, Liberté, égalité, fraternité ("liberty, equality, fraternity"), but held that "fraternity was too remote of realization, and … [that] equality was a dubious word."[28] Concluding "Liberty and justice were surely basic, were undebatable, and were all that any one Nation could handle. If they were exercised for all. They involved the spirit of equality and fraternity."[28]
After being reviewed by Upham and other members of The Youth's Companion, the Pledge was approved and put in the official Columbus Day program. Bellamy noted that "in later years the words 'to my flag' were changed to 'to the flag of the United States of America' because of the large number of foreign children in the schools."[28] Bellamy disliked the change, as "it did injure the rhythmic balance of the original composition."[28]
Changes
In 1906, The Daughters of the American Revolution's magazine, The American Monthly, used the following wording for the pledge of allegiance, based on Balch's Pledge:
I pledge allegiance to my flag, and the republic for which it stands. I pledge my head and my heart to God and my country. One country, one language and one flag.[23]
In subsequent publications of the Daughters of the American Revolution, such as in 1915's "Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Continental Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution" and 1916's annual "National Report," the previous pledge (adjusted to read "I pledge my head, my hand, my heart..."), listed as official in 1906, is now categorized as "Old Pledge" with Bellamy's version under the heading "New Pledge."[33][34] The "Old Pledge" was still taken in other organizations until the National Flag Conference established uniform flag procedures in 1923.
In 1923, the National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag" to be changed to "the Flag of the United States," so that foreign-born people would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries and the US.[35] The words "of America" were added a year later. Congress officially recognized the Pledge for the first time, in the following form, on June 22, 1942:[36]
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Addition of "under God"
Louis Albert Bowman, an attorney from Illinois, was the first to suggest the addition of "under God" to the pledge. The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution gave him an Award of Merit as the originator of this idea.[37][38] He spent his adult life in the Chicago area and was chaplain of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. At a meeting on February 12, 1948,[37] he led the society in reciting the pledge with the two words "under God" added. He said that the words came from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. Although not all manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address contain the words "under God", all the reporters' transcripts of the speech as delivered do, as perhaps Lincoln may have deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he said "that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom."[39] Bowman repeated his revised version of the Pledge at other meetings.[37]
During the Cold War era, many Americans wanted to distinguish the United States from the state atheism promoted by Marxist-Leninist countries, a view that led to support for the words "under God" to be added to the Pledge of Allegiance.[40][41]
In 1951, the
At the suggestion of a correspondent, Representative Louis C. Rabaut (D-Mich.), of Michigan sponsored a resolution to add the words "under God" to the Pledge in 1953.[44]
Before February 1954, no endeavor to get the pledge officially amended had succeeded. The final successful push came from
President Eisenhower had been baptized a
From this day forward, the millions of our school children will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and rural school house, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty.... In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource, in peace or in war.[46]
The phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a
On October 6, 1954, the National Executive Committee of the American Legion adopted a resolution, first approved by the Illinois American Legion Convention in August 1954, which formally recognized the Knights of Columbus for having initiated and brought forward the amendment to the Pledge of Allegiance.[43]
Salute
Swearing of the Pledge is accompanied by a salute. An early version of the salute, adopted in 1887, accompanied the Balch pledge and was known as the Balch Salute. This salute instructed students to stand with their right hand outstretched toward the flag, the fingers of which are then brought to the forehead, followed by being placed flat over the heart, and finally falling to the side.
In 1892, Francis Bellamy created what was known as the Bellamy salute to accompany his own version of the Pledge of Allegiance. It started with the hand outstretched toward the flag, palm down, and ended with the palm up. Many decades later, during World War II, controversy arose because of the similarity between the Bellamy salute and the Nazi salute, which was adopted in Germany in the 1930s (although, unlike the Bellamy salute, this one did not end with the palm up). As a result, the US Congress stipulated that the hand-over-the-heart gesture would instead be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem, thereby replacing the Bellamy salute. Removal of the Bellamy salute occurred on December 22, 1942, when Congress amended the Flag Code language first passed into law on June 22, 1942.[47] Attached to bills passed in Congress in 2008 and then in 2009 (Section 301(b)(1) of title 36, United States Code), language was included which authorized all active duty military personnel and all veterans in civilian clothes to render a proper hand salute during the raising and lowering of the flag, when the colors are presented, and during the National Anthem.[48]
Sarah Churchwell has argued that the term "salute", as it relates to the Bellamy and Balch salutes, historically referred to the words of the pledges themselves, not a physical gesture.[49]
Music
A musical setting for "The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag" was created by Irving Caesar, at the suggestion of Congressman Louis C. Rabaut whose House Resolution 243 to add the phrase "under God" was signed into law on Flag Day, June 14, 1954.[50]
The composer Irving Caesar wrote and published over 700 songs in his lifetime. Dedicated to social issues, he donated all rights of the musical setting to the U.S. government, so that anyone can perform the piece without owing royalties.[51][52]
It was sung for the first time on the floor of the House of Representatives on Flag Day, June 14, 1955, by the official Air Force choral group the "Singing Sergeants". A July 29, 1955, House and Senate resolution authorized the U.S. Government Printing Office to print and distribute the song sheet together with a history of the pledge.[53]
Other musical versions of the Pledge have since been copyrighted, including by Beck (2003), Lovrekovich (2002 and 2001), Roton (1991), Fijol (1986), and Girardet (1983).[54]
Controversy
In 1940, the
If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us.[55]
In 2004, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that students are also not required to stand for the Pledge.[56]
Requiring or promoting of the Pledge on the part of the government has continued to draw criticism and legal challenges on several grounds.
