The Pledge of Allegiance: A Revised History and Analysis 1892–2007

By Dr. John W. Baer

Dr. John W. Baer’s scholarship on the Pledge of Allegiance is well respected, having been cited as the definitive history of the Pledge by the US Supreme Court in 2004. Written by the socialist minister Francis Bellamy, the Pledge of Allegiance was first published in the September 8, 1892 issue of The Youth's Companion National Magazine. It was a central part of the 200th Anniversary Columbus Day School Celebration Program and the promotional campaign to have a US flag fly in every public school house in the America. Dr. Baer delves deep into the circumstances, characters, and controversies surrounding the Pledge, from its inception as part of a public school celebration, its role in a campaign to sell U.S. flags, its Supreme Court case, thru today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Avrio Knowledge Group in partnership with Vintage American Ways
• Release date: Nov 7, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370688562

Dr. John W. Baer

Dr. John W. Baer, a former Intelligence Research Analyst for the National Security Agency and Professor of Economics at Anne Arundel Community College earned a BA in Sociology from Harvard University, an MBA. from Columbia University, and a DA (Doctorate of Arts) in Economics from Catholic University. Other publications include "Edward Bellamy's Concept of Economic Equality," Revisiting the Legacy of Edward Bellamy, 2002; Tall Tales and Hoaxes of H.L. Mencken, 1990, A History of Woodward, 1977. "Expansion of Economic Education in the Soviet Union," Journal of Economic Education, Spring 1975.

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The Pledge of Allegiance

A Revised History and Analysis

1892–2007

(Revised 2007)

by Dr. John W. Baer

Illustration by Roxanna Baer

Copyright © 2007 by John W. Baer

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior permission of the author.

Library of Congress Control Number. 2007928020

Baer, John W.

The Pledge of Allegiance: A Revised History and Analysis, 1892-2007

(Revised 2007). Includes Bibliography.

The Pledge of Allegiance

A Revised History and Analysis

1892–2007

(Revised 2007)

by Dr. John W. Baer

Acknowledgements

This book could not have been written without the research of Margarette Miller and Louise Harris as reflected in their books. Special thanks are due my wife, Mary for her editorial and research assistance and to my daughter, Roxanna Baer, for her illustrations.

