Pledge of Allegiance
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The Pledge of Allegiance is a promise or oath of allegiance to the United States as represented by its national flag. It is commonly recited in unison at public events, and especially in public school classrooms, where the Pledge is often a morning ritual. In its present form, the words of the Pledge are
- 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.
According to current U.S. custom, as codified by the United States Congress, persons are expected (but not legally required) to recite the Pledge as follows:
- by standing at attention facing the flag with the right hand over the heart. When not in uniform men should remove their 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.
Some U.S. states, such as Texas, also have pledges of allegiance to their state flags (see Flag of Texas).
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[edit] History
The Pledge of Allegiance was written for the popular children's magazine Youth's Companion by socialist author and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy on September 7, 1892. The owners of Youth's Companion were selling flags to schools, and approached Bellamy to write the Pledge for their advertising campaign. It was marketed as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the Americas and was first published on the following day.
Bellamy's original Pledge read as follows: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all., and was seen by some as a call for national unity and wholeness after the divisive Civil War. The pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be stated in 15 seconds. He had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided they were too controversial since many people still opposed equal rights for women and African Americans. Bellamy said that the purpose of the pledge was to teach obedience to the state as a virtue.
After a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892 during Columbus Day observances. The form adopted inserted the word "to" before "the Republic."
In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference called for the words my Flag to be changed to the Flag of the United States of America. The reason given was to ensure that immigrants knew to which flag reference was being made. The U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge on December 28, 1945.
In 1940 the Supreme Court, in deciding the case of Minersville School District v. Gobitis, ruled that students in public schools could be compelled to recite the Pledge, even Jehovah's Witnesses like the Gobitases, who considered the flag salute to be idolatry. In the wake of this ruling, there was a rash of mob violence and intimidation against Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1943 the Supreme Court reversed its decision, ruling in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette that matters of religious conviction should be safeguarded from political control.
Before World War II, the Pledge was begun with the right hand over the heart during the phrase "I pledge allegiance". The arm was then extended toward the Flag at the phrase "to the Flag", and it remained outstretched during the rest of the pledge, with the palm facing upward, as if to lift the flag. An earlier version, the Bellamy salute,
also ended with the arm outstretched and the palm upwards, but began with the right hand in a military salute, not over the heart. Both of these salutes differed from the Roman salute, where the palm was toward the ground. However, during the war the outstretched arm became identified with Nazism and Fascism, and the custom was changed: today the Pledge is said from beginning to end with the right hand over the heart.
The Knights of Columbus in New York City felt that the pledge was incomplete without any reference to a deity. Appealing to the authority of Abraham Lincoln, the Knights felt that the words "under God" from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address were most appropriate to add to the Pledge. In New York City on April 22, 1951, the Board of Directors of the Knights of Columbus adopted a resolution to amend their recitation of Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of each of the meetings of the 800 Fourth Degree Assemblies of the Knights of Columbus by addition of the words "under God" after the words "one nation". In the following two years, the idea spread throughout Knights of Columbus organizations nationwide. On August 21, 1952, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus at its annual meeting adopted a resolution urging that the change be made universal and copies of this resolution were sent to the President, the Vice President (as Presiding Officer of the Senate) and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The National Fraternal Congress meeting in Boston on September 24, 1952, adopted a similar resolution upon the recommendation of its President, Supreme Knight Luke E. Hart. Several State Fraternal Congresses acted likewise almost immediately thereafter. This campaign led to several official attempts to prompt Congress to adopt the Knights of Columbus’ policy for the entire nation. These attempts failed.
[edit] Addition of the words "under God"
Though the Knights of Columbus tried, they were unsuccessful in their attempts to persuade the United States government to amend the pledge. It was a Presbyterian minister who made the difference in 1954 by preaching a sermon about Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The minister was George MacPherson Docherty, a native of Scotland who was called to succeed Peter Marshall as pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church near the White House, where, in 1863, the same year as the address, Lincoln attended and even rented a pew. After Lincoln’s death, the pew that he rented became somewhat of a national monument. It became customary for later United States presidents to attend services at the church and sit in the Lincoln pew on the Sunday closest to Lincoln’s birthday (February 12) each year.
As Lincoln Sunday (February 7, 1954) approached, Rev. Docherty knew not only that President Dwight Eisenhower was to be in attendance, but that it was more than just an annual ritual for him; while President, Eisenhower had been baptized a Presbyterian. Docherty's sermon focused on the Gettysburg Address, drawing its title from the address, "A New Birth of Freedom."
