Written In 1892, The “Pledge of Allegiance” Didn’t Receive Congressional Recognition Until 1945

Pledge of Allegiance Day on December 28th commemorates the date Congress adopted the “The Pledge” into the United States Flag Code.

For many of us, the Pledge of Allegiance was something we knew by heart and recited each morning in school. With our right hands over our hearts and our eyes cast upward at the flag on the wall, we were taught to show our patriotism. The history of the Pledge is long and fraught with controversy in recent years, so no individual American’s experience with it is universal! Today, the Pledge of Allegiance goes as follows:

• 1885 – The Pledge of Allegiance wasn’t the first pledge of allegiance. That honor rightly belongs to a simple version created by Civil War veteran Colonel George Balch, who composed it in 1885.
• 1892 – Francis Bellamy receives credit for writing the Pledge of Allegiance. The Youth’s Companion, a magazine for young people, was first published anonymously on September 8, 1892, under the title “The Pledge.” It was written in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America.
  • Francis Bellamy reportedly wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in two hours, but it was the culmination of nearly two years of work at the Youth’s Companion, the country’s largest-circulation magazine.
  • In a marketing gimmick, the Companion offered U.S. flags to readers who sold subscriptions, and now, with the looming 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival in the New World, the magazine planned to raise the Stars and Stripes “over every Public School from the Atlantic to the Pacific” and salute it with an oath.
• 1923 – In 1923 and 1924, the National Flag Conference inserted the text of the pledge into legislation. Though modifications were made, the pledge remained nearly the same. At the same time, the conference didn’t designate it as the official pledge. In its original form, it read:
  • “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
• 1923 – Balch’s version was adopted by several schools, the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Grand Army of the Republic, (whose museum is in Philly), and persisted until the National Flag Conference of 1923.
  • Balch, who worked for the New York Board of Education and for a time served as governor of the Philadelphia Naval Asylum, was dedicated to teaching immigrant children loyalty and devotion to their new country. His pledge read: “We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag.”
• 1940 – A 1940 Supreme Court ruled that public schoolchildren who objected to the Pledge on religious grounds could be compelled to recite it.
• 1942 – It wasn’t until 1942 that Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance as we know it today.
• 1943 – Three years later, the Supreme Court reversed its decision, holding that the First Amendment protected the right of students not to recite the Pledge.
• 1942 – Congress formally adopted the Pledge in 1942, declaring that it should be recited with one’s right hand over one’s heart.
• 1943 – Arguing that it was against their religious beliefs, a group of Jehovah’s Witnesses opposed the 1943 ruling that children must say the pledge in school.
• 1945 – Congress formally gave recognition for the Pledge of Allegiance on December 28, 1945.
• 1954 – On Flag Day in 1954, Congress added the words “under God” in response to the anti-Communist opinion sweeping the country during the Cold War.  Those two little added words, “under God”, set off a cascade of court cases.
  • A later court decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that students should not be required to stand for the Pledge since standing (or not standing) is a form of free speech.
• In 1982, Congress received a submission for National Pledge of Allegiance Day, but they took no action.
• 2002 – Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals case in which an atheist, whose daughter would soon start school, argued that the pledge was an unconstitutional endorsement of monotheism.
• In 2004, the Senate passed Resolution 378 designating June 14, 2004, as the National Pledge of Allegiance as a way to reaffirm the United States flag as a unique symbol of the United States and its ideals.
• 2006 – Between 2006 and 2015, there have been over 5 significant court cases challenging- or somehow related to the phrase “under God” — the most recent 2015 ruling stated that the phrase did not violate any atheist rights.
• The pledge was to be recited in unison by school children as a salute to the American flag.
• The small changes resulted in this version:
  • “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.”
  • Where today we say “the flag of the United States of America,” the original Pledge simply said “the Flag.”
• James Upham invented a salute to accompany the pledge: Kids would place their right hands over their hearts, then stretch out their arms and raise them, palm downward, toward the flag. During World War II, the second part of this salute was dropped like a hot potato because it resembled the Nazi salute.
• It’s a daily order of business for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. And hundreds of thousands of newly minted citizens pledge allegiance each year during the U.S. naturalization ceremony.
• The snappy oath first printed in a 5-cent children’s magazine is better known than any venerable text committed to parchment in Philadelphia.

Sources:

National Day Calendar

Kool 1079

Philly Mag

Smithsonian Mag

National Today