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| Children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance |
Before the Civil War the debate about collectivism or socialism was over the national banking system. While slavery is remembered as a major cause for war, the provocation most pronounced at the outset was the South's rejection of the national banking system and other economic issues. The argument of states rights and the notion of forced collectivism was posed in hostile language, name-calling, and aggressive tactics that instigated war.
Around the turn of the 20th century public education was also indicted as socialism too, with the proposal for a uniform practice for public schools in order to raise literacy rates and to afford more and more children an education with some standards. The opposition called it socialist instead.
Using the word socialist has also been done to undermine Social Security, Medicare, and Obama's health care program, and to deny needed help to desperate groups as well as to prevent discussion by issuing emotionally laden jargon.
Indeed the newspapers of the day and the talk of the town everywhere was like an epidemic, against what was interpreted as socialism, or anything that involved support for a group of people that did not focus especially on the individual at its core. It was an epidemic of fear. The notion of a group effort to educate, and to make it possible for everyone, was seen as an assault on American ability to make decisions about what to learn in a classroom and to embrace people in those classrooms who did not have the "right" pedigrees,in terms of economics or class.
It is during elections that the term socialist is heard most often as an epithet, including being hurled at President Barack Obama. The problem is that the term is used too often to avoid legitimate debate on the issues. Few people know that the symbols they admire, like the Pledge of Allegiance, was written by a man who, with his brother were both socialists.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in response to concerns about opposition against public education. It was composed by Francis Bellamy, (1855 - 1931) a Baptist minister and author who composed the Pledge in 1892 as part of a quadricentennial program celebrating Columbus Day and for an educational journal called The Youth’s Companion.
Bellamy's ideas were considered socialist and radical for his time, similar to those of first cousin, Edward Bellamy, who had written several American socialist novels including Looking Backward andEquality. Both Francis and Edward Bellamy believed in a planned economy that would provide political, social and economic equality, beliefs which caused Francis to be asked to leave his position as minister of a Baptist church in Boston.
During the Columbus Day Program Bellamy addressed state superintendents of education in the National Education Association as well as a large gathering of young people and other celebrants. He knew many Americans considered public schools to be socialistic and that President Harrison was worried about the backlash.
Bellamy also recognized the nation continued to struggle with its identity as a republic, something that had been declared established by the Civil War that had taken place thirty years before but that continued to be tested by certain social struggles.
At that Columbus Day presentation, Bellamy began his presentation by talking about how the public schools could unite the nation. He went on to say: "The coming century promises to be more than ever the age of the people; an age that shall develop a greater care for the rights of the weak, and make a more solid provision for the development of each individual by the education that meets his need…... Our fathers in their wisdom knew that the foundations of liberty, fraternity, and equality must be universal education. The free school, therefore, was conceived as the cornerstone of the Republic. Washington and Jefferson recognized that the education of citizens is not the prerogative of church or of other private interest; that while religious training belongs to the church, and while technical and higher culture may be given by private institutions - the training of citizens in the common knowledge and the common duties of citizenship belongs irrevocably to the State.”
Following these statements Bellamy unveiled his Pledge of Allegiance. The original Pledge was 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.” Bellamy had considered placing the word, 'equality,' in his Pledge but knew that the state superintendents of education on his committee were against equality for women and African Americans.
When the Pledge was changed from “my flag” to “the Flag of the United States of America,” Bellamy protested and was ignored.
The words “under God” were added in 1954 in response to issues raised during the McCarthy era of anti-Communism when many loyal Americans, including another great African American of intellect, Paul Robeson, had their patriotism challenged. Many of Bellamy’s descendants have said that Bellamy would not have liked the addition of the words “under God,” particularly since he had to leave his position as minister and his church in 1891 because of his socialist sermons.
So what was Bellamy thinking when he wrote the original pledge? Writers about Bellamy and the Pledge seem to agree that he wanted to stress the importance of the nation as a republic, one nation indivisible. Although Bellamy was to show some ambivalence to immigrant groups and to African Americans in his later writings, he was considered to be a social liberal with respect to the ideals he held at the time he wrote the Pledge.
So do symbols and how we use them make us Americans? Not according to the experts and not according to the one who made one of the most powerful contributions to America’s repository of valued sayings and symbols recited at important meetings and school events across the United States, the Pledge of Allegiance.
Indeed the conclusion seems to be that being an American has more to do with standing for an indivisible republic and recognizing the values of liberty, equality and justice within it. These are the values espoused by the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, the Gettysburg Address and the Pledge of Allegiance. The principal authors of these documents would likely agree with modern scholars on etiquette that respectful attention to the symbols, however that might be demonstrated, is more important than some outdated specified practice that does not reflect at all on whether or not a person is a true patriotic American.
They would certainly be worried that the old arguments continue to be dredged up in the same way all the time, which was seen then as efforts to negate helping the greater community in favor of the rich and their needs. The Pledge of Allegiance is said to have been written not to be recited in ritualistic fashion, in a special way with the hands over the heart, but simply to stand respectfully as it is said. It is one of those historical references that allow people to understand that symbols and their representations may not always have been conceived in the fashion they are represented today and may indeed be like other symbols, meant to consolidate community support to help the greater good.
And as today's greater good can mean a worldwide effort to combat infectious diseases like Ebola, even as fear again points to anything being done to help that greater community and the greater good as undermining individual freedom of choice, using epithets like socialism instead of reason and justice, something the Bellamy brothers valued most.
ReferencesAssociated Press, June 2002, Pledge writer probably wouldn't mind removal of under God, family says,”
Baer, John. The Pledge of Allegiance, A Revised History and Analysis, 2007Baer, John, The Life and Ideas of Francis Bellamy, 1992
John McCormick, Obama in Red, White and Blue, Chicago Tribune, June 30, 2008
Miller, Margarette S. Twenty-Three Words, Portsmouth, Va. Printcraft Press, 1976.
Snopes.com
Worley, Stephen L., SMSgt. USAF (Ret). Prairie Ridge US History "The Pledge of Allegiance- Francis Bellamy." 1998.