Docherty’s message began with a comparison of the United States to ancient Sparta. Docherty noted that a traveler to ancient Sparta was amazed by the fact that the Spartans’ national might was not to be found in their walls, their shields, or their weapons, but in their spirit. Likewise, said Docherty, the might of the United States should not be thought of as emanating from their newly developed Atomic weapons, but in their spirit, the "American way of life". In the remainder of the sermon Docherty sought to define as succinctly as possible the essence of the American spirit and way of life. To do so, Docherty appealed to those two words in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. According to Docherty, what has made the United States both unique and strong was her sense of being the nation that Lincoln described: a nation "under God". He took the opportunity to tell a story of a conversation with his children about the Pledge of Allegiance. Docherty was troubled by the fact that it did not include any reference to the deity. Without such reference, Docherty insisted that the Pledge could apply to just about any nation. He felt that the pledge should reflect the American spirit and way of life as defined by Lincoln.
After the service concluded, Docherty had opportunity to converse with Eisenhower about the substance of the sermon. The President expressed his enthusiastic concurrence with Docherty’s view, and the very next day, Eisenhower had the wheels turning in Congress to incorporate Docherty’s suggestion into law. On February 8, 1954, Rep. Charles Oakman (R-Mich.), introduced a bill to that effect. On Lincoln’s birthday, four days later, Oakman made the following speech on the floor of the House:
- Last Sunday, the President of the United States and his family occupied the pew where Abraham Lincoln worshipped. The pastor, the Reverend George M. Docherty, suggested the change in our Pledge of Allegiance that I have offered [as a bill]. Dr. Docherty delivered a wise sermon. He said that as a native of Scotland come to these shores he could appreciate the pledge as something more than a hollow verse taught to children for memory. I would like to quote from his words. He said, 'there was something missing in the pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life.' Mr. Speaker, I think Mr. Docherty hit the nail square on the head.
Senator Homer Ferguson, in his report to the Congress on March 10, 1954, said, "The introduction of this joint resolution was suggested to me by a sermon given recently by the Rev. George M. Docherty, of Washington, D.C., who is pastor of the church at which Lincoln worshipped." This time Congress concurred with the Oakman-Ferguson resolution, and Eisenhower opted to sign the bill into law on Flag Day (June 14, 1954). The fact that Eisenhower clearly had Docherty’s rationale in mind as he initiated and consummated this measure is apparent in a letter he wrote in August, 1954. Paraphrasing Docherty’s sermon, Eisenhower said
- These words [“under God”] will remind Americans that despite our great physical strength we must remain humble. They will help us to keep constantly in our minds and hearts the spiritual and moral principles which alone give dignity to man, and upon which our way of life is founded.
Docherty’s sermon was published by Harper & Bros. in New York in 1958 and President Eisenhower took the opportunity to write to Dr. Docherty with gratitude for the opportunity to once again read the fateful sermon. On Flag Day, June 14, 1954, Congress passed the legislation adding the phrase "under God" to the Pledge.
[edit] Criticism of the pledge
The Pledge has drawn criticism and legal challenges on several grounds. Prominent legal challenges have been based on the contention that the Pledge is unconstitutional because it violates one or both of the religion clauses in the First Amendment.
Central to challenges in the 1940's were Jehovah's Witnesses, a group whose beliefs preclude swearing loyalty to any power lesser than God, and who objected to policies in public schools requiring students to recite the Pledge. They objected on the grounds that their rights to freedom of religion as guaranteed by the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment were being violated by such requirements.
Other objections have been raised since the addition of the phrase "under God" to the Pledge in 1954. Many critics, including atheists, agnostics and polytheists, contend that this phrase violates protections against establishment of religion guaranteed in the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.
In 1992, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the phrase "under God" in the Pledge did not violate the Establishment Clause. In a 2002 case brought by atheist Michael Newdow, whose daughter was being taught the pledge in school, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the phrase "under God" an unconstitutional endorsement of monotheism. The majority of Americans opposed this ruling, and it was denounced almost unanimously the following day by both houses of Congress. In 2004, the Supreme Court heard an appeal of the ruling and rejected Newdow's claim on the grounds that he was not the custodial parent, and therefore lacked standing, thus avoiding ruling on whether the phrase was constitutional (see Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow).
