The Pledge: A History of the Pledge of Allegiance

177 Pages·2010·0.83 MB·English

by  Jeffrey Owen Jones

The Pledge
ALSO BY PETER MEYER
The Yale Murder
Death of Innocence
Dark Obsession
THE PLEDGE

A HISTORY OF THE PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Jeffrey Owen Jones
and Peter Meyer

THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS
ST. MARTIN’S PRESS
NEW YORK
THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS.
An imprint of St. Martin’s Press.
THE PLEDGE. Copyright © 2010 by Jeffrey Owen Jones and Peter Meyer. All rights reserved. Printed in
the United States of America. For information, address St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York,
N.Y. 10010.
www.thomasdunnebooks.com
www.stmartins.com
ISBN 978-0-312-35002-4
First Edition: October 2010
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
TO JEFFREY OWEN JONES,
WHO LOVED A GOOD STORY
CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
1. AN AMERICAN RITUAL
2. THE ERA OF THE PLEDGE
3. HOW IT HAPPENED
4. THE REVEREND FRANCIS BELLAMY
5. A NATIONAL CELEBRATION
6. I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE: THE FABRIC OF LIFE
7. WHO WROTE IT?
8. THE COURTS AND THE CONSTITUTION
9. A VICTORY FOR JEHOVAH
10. POLITICAL BATTLES
11. UNDER GOD
12. THE ROLE OF THE PLEDGE TODAY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

While I am, and always will be, saddened that Jeff did not live to finish this
book, I feel honored to have played a role in its completion and know Jeff would
have been proud of it.
I would like to thank The Smithsonian for publishing Jeff’s article on the
Pledge of Allegiance.
Many thanks to the University of Rochester Library in whose archives reside
the papers of Francis Bellamy.
To John Ware, who understood, coached, and supported—many, many thanks.
To Thomas Dunne and Peter Joseph of St. Martin’s Press, I thank you for
picking up the reins and continuing the project. I thank you doubly for your
wisdom in hiring Peter Meyer. Thanks to Peter Meyer for taking up the reins and
riding (or writing) to the finish line.
I owe a debt of gratitude to Christopher and Hilda Jones. Your love and
support kept this project afloat.
My thanks to Peter Richardson and Steve Atlas, who, by example, define
friendship and loyalty.
My deepest personal thanks go to our Pittsford team of angels: Dr. Dave
Trawick and Dr. Becky Monk, Dr. Steve Ignaczak and Dr. Judy Kramer, Dr.
Steve Meyers and Dr. Barbara Weber, Dr. Margaret Donahue, and Dr. Victor and
Mrs. Susan Regenbogen, Dr. T. Scott Campbell, Dr. Timothy Quill and Dr.
Aaron Olden. By surrounding us with your expertise, empathy, and humanity,
you kept our spirits high.
Thank you to Denise DeWyn for keeping the office under control.
And thank you to our son, Eli Owen Jones, for lighting up our lives.
—ELLEN JONES

My thanks must start with Thomas Dunne, who invited me to get involved
with this project; as a student of history, I jumped at the opportunity to learn
about the Pledge of Allegiance, but I had no idea the subject was so rich. Of
crucial help in my research were colleagues and friends Donald Christensen,
Lynn Sloneker, Jacques Menasche, and Catherine Coreno—without their hugely
generous and professional assistance this book would not have been possible.
Also crucial to the telling of any story about the Pledge of Allegiance were the
staff of the Department of Rare Books, Special Collections and Preservation at
the Rush Rhees Library at the University of Rochester, where a treasure of
historical documents are available (see the Bibliography); my special thanks to
Rosemary Switzer and Melissa Mead at Rush Rhees. And I also reserve a special
debt of gratitude to Ellen Jones, who showed so much grace and kindness in
helping me gather up the files of her late husband, the author of this book. I am
sorry I never met Jeffrey Owen Jones, but when I heard that he was the “Mr.
Jones” in the song of my favorite poet Bob Dylan, I knew I would have liked
him. And I only hope I have done some justice to Jeffrey’s superbly easy and
inviting writing style in finishing a project to which he devoted much personal
and professional love and attention. Finally, my great thanks to Peter Joseph, an
editor of immense talent and patience. And, needless to say but needful of
saying, a special thanks to my wife, Janet, and son, Dylan, who put up with the
many inconveniences of necessary deadlines.
—PETER MEYER
1. AN AMERICAN RITUAL

On a sultry summer evening in Boston in the year 1892, a thirty-seven-year-old
former clergyman named Francis Bellamy sat down at his desk in the offices of a
popular family magazine where he worked and began to write:
I pledge allegiance to my flag . . .
Neither Bellamy nor anyone else could have imagined that the single twenty-
three-word sentence that emerged would evolve into one of the most familiar of
patriotic texts and, based on student recitations alone, perhaps the most often
repeated piece of writing in the history of the English language. A standard ritual
of childhood for most native-born citizens and a regular practice for many
adults, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is so deeply embedded in American life
that it is natural to believe that the text came from on high, or that it bubbled up
spontaneously from the fruited plain, far back in our history. Before I heard, a
few years ago, about Francis Bellamy and the writing of the Pledge, I had never
stopped to think how or where it had originated. The Pledge of Allegiance had
just always been there. It never occurred to me that a person had actually
composed it. If I thought about the Pledge being written at all, I dimly pictured a
man in a white wig with a quill pen, or a dashing figure in a ruffled shirt on the
deck of a frigate, bombs bursting in air.
But no. As it turns out, the Pledge wasn’t scratched on parchment in the mists
of time. It came to life not that long ago, very near the beginning of the twentieth
century. And the birth of the Pledge was more prosaic than heroic. It wasn’t
chiseled in granite or penned in blood on a battlefield. It was scribbled on scrap
paper by Frank Bellamy, a guy stuck at the office on a hot summer night.
It is amusing to play historical voyeur and look back on Bellamy hunched
over his desk jotting drafts on the back of an old office form. It must have
seemed to him a very ordinary moment in time. There was, of course, no way for
him to know that he was writing for the ages, that the words he was scribbling