January 2, 2018

The corny beginning of the Pledge of Allegiance

Smithsonian Magazine In the morning of October 21, 1892, children at schools across the country rose to their feet, faced a newly installed American flag and, for the first time, recited 23 words written by a man that few people today can name. “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands—one nation indivisible—with liberty and justice for all.”

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.

The pledge itself would prove malleable, and by World War II many public schools required a morning recitation. In 1954, as the cold war intensified, Congress added the words “under God” to distinguish the United States from “godless Communism.”



3 comments:

Laser said...

It way post-dates the pledge -in terms of when we first heard it at least- but I've always liked the Darth Vader observation as a pledge:

"The power to destroy a planet is insignificant when compared to the power of the Force."

There - only 16 words. Like it or not, the Force is within you; this is only a reminder.

Happy New Year, Tom

Anonymous said...

His brother, Edward Bellamy, wrote 2 of the most important books ever written: Looking Backward and its sequel Equality. If only Americans would consume those volumes until they could recite the great wisdom within them, Sam would be publishing headlines about how prosperous everyone is and how responsive our government is!!!

Tom Puckett said...

Thanks for the heads up on the Bellamy books:

First published in 1888, Looking Backward was one of the most popular novels of its day. Translated into more than 20 languages, its utopian fantasy influenced such thinkers as John Dewey, Thorstein Veblen, Eugene V. Debs, and Norman Thomas. Writing from a 19th century perspective and poignantly critical of his own time, Bellamy advanced a remarkable vision of the future, including such daring predictions as the existence of radio, television, motion pictures, credit cards, and covered pedestrian malls.
On the surface, the novel is the story of time-traveler Julian West, a young Bostonian who is put into a hypnotic sleep in the late 19th century, and awakens in the year 2000 in a socialist utopia. In conversations with the doctor who awakened him, he discovers a brilliantly realized vision of an ideal future, one that seemed unthinkable in his own century. Crime, war, personal animosity, and want are nonexistent. Equality of the sexes is a fact of life. In short, a messianic state of brotherly love is in effect.
Entertaining, stimulating, and thought-provoking, Looking Backward, with its ingenious plot and appealing socialism, is a provocative study of human society as it is and as it might be.

Kindle Edition: 60¢
https://www.amazon.com/Looking-Backward-Dover-Thrift-Editions/dp/0486290387/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1514991292&sr=8-1&keywords=looking+backward+edward+bellamy

Equality is the sequel to Bellamy's Looking Backward, his utopian novel of several years earlier, where a young man falls asleep in 1887 and wakes in a utopian year 2000, where all social ills are solved. This novel continues the thread of his utopian vision. Equality begins when Julian West returns to the year 2000 to continue his education. The book describes an ideal society in that year. Equality was published just before his death and was not received nearly as well as Looking Backward. Bellamy was born in 1850 in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts. As a young man he studied law and entered the bar, but never practiced. He was a journalist and social theorist as well as a novelist. Bellamy's theory of public capitalism would greatly affect American political thought in the 20th century.

Kindle Edition: 99¢
https://www.amazon.com/Equality-Edward-Bellamy/dp/1517214637/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1514991470&sr=1-3&keywords=equality+edward+bellamy