The pledge has caused problems for alien children visiting the US. Being of a different nationality they should not recite the pledge and yet some schools have had great difficulty with that situation, apparently surprised that anyone might not wish to participate.
In 2004, linguist Geoffrey Nunberg criticized the addition of "under God" for a different reason. The original supporters of the addition thought that they were simply quoting Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. However, Nunberg said that to Lincoln and his contemporaries, "under God" meant "God willing" and they would have found its use in the Pledge of Allegiance ungrammatical.[1][2].
A bill — H.R. 2389 — was introduced in Congress in 2005 which, if enacted into law, would strip the Supreme Court and most federal courts of the power to consider any legal challenges to the Pledge of Allegiance. H.R. 2389 was passed by the House of Representatives in July 2006, but it has not yet been acted upon by the Senate. Even if H.R. 2389 or a similar bill is enacted, its practical effect may not be clear: proponents of the bill have argued that it is a valid exercise of Congress's power to regulate the jurisdiction of the federal courts under Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution, but opponents question whether Congress has the authority to prevent the Supreme Court from hearing claims based on the Bill of Rights (since amendments postdate the original text of the Constitution and may thus implicitly limit the scope of Article III, Section 2).
In 2006, In the Florida case Frazier v. Alexandre, No. 05-81142 (S.D. Fla. May 31, 2006) "A federal district court in Florida has ruled that a 1942 state law requiring students to stand and recite the Pledge of Allegiance violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, even though the law allows students to opt out, because they can only do so with written parental permission and are still required to stand during the recitation. Cameron Frazier, a student at Boynton Beach High School, was removed from algebra class after he refused to follow his teacher's instructions to recite the Pledge or stand during recitation." This means that people can not be forced to participate in any way, not even forced to stand, and there is no parental consent necessary.[3]
[edit] Versions
Versions of the Pledge: (changes between versions are shown in bold; for reason of the changes, please see the History section)
- 1892:
"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:
"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 1954:
"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 to Present:
"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."
[edit] Pledge Trivia
[edit] Super Size Me interview
In the documentary Super Size Me, several American women were interviewed. None of them could correctly recite the Pledge of Allegiance, but could accurately recite the McDonalds Big Mac slogan, much to their embarrassment.
[edit] Dr Pepper's patriotic cans
In November 2001 the soda company Dr Pepper produced a patriotic can design in response to the terrorist attacks on America a few months earlier. It depicted the Statue of Liberty and the words "One Nation...Indivisible". (See External links section below)
Because Dr Pepper chose those words, leaving out the phrase "under God", some religious groups and news media encouraged a campaign of sending e-mail and letters to the Dr Pepper company and a boycott of Dr Pepper products.
When a United States Court of Appeals handed down a decision regarding the constitutionality of the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance in June 2002, it breathed new life into the Dr Pepper controversy even though the controversial cans had been off store shelves for months. Messages encouraging Dr Pepper boycotts began circulating the internet much more widely than those of the initial campaign, with fewer true facts. For example, they stated that Dr Pepper put Empire State Building with the pledge of allegiance, but omitting the phrase "under God". The fact is that the Statue of Liberty and only 3 words from the pledge were used. Later, messages aimed at Pepsi and then Coca-Cola started circulating; however, they had nothing to do with Dr Pepper or patriotic cans.
While the patriotic cans were only produced between November 2001 and February 2002 and only sold in parts of twelve states for a limited period, the rumours are still circulating around the internet.
An interesting contrast is provided by Time magazine's September 24, 2001 cover, which used the same words in its headline but prompted very few complaints.
[edit] See also
- Pledge of Allegiance Criticism
- American's Creed
- Oath of allegiance
- Oath of Allegiance (Ireland)
- Oath of Allegiance (Canada)
[edit] References
- Title 4, Chapter 1 of United States Code
- "How 'Under God' Got in There," WASHINGTON POST
- Associated Press: "50 Years Ago, Sermon Spurred Putting 'Under God' in Pledge"
- "How the Pledge Got God," Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- How a Scotsman Rewrote America's Pledge
- "A New Birth of Freedom," Docherty's sermon, heard by Eisenhower, which led to the amendment of the Pledge
- Docherty's Sermon Manuscript, Feb. 7, 1954
- Minister Reprises "Under God" Sermon
[edit] External links