One objection is that a constitutional republic built on freedom of
In 2004, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg said the original supporters of the addition thought that they were simply quoting Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, but to Lincoln and his contemporaries, "under God" meant "God willing", so they would have found its use in the Pledge of Allegiance grammatically incorrect and semantically odd.[62][63]
In popular culture, the pledge has been mocked or altered by several movies and television series including, but not limited to, the Simpsons' inscription above the Springfield county courthouse's door of "Liberty and Justice for Most", first appearing in the twelfth episode of the series in 1990.
Legal challenges
Prominent legal challenges were brought in the 1930s and 1940s by
In a 2002 case brought by atheist
In 2006, in the Florida case Frazier v. Alexandre, a federal district court in Florida ruled that a 1942 state law requiring students to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance violates the
In 2009, a Montgomery County, Maryland, teacher berated and had school police remove a 13-year-old girl who refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom. The student's mother, assisted by the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, sought and received an apology from the teacher, as state law and the school's student handbook both prohibit students from being forced to recite the Pledge.[69]
On March 11, 2010, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in the case of Newdow v. Rio Linda Union School District.[70][71] In a 2–1 decision, the appellate court ruled that the words were of a "ceremonial and patriotic nature" and did not constitute an establishment of religion.[70] Judge Stephen Reinhardt dissented, writing that "the state-directed, teacher-led daily recitation in public schools of the amended 'under God' version of the Pledge of Allegiance... violates the Establishment Clause of the Constitution."[72]
On November 12, 2010, in a unanimous decision, the
In September 2013, a case was brought before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, arguing that the pledge violates the Equal Rights Amendment of the Constitution of Massachusetts.[77] In May 2014, Massachusetts' highest court ruled that the pledge does not discriminate against atheists, saying that the words "under God" represent a patriotic, not a religious, exercise.[78]
In February 2015 New Jersey Superior Court Judge David F. Bauman dismissed a lawsuit, ruling that "… the Pledge of Allegiance does not violate the rights of those who don't believe in God and does not have to be removed from the patriotic message."[79] The case against the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District had been brought by a student of the district and the American Humanist Association that argued that the phrase "under God" in the pledge created a climate of discrimination because it promoted religion, making non-believers "second-class citizens." In a 21-page decision, Bauman wrote, "Under [the association members'] reasoning, the very constitution under which [the members] seek redress for perceived atheistic marginalization could itself be deemed unconstitutional, an absurd proposition which [association members] do not and cannot advance here."[79] Bauman said the student could skip the pledge, but upheld a New Jersey law that says pupils must recite the pledge unless they have "conscientious scruples" that do not allow it.[80][81] He noted, "As a matter of historical tradition, the words 'under God' can no more be expunged from the national consciousness than the words 'In God We Trust' from every coin in the land, than the words 'so help me God' from every presidential oath since 1789, or than the prayer that has opened every congressional session of legislative business since 1787."
See also
- Accommodationism and separation of church and state, which provide more information surrounding "under God" in the pledge
- Australian citizenship affirmation, a similar concept
- Ceremonial deism
- The Children's Story, a fictional analysis of what the pledge and flag mean for children taught to recite
- Flag salute
- In God We Trust, national motto of the United States
- Loyalty oaths in the United States
- Youth's Companion Building, where the Pledge of Allegiance was written and published
References
- ^ a b "The Pledge of Allegiance". Historic Documents. Independence Hall Association: ushistory.org. Archived from the original on September 27, 2012. Retrieved August 29, 2012.
