The Pledge of Allegiance

Dear Boo and Bubble:

It’s funny how you can learn about things in a serendipitous way.  We were watching a movie last night entitled “The Congressman.”  Hadn’t heard of it…..just randomly picked it from our selections as they scrolled across the television screen on either Amazon or Netflix.  The cast was unfamiliar, but the rating sufficient that we decided to try it out. 

As the story unfolded, we learned that the male protagonist is an ex-Marine who had seen combat in Viet Nam.  Like many in his generation, he came home (to Maine in this case) and ultimately offered to serve the country once again as an elected official.  When the movie begins, he is in his eighth term, seeking re-election to a ninth.  The pressures of Congress have taken their toll – his marriage is ending; he exhibits the war-weariness that skirmishes over issues can bring; and the desire to do good for the sake of his constituents has long faded to a distant memory because of the rigors required in making himself available to them, all with very little appreciation for or gratitude towards his efforts. 

There are several tangents to the plot, but one of the main threads centers around his relationship to the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.  When it is discovered by an opposition candidate that he does not stand nor hold his hand over his heart nor recite the Pledge when the House of Representatives goes into session, she exploits these actions (or lack thereof) to incriminate him and try to have him expelled from the body.  After meeting with constituents at one of his local offices in Maine, he is confronted by her about this -  along with a very vocal group of followers…. and the media.

It’s at this juncture when I learned something I had never known.  Let me digress by explaining that I have uttered the Pledge of Allegiance all my life – in school, at political events, sporting events, family reunions, church.  I’ve placed my right hand over my heart on each occasion.  I spoke the words and covered my heart automatically, without question or challenge, perhaps understanding the significance of both but having no knowledge of the history behind either one.  I guess I just always assumed the Pledge came in the same literary package as the Bill of Rights and the Constitution….that the Founding Fathers intended this from the very formation of our country….so much so that I had never had the first inkling of intellectual curiosity about it…..and shame on me.  Thanks to “The Congressman,” I now know.

As the confrontational scene in front of his office unfolds, a reporter from a local television station presses the Congressman about his stance on the Pledge. His answer reveals several bits of information including the original composer, a man named Francis Bellamy, and the original salute to the flag – right arm straight out and extended toward the flag.  I wondered at the time if this could possibly be just creative license or -  were these actual facts?

We continued to watch the movie until its end.  The emotional crescendo for me came when the Congressman faces a vicious crowd of constituents at a local high school and proceeds to defend his actions regarding the Pledge - as well as offer up one of the most eloquent definitions of American freedom I have ever heard – the very freedom which he volunteered to protect and preserve as a Marine. His soliloquy leaves his audience in awe as they stand, cheer and applaud him.  They don’t know it, but he has chosen not to seek re-election.    

Afterwards, I couldn’t get the whole Pledge conundrum out of my mind and I decided to do some research.  And, guess what?  His recitation about its history is spot on.  And so, it is incumbent upon me to keep you from being as ignorant as I have been all these years.  Therefore, I will lay out an historical timeline on our Pledge of Allegiance.  Some who read this might be just as surprised as I am to find out where it all started.

The Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States

In a nutshell, The Pledge of Allegiance was originally composed by Colonel George Balch in 1887, and later revised by Francis Bellamy in 1892 and formally adopted by Congress as the pledge in 1942. The official name of The Pledge of Allegiance was adopted in 1945. The last change in language came on Flag Day in 1954 when the words "under God" were added.

There have been four versions over time:

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 1823: “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 current: “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 very first Pledge was written by Colonel George Balch and went like this: “We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag.”  A Civil War veteran, he was a strong proponent of teaching children, especially those of immigrants, loyalty to the United States.  He had many supporters for his Pledge early on such as the Daughters of the American Revolution.  His Pledge existed (in parallel to that of Francis Bellamy) until the 1923 National Flag Conference.

The Pledge of Allegiance, as it exists today, was originally composed by Francis Bellamy in August, 1892.  He was a Baptist minister and a Christian socialist who was the cousin of socialist utopian novelist Edward Bellamy.  Bellamy did not approve of Balch’s Pledge because he thought it “too juvenile and lacking in dignity.”  His “Pledge of Allegiance” was first published in the popular children’s magazine The Youth’s Companion as part of a national public school celebration of the 400^th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’s arrival in the Americas.

Bellamy’s original Pledge read: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”  He wanted it to be quick and to the point and designed it to be recited in 15 seconds.  As a socialist, he had considered using the words equality and fraternity, but decided against it.  At the time, there was great resistance against equality for women and African Americans within the state superintendents of education on the committee to organize the Columbus Day festivities

Whether with the Balch Pledge or the Bellamy Pledge, there was always an accompanying salute.  Balch had students stand with their right hand outstretched toward the flag, the fingers then brought to the forehead and then being placed flat over the heart and finally falling to the side.  Bellamy instituted a salute that started with the hand outstretched toward the flag, palm down, and ended with the palm up.  When Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany and the Nazi salute arose to prominence, the United States Congress, in 1942, prescribed the over the heart gesture for both the Pledge and the National Anthem which eliminated the Bellamy Salute.

The phrase "under God" was incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a Joint Act of Congress amending Paragraph 4 of the Flag Code enacted in 1942.  Although the initiative to have this phrase include in the Pledge began with the efforts of the Knights of Columbus, a religious fraternal order, it came at a time when the United States was heavily entrenched in the "Cold War" with Communist Russia and some have construed it as an attempt to distinguish American society from that of Russia.