In God We Trust
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"In God We Trust" is the current national motto of the United States. It was declared as such by an act of Congress in 1956, displacing the existing national motto, E Pluribus Unum.
One origin of the current motto can be found in the final stanza of "The Star-Spangled Banner," written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key (and later adopted as the U.S. National Anthem), contains one of the earliest references to a variation of the phrase: "...And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
In 1956, the Cold War was in full swing, and the anti-Communist suspicion of the McCarthy era was at its height. Partly in reaction to Communism (which was commonly associated with atheism), the 84th Congress passed a joint resolution to replace the existing motto with "In God we Trust." According to United States Code, Title 36, Section 302, the new motto officially displaced the original 180 year-old national motto "E Pluribus Unum" (Out of Many, One) when President Eisenhower signed the resolution into law on 30 July 1956. [1]
Despite longstanding controversy and recent legal opposition to the current motto, the most common place it appears in daily life is on the money of the United States. The first United States coin to bear this motto was the 1864 two-cent piece. It first appeared on U.S. currency on the back of Florida National Bank Notes in 1863. However it wasn't until 1957 that the motto was permanently adopted for use on United States currency.
In God We Trust is also the official state motto of the state of Florida, and is found on the Seal of Florida. In God We Trust is also found on the flag of Georgia, as adopted by that state in 2003.
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[edit] History on currency
The motto In God We Trust was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the American Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout Christians throughout the country, urging that the United States recognize God on United States coins. From Treasury Department records, it appears that the first such appeal came in a letter dated November 13, 1861. It was written to Secretary Chase by Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, and read:
Dear Sir: You are about to submit your annual report to the Congress respecting the affairs of the national finances.
One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins.
You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were not shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation? What I propose is that instead of the goddess of liberty we shall have next inside the 13 stars a ring inscribed with the words PERPETUAL UNION; within the ring the allseeing eye, crowned with a halo; beneath this eye the American flag, bearing in its field stars equal to the number of the States united; in the folds of the bars the words GOD, LIBERTY, LAW.
This would make a beautiful coin, to which no possible citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my heart I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.
To you first I address a subject that must be agitated.[2]
As a result, Secretary Chase instructed James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto, in a letter dated November 20, 1861:
Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.
You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition.
It was found that the Act of Congress dated January 18, 1837, prescribed the mottoes and devices that should be placed upon the coins of the United States. This meant that the mint could make no changes without the enactment of additional legislation by Congress. In December 1863, the Director of the Mint submitted designs for a new one-cent coin, two-cent coin, and three-cent coin to Secretary Chase for approval. He proposed that upon the designs either OUR COUNTRY, OUR GOD or GOD, OUR TRUST should appear as the motto on the coins. In a letter to the Mint Director on December 9, 1863, Secretary Chase stated:
I approve your mottoes, only suggesting that on that with the Washington obverse the motto should begin with the word OUR, so as to read OUR GOD AND OUR COUNTRY. And on that with the shield, it should be changed so as to read: IN GOD WE TRUST.
Congress passed the Coinage Act (1864) on April 22, 1864. This legislation changed the composition of the one-cent coin and authorized the minting of the two-cent coin. The Mint Director was directed to develop the designs for these coins for final approval of the Secretary. In God We Trust first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin.
Another Act of Congress passed on March 3, 1865 which allowed the Mint Director, with the Secretary's approval, to place the motto on all gold and silver coins that "shall admit the inscription thereon." Under the Act, the motto was placed on the gold Double Eagle coin, the gold Eagle coin, and the gold Half Eagle coin. It was also placed on the silver dollar coin, the half dollar coin and the quarter dollar coin, and on the nickel five-cent coin beginning in 1866. Later, Congress passed the Fourth Coinage Act of February 12, 1873. It also said that the Secretary "may cause the motto IN GOD WE TRUST to be inscribed on such coins as shall admit of such motto."
The use of In God We Trust has not been uninterrupted. The motto disappeared from the five-cent coin in 1883, and did not reappear until production of the Jefferson nickel began in 1938. Since 1938, all United States coins bear the inscription. Later, the motto was found missing from the new design of the gold Double Eagle coin and the gold Eagle coin shortly after they appeared in 1907. In response to a general demand, Congress ordered it restored, and the Act of May 18, 1908, made it mandatory on all coins upon which it had previously appeared. Therefore, the motto was not mandatory on the one-cent and five-cent coins, but it could be placed on them by the Secretary of the Treasury or the Mint Director with the Secretary's approval.
American presidents such as Theodore Roosevelt strongly disapproved of the idea of evoking God within the context of a "cheap" political motto. In a letter to William Boldly on November 11, 1907, President Roosevelt wrote: "My own feeling in the matter is due to my very firm conviction that to put such a motto on coins, or to use it in any kindred manner, not only does no good but does positive harm, and is in effect irreverence, which comes dangerously close to sacrilege ... it seems to me eminently unwise to cheapen such a motto by use on coins, just as it would be to cheapen it by use on postage stamps, or in advertisements."
Despite historical opposition, the motto has been in continuous use on the one-cent coin since 1909 and on the ten-cent dime since 1916. It also has appeared on all gold coins and silver dollar coins, half-dollar coins, and quarter-dollar coins struck since July 1, 1908.
A law was passed by the 84th United States Congress (P.L. 84-140) and approved by the President on July 30, 1956. The President approved a joint resolution declaring In God We Trust the national motto of the United States. In God We Trust was first used on paper money in 1957 when it appeared on the one-dollar Silver Certificate. The first paper currency bearing the motto entered circulation on October 1, 1957. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) was converting to the dry intaglio printing process. During this conversion, it gradually included In God We Trust in the back design of all classes and denominations of currency.