- ^ Jones, Jeffrey Owen. "The Man Who Wrote the Pledge of Allegiance Archived January 31, 2018, at the Wayback Machine," Smithsonian Magazine, Nov. 2003. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ^ a b "The Pledge of Allegiance Archived May 16, 2023, at the Wayback Machine," Celebrating America's Freedoms. n.d. U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs. Retrieved June 14, 2018.
- ^ a b "Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 4, US Code". Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 30, 2021.
- from the original on December 10, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
- ^ "Captain and Brevet Lieutenant Colonel George T. Balch, Ordnance Corps Hall of Fame Inductee 2001, U.S. Army Ordnance Corps". www.goordnance.army.mil. Archived from the original on June 6, 2012. Retrieved November 1, 2015.
- ^ Balch, George Thacher (1890). Methods of teaching patriotism in the public schools: being an extract from an address delivered before the teachers of the Children's Aid Society of the city of New York. Harvard University. New York : D. Van Nostrand Company.
- ^ Magazine, Smithsonian. "The Man Who Wrote the Pledge of Allegiance". Smithsonian Magazine. Archived from the original on January 31, 2018. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ^ Schaefer-Jacobs, Debbie (October 23, 2017). "I Pledge Allegiance". National Museum of American History. Archived from the original on May 3, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- PBS. June 29, 2002. Archivedfrom the original on November 12, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ^ "The Pledge of Allegiance". WVSD.USCourts.gov. United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Archived from the original on June 30, 2022. Retrieved June 14, 2021.
- ^ Dress, Brad (April 2, 2022). "Here is a breakdown of laws in 47 states that require reciting the Pledge of Allegiance". The Hill. Archived from the original on June 7, 2022. Retrieved June 7, 2022.
- ^ Tucker, Jill (March 23, 2013). "Many schools skip Pledge of Allegiance". San Francisco Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 27, 2013. Retrieved September 18, 2019.
California state law doesn't require the recitation in schools, although 45 other states do. But students can't be required to say it or even stand during the pledge, according to a Supreme Court decision. ... California does require every public school to include a "patriotic exercise" every day - which the pledge would fulfill - but it's a vague requirement that's not enforced.
- Smithsonian Magazine, archivedfrom the original on October 14, 2017, retrieved October 14, 2017
- ^ "American & State Pledges". Speck's Web. November 16, 2013. Archived from the original on September 4, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2014.
- ^ U.S. Code 2011, Title 4, Chap. 1, Sec. 4 Archived March 27, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Government Printing Office. Retrieved September 22, 2017.
- ^ "Why Do We Pledge Allegiance?". Boston Review. Archived from the original on July 16, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ISBN 978-1-78914-035-4. Archivedfrom the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- from the original on June 8, 2022. Retrieved June 8, 2022.
- ^ a b Jehle, Dr Paul (June 1, 2018). ""Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance – 1954". Plymouth Rock Foundation. Archived from the original on October 16, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
- ^ "George T. Balch • Cullum's Register • 1496". penelope.uchicago.edu. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
- ^ The Overland Monthly. Samuel Carson. January 1, 1891.
- ^ a b Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine. National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution. January 1, 1906.
- Newspapers.com. May 21, 1892. p. 4. Archived from the original on February 24, 2022. Retrieved February 24, 2022..
I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands; one nation inseparable with liberty and justice for all.
- @barrypopik (February 24, 2022). ""Pledge of Allegiance" on April 30, 1892?" (Tweet) – via Twitter
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The introduction of "under God" in the 1950s was done during the Cold War, as a way to differentiate the U.S. from the concept of Communist state atheism.
The constitutionality of a New Hampshire law...
A Sacramento atheist's challenge to the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance...
Further reading
- Martin, Leisa A. (May–June 2008). "Examining the Pledge of Allegiance". Social Studies. 99 (3): 127–131. S2CID 144498218.
- Baer, John W. (2007). The Pledge of Allegiance: A Revised History and Analysis, 1892–2007 (Free State Press, Inc.)
- Ellis, Richard J. (2005). To the Flag: The Unlikely History of the Pledge of Allegiance (Lawrence: ISBN 0-7006-1372-2
- ISBN 0-312-32308-5
- ISBN 0465049494.
External links
- 4 U.S.C. § 4
- Docherty's Sermon Manuscript, Feb. 7, 1954
- Minister Reprises "Under God" Sermon
- Francis Julius Bellamy papers, A.B43, and the David Bellamy papers, D.147, both located in Rare Books, Special Collections, and Preservation, River Campus Libraries, University of Rochester. The David Bellamy papers are primarily concerned with the controversy surrounding the authorship of the Pledge.