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

Acknowledgements

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction

Publication of the Pledge of Allegiance

Francis Bellamy, Christian Socialist

James Upham, Promoter of Patriotic Campaigns

National Public School Celebration Program

Changes in the Pledge Over the Century

Historical Questions About the Pledge

The USA Becomes a World Power

The Industrialization of America

Rural America

The End of the Gilded Age

Union and Labor Unrest

Greed, Corruption, and Inequality

Upper-class and Middle-class Reformers

The Immigrants and the American Protestants

Conflict Between Public and Parochial School Systems

CHAPTER TWO: The Youth’s Companion’s Pledge

The Youth’s Companion Magazine

Nation’s Leader in Advertising Techniques

The Pledge of Allegiance Building

Daniel S. Ford, Businessman and Christian

Ford’s Legacy in Boston

James Upham and the Premium Department

Flag Over the Schoolhouse Campaign

Upham’s Other Patriotic Campaigns

Upham’s Early Life

The Masonic Themes of James Upham

The Lyceum League of America

Upham Arranges the Public School Celebration

National Liberty Pole and Flag Raising Ceremony

McDowell Promotes Patriotism for the World’s Republics

Demise of The Youth’s Companion

CHAPTER THREE: American Socialists and Reformers

The Edward Bellamy Genealogy

Edward Bellamy’s Early Life

Edward’s Newspaper Work

Edward’s Literary Works

Looking Backward and Socialism

Nationalist Clubs and the Nationalism Movement

Society of Christian Socialists and Francis Bellamy

Francis Bellamy as a Christian Socialist Spokesman

Politics of the Nationalist Clubs

Francis Bellamy as Nationalist Spokesman

Edward Bellamy’s Last Decade

Edward’s Influence in the 20th Century

Educators and the National Education Association

John Dewey, Follower of Edward Bellamy

CHAPTER FOUR: The Life and Ideas of Francis Bellamy

Family Background

Francis Bellamy’s Education

Francis’ Baptist Ministry

Working for The Youth’s Companion

Promoting the National Public School Celebration

Writing the National Public School Celebration Program

Writing the Pledge of Allegiance

Liberty and Justice for All

The Public School Celebration of Columbus Day

Bellamy’s Last Years at The Companion

Editor of The Illustrated American

Editor of The Duke of Stockbridge

Working for the Everybody’s Magazine

Advertising Agency Account Executive

Retirement in Florida

CHAPTER FIVE: Adopting and Changing the Pledge

Early Promoters of the Pledge

Adding of the United States of America

Bellamy’s Promotion Plan for the Pledge

Compulsory Pledge and Flag Salute

Legion Takes Leadership of American Patriotic Education

The Catholic and the Masonic Clash Continues

Congress Adds Under God

Pause for the Pledge of Allegiance Campaign

CHAPTER SIX: Controversies Over the Pledge

Authorship Controversy

Bellamy Versus Upham

Margarette Miller and Louise Harris

Legal Controversies Over Pledge Recitation Requirement

Pledge Controversies in the Schools Today

Adults and the Pledge

The Pledge in the 1988 Presidential Campaign

The Historical Role of the Pledge

The Future of the Pledge

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Flag, Pledge, Anthem, and Maryland Patriotism

American Patriotism Over the Centuries

Flag Rituals

Pledge of Allegiance

National Anthem

Maryland State Patriotism

Conclusions

CHAPTER EIGHT: Under God and Other Questions and Answers About the Pledge

Question 1. What Would Be the Opinions of Francis Bellamy and James Madison About Under God in the Pledge?

Reverend Francis Bellamy

James Madison, George Washington, and the Word God

Leaders in the Movement to Add Under God to the Pledge, 1948 to 1954

The 1950’s Cold War Politics and the Pledge

The Pledge’s Role in American Culture

Question 2. What Historical Changes Have Been Made in the Pledge’s Wording and Ritual?

The Original 1892 Wording and Ritual of the Pledge

The 1923 and 1924 Modifications of the Wording of the Original Pledge

The 1942 Modifications of the Flag Salute Ritual

The 1954 Modification of the Wording of the 1924 Pledge

Question 3. What is Christian Socialism?

What is Socialism?

What is a Christian Socialist?

Was Jesus a Socialist?

Question 4. Where Did Francis Bellamy Live and Work During His Lifetime?

Where did Francis Bellamy live and work?

Bibliography

CHAPTER ONE:

Introduction

Publication of the Pledge of Allegiance

The Pledge of Allegiance celebrated its 100th birthday in 1992. It first appeared in the September 8, 1892 issue of The Youth’s Companion, a national weekly magazine published in Boston. The Companion was somewhat similar to the present day Reader’s Digest, a weekly magazine for the whole family with a wide variety of stories, articles, and features of interest to different age groups and to their parents. It had the largest weekly national magazine circulation of its day with a circulation around 500,000.

Francis Bellamy (1855–1931), an employee of the magazine and a former Boston Baptist minister, had written the Pledge as a part of The Official Programme of the National School Celebration of Columbus Day. Bellamy wrote it and other parts of the programme while serving as chairman of the National Education Association’s Executive Committee, which planned the Columbus Day quadricentennial. Bellamy was The Youth’s Companion representative on this Committee. Other members were heads of the Departments of Education of four different states, and one was a public school superintendent.

The Youth’s Companion paid for the preparation of this program, which was published as part of its September 8, 1892 issue; mailed out free to the public schools and other interested parties. Bellamy and the magazine also handled nearly all of the Committee’s promotion and publicity for the NEA’s National Public School Celebration of Columbus Day. The magazine’s owner, Daniel Sharp Ford (1822–1899), had requested that one of The Youth’s Companion’s editors be appointed the Executive Committee’s Chairman in exchange for the magazine’s financial and editorial support.

Francis Bellamy, Christian Socialist

Ford, owner and publisher of The Youth’s Companion, hired Francis Bellamy in 1891 as a special assistant. Ford had been attending the Bethany Baptist Church on the edge of Boston’s working-class district, where Bellamy was minister. Ford was favorably impressed by Francis’ sermons, which reflected his leadership in the Society of Christian Socialists.

