Happy Birthday, National Motto

On 30 July 1956 H.R. Res. 396 became law (36 U.S.C. Section 186). What does this law say? "The national motto of the United States is declared to be 'In God We Trust'."

This is when what, up to that time, had been custom became official. Before this, the motto often appeared on coins & paper currency. But the roots of the motto is found in our National Anthem.

Where is that? you ask. I don't ever remember hearing it when we sing it. That is simple, because we usually only sing the 1st of the 4 stanzas of The Star Spangled Banner. The 6th line consists of the phrase "And this be our motto--'In God is our trust' " . & even though the song didn't become our National Anthem until 1931 the idea took root.

Even before the start of our nation some early colonial coins had statements about trusting God. But, there was nothing on any US coins. About 1861, future Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase, as Secretary of the Treasury wrote the following to the Director of the Mint: "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." As an aside from 1918-1946 he appeared on the $10,000 note honoring him for his introduction of paper currency. At that time the motto did not appear on paper currency. In 1862 designs for the half dollar & half eagle were submitted with the phrase "God our Trust". In 1864 a bronze 2 cent coin was issued with the phrase "In God We Trust". In 1865 Congress designated the appearance of the phrase on several other coins.

President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the removal of the phrase from all coins in 1907. No, it wasn't because he thought it violated the 1st Amendment. (I won't go into the myth of seperation of Church & State here. I suggest you read the actual text of the amendment. It merely bans the establishment of an official state religion, not an absolute exclusion of religion from the public domain as some would have & none of our Founding Fathers would have agreed to.) He thought that having the phrase put on the coins was "in effect irreverence which comes dangerously close to sacrilege." & since he saw the 1865 law as merely permitting the phrase, not madating it, he ordered it removed. In 1908 Congress passed a bill mandating the restoration of the phrase to those coins & President Roosevelt signed it into law 0n 18 May 1908.

In 1955 Congress passed a bill mandating the inscription of "In God We Trust" on all coins & paper currency. This was in resonse to a groundswell of support to do so that was instigated by Matthew Rothert of Camden, Arkansas. Its sponsor, House Member Charles Bennett of Florida said the following on the House floor: "In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and to destroy freedom, it is proper for us to seek continuously for ways to strengthen the foundation of our freedom. At the base of our freedom is our faith in God and the desire of Americans to live by His will and by His guidance. As long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail. To remind all of us of this self-evident truth, it is proper that our currency should carry these inspiring words, coming down to us through our history: 'In God We Trust.' "

& from the House report on the bill we get a clear view of Congress' thinking when both the House & Senate unanimously approved the bill. "It will be of great spiritual and psychological value to our country to have a clearly designated national motto of inspirational quality in plain, popularly accepted English." On 11 July 1955 President Dwight David Eisenhower signed it into law. It was in 1956 that Rep. Bennett introduced the bill to designate the phrase as our National Motto

Since then, in cases appearing before them, the 5th(1978), 9th(1970), & 10th(1996) Circuit Courts of Appeals have all upheld the constitutionality of the phrase on our coins. The case in 1978 was instituted by Madalyn Murray O"Hair. In upholding the constitutionality of the phrase the court cited a statement found in an opinion issued by Justice William Brennan. It was taken from his concuring opinion in School Dist. of Abington Township v. Schempp (1963) which struck down Bible reading in schools. He said: "It is not that the use of these four words (In God We Trust) can be dismissed as ‘de minimis’… The truth is that we have simply interwoven the motto so deeply into the fabric of our civil policy that its present use may well not present that type of involvement which the First Amendment prohibits." The Supreme Court refused to hear O'Hair's appeal.

At another time Justice Brennan said the following: "[S]uch practices as the designation of "In God We Trust" as our national motto, or the references to God contained in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag can best be understood ... as a form of "ceremonial deism" protected from Establishment Clause scrutiny chiefly because they have lost through rote repetition any significant religious content. Moreover, those references are uniquely suited to serve such wholly secular purposes as solemnizing public occasions, or inspiring commitment to meet some national challenge in a manner that simply could not be fully served in our culture if government were limited to purely nonreligious phrases. The practices by which the government has long acknowledged religion are therefore probably necessary to serve certain secular functions, and that necessity, coupled with their long history, gives those practices an essentially secular meaning."

In 1962, as a part of its opinion striking down school prayer (Engel v. Vitale) the Supreme Court said; "There is of course nothing in the decision reached here that is inconsistent with the fact that school children and others are officially encouraged to express love for country by reciting historical documents such as the Declaration of Independence which contain references to Deity or by singing officially espoused anthems which contain the composer's professions of faith in a Supreme Being, or with the fact that there are many manifestations in our public life of belief in God. Such patriotic or ceremonial occasions bear no true resemblance to the unquestioned religious exercise that the State of New York has sponsored in this instance."

In her opinion issued for Lynch v. Donnelly (1984), Justice Sandra Day O'Connor said the following about government acknowledgement of religion like a "declaration of thanksgiving as a public holiday," printing 'In God We Trust' on coins, and opening court sessions with 'God Save the United States an this honorable court' ": "Those government acknowledgments of religion serve, in the only ways reasonably possible in our culture, the legitimate secular purposes of solemnizing public occasions, expressing confidence in the future, and encouraging the recognition of what is worthy of appreciation in society. For that reason, and because of their history and ubiquity, those practices are not understood as conveying government approval of particular religious beliefs."

Another case is working its way through the 9th Circuit Court. Hopefully it will honor the principle of "Stare Decisis" & honor the precident that it set in 1970.

Our Founding Fathers believed this country was founded under "Divine Providence". I quote from the last paragraph of the Declaration of Independence: "We, therefore, the Representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, . . . . And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." It was clear that they were operating under the idea of "In God We Trust".

If it was good enough for the Founding Fathers, it is good enough for me.