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Enduring Freedom Enlarged
The Pledge of Allegiance
One Nation Under God
American Patriotic Illustration
Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag of the United States.
This oath of loyalty to America's national emblem and to the nation
it symbolizes is has much history behind it.
The idea for such a pledge, many say, originated
with one of the editors of a magazine for children called: The
Youth's Companion. President Benjamin Harrison, proclaimed that
the pledge should be used, and on a Columbus Day celebration on
October 12, 1892, in public schools, the pledge was first recited.
The pledge originally read as follows:
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to
the republic for which it stands: one nation, indivisible, with
liberty
and justice for all."
The pledge was eventually changed by the substitution
of the words "the flag of the United States of America"
for the phrase "my flag." The newly worded pledge was
officially installed on Flag Day, June 14, 1924.
In 1954, by a joint resolution of Congress, the
pledge was further amended by the addition of the words "under
God." The pledge now 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."
Today, we find the Pledge in the spotlight as those
concerned with separation of Church and State wish to further
modify it. Whether you are on the side of those who consider themselves
patriots and traditionalists, believing this American classic
should remain untouched, or those who wish to change this creed
as time and society's standards change, we realize that America's
previously considered "engraved-in-stone" mores, are
always subject to the winds of change that ripple through our
culture.