Francis was the first cousin of the famous American socialist and novelist, Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). Edward’s futuristic novel, Looking Backward, published in 1888, described a socialist utopia in Boston in the year 2000. This book sold more than a million copies and started a socialist movement in Boston and the nation known as Nationalism, which espoused the gradual nationalization of the American economy. Francis Bellamy was a member of this movement and a vice president of its auxiliary group, the Society of Christian Socialists.

Francis had enthusiastically participated in the Nationalists’ campaign to nationalize the American economy. He preached and lectured on the virtues of socialism, the evils of capitalism, and the need for economic and social reforms. In 1891, he was forced to resign from his Boston church because of his refusal to give up these activities and change his socialist views. At this time, his older friend, mentor, and parishioner, Ford, offered him a job as his special assistant at The Youth’s Companion.

James Upham, Promoter of Patriotic Campaigns

Ford assigned Bellamy to his nephew and junior partner, James Bailey Upham. Upham was in charge of the magazine’s Premium Department, which served its readers as a sort of mail order house. Among the many goods the Department sold to its readers or gave as premiums for subscriptions was the American flag.

In 1888, Upham launched a successful magazine campaign to place the American flag in front of every public school. (In 1888, the American flag was rarely flown in school yards.) In the 1890’s, he promoted the display of the flag in classrooms. Bellamy’s Pledge of Allegiance could not be recited in front of the school or in the classroom until Upham had persuaded the public school authorities that a public school should own a flag (or flags) and that the teachers and students should salute it.

In 1891, Upham conceived and developed a campaign for using the celebration for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America as a day to promote both the public schools and their use of the flag. At this time, Roman Catholic immigrants from eastern and southern Europe were flowing into the United States and the Church was aggressively expanding its parochial school system. Upham, like many other Protestant Americans of his day, considered the public school to be a necessary institution for the Americanization of all immigrants, and especially the children of the Catholics.

In 1891, Upham persuaded William Harris, the US Commissioner of Education and the official in the 1892–1893 Chicago World’s Fair Commission, to support his National Public School Celebration of Columbus Day and officially place The Youth’s Companion in charge of the celebration. William Harris, a leader in the National Education Association, lined up the NEA support.

Bellamy, Upham’s assistant, did most of the public relations, advertising, and marketing work for the National Public School Celebration. By June 29, 1891, Bellamy and Upham had arranged for President Benjamin Harrison to announce a national proclamation, making a public school flag ceremony the center of the Columbus Day celebration for 1892. By October, 1892, over half of the nation’s public schools were ready to follow The Youth’s Companion programme under the authority of the National Education Association’s Department of Superintendents and most of the states’ Departments of Education.

National Public School Celebration Program

In 1892, the National Education Association was led by the nation’s Superintendents of Education and their allies in the state educational bureaucracy and teaching colleges. Francis Bellamy, with the advice and cooperation of Upham and his National Education Association committee, designed and wrote most of this program which began as follows:

"When the Superintendents of Education, last February, accepted The Youth’s Companion’s plan for this National Public School Celebration, they instructed their Executive Committee to prepare an Official Programme of exercise for the day, uniform for every school.

"To enable preparations for the National School Celebration in every community to begin immediately, this Executive Committee now publishes through The Companion The Official Programme for the National Columbus Day Public School Celebration."

The program has eight parts:

1.   Reading of the President’s Proclamation

2.   Raising of the Flag

3.   Salute to the Flag

4.   Acknowledgement of God

5.   Song of Columbus Day

6.   The Address

7.   The Ode

8.   Addresses by Citizens and National Songs.

Bellamy wrote all of Part 6, The Address, entitled, The Meaning of the Four Centuries, which argued that the United States was the model for the world and that America’s greatest innovation in social institutions was the free public school system. He also wrote Part Three, The Salute to the Flag, which included the famous Pledge of Allegiance. Part three went as follows:

At a signal from the Principal, the pupils, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, face the Flag. Another signal is given; every pupil gives the Flag the military salute—right hand lifted, palm downward, to a line with the forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly: ‘I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.’ At the words, ‘to my Flag,’ the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, towards the Flag, and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation; whereupon all hands immediately drop to the side. Then, still standing, as the instruments strike a chord, all will sing ‘America’—‘My Country, ’tis of Thee.’

