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