As a part of a comprehensive modernization program, the BEP successfully developed and installed new high-speed rotary intaglio printing presses in 1957. These allowed BEP to print currency by the dry intaglio process, 32 notes to the sheet. One-dollar silver certificates were the first denomination printed on the new high-speed presses. They included In God We Trust as part of the reverse design as BEP adopted new dies according to the law. The motto also appeared on one-dollar silver certificates of the 1957-A and 1957-B series.
One-dollar silver certificates series 1935, 1935-A, 1935-B, 1935-C, 1935-D, 1935-E, 1935-F, 1935-G, and 1935-H were all printed on the older flat-bed presses by the wet intaglio process. P.L. 84-140 recognized that an enormous expense would be associated with immediately replacing the costly printing plates. The law allowed BEP to gradually convert to the inclusion of In God We Trust on the currency. Accordingly, the motto is not found on series 1935-E and 1935-F one-dollar notes. By September 1961, In God We Trust had been added to the back design of the Series 1935-G notes. Some early printings of this series do not bear the motto. In God We Trust appears on all series 1935-H one-dollar silver certificates.
On March 7, 2007, the U.S Mint reported an unknown amount of new George Washington dollar coins mistakenly struck without the edge inscriptions, including "In God We Trust". These coins have been in circulation since February 15, 2007 and it has been estimated by some experts that at least 50,000 of them were put in circulation. The coin rapidly became a collector's item as well as a source for conspiracy theorists.[1][2]
[edit] Controversy
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Today, the motto is a source of some heated contention. Some opponents[3][4] of the phrase argue that the First Amendment and a need for Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation between church and state" requires that the motto be removed from all public use, including on coins and paper money. They argue that religious freedom includes the right not to believe in the existence of deities and that the gratuitous use of the motto infringes upon the religious rights of the unreligious. They argue that an endorsement of any deity by the government is unconstitutional. Many also argue that the motto, along with the addition of "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, was made official simply because of U.S. opposition to the atheistic Soviet Union, the main adversary of the United States during the Cold War.
On the other hand, some advocates[attribution needed] of the phrase state that "separation of church and state" -- a concept founded in the Establishment Clause to the First Amendment ("Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...") and stated in no other place -- means that Congress shall not impose a state religion on the populace, and that the separation of church and state is a legislative invention not intended by the founding fathers. They[attribution needed] argue that religious language is used in the founding documents, such as "Nature and Nature's God" in the Declaration of Independence; although opponents point out that the Declaration is simply a historical, rather than official, document of the US Government. Furthermore, the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson, whose support for church/state separation is well-documented.
A number of theists[attribution needed] also protest the use of the name. United States President Theodore Roosevelt argued against the requirement of the motto on coinage, not because of a lack of faith in God, but because he thought it sacrilegious to put the name of God on something so common as money[5]. Indeed, a number of commandments forbidding the trivial use of God's name can be found in the Bible, such as Exodus 20:7, Deuteronomy 5:11, and Leviticus 19:12.
Use of the motto on circulating coinage is required by law. Some activists have been known to cross out the motto on paper money as a form of protest[6]. While several laws come into play, the act of May 18, 1908 is most often cited as requiring the motto (even though the cent and nickel were excluded from that law, and the nickel did not have the motto added until 1938). Since 1938, all coins have borne the motto. The use of the motto was permitted, but not required, by an 1873 law. The motto was added to paper money over a period from 1957 to 1966.
[edit] Cultural references
Some shops in the United States have displayed jocular signs reading "In God we trust — All others pay cash." This phrase was also used by humorist Jean Shepherd for the title of his 1966 book In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash.
The punk band The Dead Kennedys released an album titled In God We Trust, Inc.
The phrase is parodied in an episode "Deep Space Homer" of the The Simpsons when an Inanimate Carbon Rod saves the day and is featured on the front-page of Time with the slogan "In Rod We Trust". Another religious themed episode (Season 8, Episode 22) is titled "In Marge We Trust".
In the Styx song "Half Penny-Two Penny" James Young refers to the "In God we Trust" phrase.
Christian band Stryper released an album and song, "In God We Trust" in 1988.
The Extreme song "Money (In God We Trust)" also refers to the motto.
The Spirit of the West song, "D for Democracy" contains the lyrics:
Your pen in one, sword in the other
Satisfied, the blessing is given
In God they trust, only their way, one way
Sick of all the other "-isms"
In the John Carpenter sci-fi movie They Live, the subliminal message hidden on money is the phrase "This is your God".
In Chris Rock's Never Scared HBO Special, he made references to the motto to illustrate his point that Americans worship money, declaring, "All my life I've been looking for God, and he's right in my pocket!"
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources
- This article incorporates text from http://www.ustreas.gov/education/fact-sheets/currency/in-god-we-trust.shtml, a public domain work of the United States Government.
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.usmint.gov/pressroom/index.cfm?action=press_release&ID=755
- ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17501178/
- ^ Atheist protests `In God We Trust' posting
- ^ Judge turns down atheist's suit challenging 'In God We Trust'
- ^ Religious Tolerance - The US national mottos
- ^ "In God We Trust" -Stamping Out Religion On National Currency
[edit] External links
- "Final answer? Not quite as star gets second chance to play for a million" - Guardian article about a disputed quiz question about the motto of the United States.