Changes in the Pledge Over the Century

Changes have been made to the salute and to the wording of the Pledge over the century. The original Youth’s Companion’s instructions, Every pupil gives the Flag the military salute, was discontinued in most states for a right hand over the heart. In 1942, Congress eliminated the last part of The Companion’s arm movement for the salute, which was, The right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, towards the Flag and remains in this gesture till the end of the affirmation. Because of World War II, this stiff right arm salute was considered too similar to the infamous Nazi salute, Heil Hitler, and so was discontinued.

There have been several changes to the wording of the Pledge over the last century. Shortly after its first publication, Bellamy added the word, to, for to the Republic. Without his permission or consultation and to his great irritation, the National Flag Conferences of 1923 and 1924 added the words, of the United States of America to the Pledge, which read as follows:

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.

In 1954, after Bellamy’s death, the Congress and President Eisenhower, at the urging of the Knights of Columbus and other groups, made the last change to the Pledge by adding the words, under God. Bellamy, once a Baptist minister, never mentioned considering putting in the words, under God, in his Pledge. Today the Pledge reads as follows:

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.

Historical Questions About the Pledge

Francis Bellamy, in a 1923 letter, described his efforts in writing the Pledge as follows:

It took me two hours to do it. I began with the idea of pledging allegiance to the Flag. That was my own phrase. Then, I sat and reviewed our history from Washington to Lincoln, with the great sentence that Webster also had uttered. That’s how I came to add – ‘and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation, indivisible.’ That phrase encompassed our struggle for independence and for indivisibility, which the Civil War was required to fully prove. Then what of our purpose as a Nation?

At that time, 1892, we were in the midst of a Universal Brotherhood discussion started by my cousin’s book, Looking Backward. So, I had to decide whether to embody ideas of equality and fraternity (which Jefferson imported here from the French Revolution 100 years before). I decided against these words, and finally wrote the finals, ‘with liberty and justice for all.’ That was all that any Nation could handle. It was applicable to either an individualistic or socialistic state, and could not be gainsaid by any party.

How could Francis Bellamy write his famous Pledge in only two hours? What did he mean by his cousin’s book, Looking Backward, published in 1888? Why didn’t he use the word, equality? What did he mean by the words, individualistic or a socialistic state? Why did most of the public schools, but probably none of the parochial schools, use Bellamy’s programme or recite his Pledge in 1892?

Other questions arise when you study the history of the Pledge. Why did the National Flag Conference add the words, of the United States of America, in 1923 and 1924? Why was the Knights of Columbus urging the addition of, under God, in 1954? Why was the Pledge a center of controversy in the courts in the 1930s and in the 1988 Presidential Election? And most important, how did a 23 word pledge or oath, written in 1892 as part of a public school children’s flag salute, become a major part of today’s patriotic ritual, not only for children in both public and parochial schools, but also for adults in the United States Congress, city halls, county government councils, and patriotic and fraternal organizations?

The answers to these questions are complex and include The Youth’s Companion, James Upham, Francis Bellamy, and his cousin Edward Bellamy, the National Education Association, the American Legion, the Masons, the Knights of Columbus, and the people of the United States. This book will try to answer these questions. Perhaps, the first question is: Why was the Pledge written in 1892 and why was it so popular from its beginning?

The USA Becomes a World Power

In 1892, the United States recently had become the largest economy in the world. It was proud of its economic and military might and; with its expanded Navy, was beginning to use its new strength in international affairs.

In 1887, the United States gained naval rights to Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. In 1891, it took sides in a civil war in mineral-rich Chile, but ended up backing the eventual losers. In 1893, the white American majority in Hawaii overthrew the native monarch, and President Harrison sent a Treaty of Annexation to the Senate and, under President McKinley, Hawaii was annexed in 1898. By the end of the Spanish–American War, in 1899, the United States had a protectorate in Cuba and a colony in the Philippines.

The United States was beginning to display a trait common to imperialist nations around the world—a disregard for the rights and sensibilities of smaller or weaker nations in Latin America and Asia. Imperialist-minded Americans used a mixture