A Brief History of the Pledge of Allegiance
The Pledge of Allegiance was originally published in the Youth’s Companion on September 8th, 1892. The original text of the Pledge is as follows.
I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
In October of 1892, in preparation for the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s discovery of the Americas, the word “to” was added before “the Republic.” This would be the first of many alterations made in the Pledge over the years.
The author of the Pledge was Francis Bellamy, a Christian socialist from Rome, New York. He was an editor of the Youth’s Companion, taking the position after he was forced to resign as minister of his baptist church in Boston on account of the socialist teachings in his sermons.
Bellamy’s cousin was Edward Bellamy, another prominent socialist of the day. He is most famous as being the author of two works of American Utopian fiction: Looking Backward and Equality . Both were large players in the Christian socialist movement of the late 19th Century.
In authoring the Pledge, Bellamy sought to display the history and thought of the importance of the flag and the Republic for which it stands, which he saw as the reason for devotion to the flag. His mention of the nation as indivisible stems from the Civil War, that proved that this was one nation, united. Liberty and justice for all was inspired by the motto of the French Revolution “Liberty, equality, fraternity.” Believing America to be too far from this goal, he wrote instead “liberty and justice for all.”
On June 14th, 1923, the first National Flag conference was held. At this conference the first major alteration to the pledge was made. Fearing that immigrants might not know which flag they were pledging to, “my flag” was changed to “the flag of the United States.” The next year “of America was added.
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.
Bellamy did not approve of these changes, but his protests were ignored. He felt that using “my flag” not only made it a more personal declaration, but also felt that it could be used in other countries upholding the same ideals as the United States as well. He died in 1931, and would not live to see the first controversy over the pledge, or its largest alteration.
During the 1940’s there would be two major landmark Supreme Court cases involving the Pledge. Two Jehovah’s Witnesses were expelled by a Pennsylvania school district for refusing to salute the flag. Jehovah’s Witnesses viewed saluting a flag as revering another deity before God. In Minersville School District vs. Gobitis the Supreme Court sided with the school district and upheld mandatory recitation of the pledge and salute.
After great pressure from a number of organizations, the Court reversed itself 3 years later, however, with West Virginia State Board of Education vs. Barnette . The Court declared that patriotism could not be forced and that recitation of the flag and saluting should be a purely voluntary display.
Just over ten years later the Pledge received its fourth alteration. During the height of the Communist scare of the 1950’s and after a strong campaign by the Knights of Columbus, the United States Congress added the words “under God,” into the Pledge in 1954. The Pledge of Allegiance now had the form we still know it as today:
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.
Francis Bellamy’s granddaughter resisted this alteration, stating that her grandfather would not have supported it. After leaving his church in Boston he had become somewhat disillusioned with the church, and during his retirement in Florida he stopped attending church at all due to the racism he encountered there.
It is the addition of the phrase “under God” that has led to the modern controversy, led by activist Michael Newdow. Newdow and critics of the phrase believe that by putting the words “under God” into the pledge it makes the pledge a prayer and an establishment of religion: a violation of the First Ammendment. Although his actions originally led to a finding that the pledge violated the establishment clause, this matter is still in dispute.
Another case in Virginia led to a different response. In August 2005 the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the phrase and declared that the pledge was a patriotic, not a religious statement and could not be seen as an establishment of religion. This too is also in dispute.
Despite this controversy over the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance, it continues to be spoken by Americans across the nation. The Pledge has had a long history in the United States, and shall continue to do so.
