Hi Alice,

BTW, for anyone not aware of your excellent website at http://www.pa-roots.com/~pacw/ . Ms. Gayley is responsible for the Pennsylvania in the Civil War website.

What I'm hinting or speculating is that the pledge to the "Stars and Stripes" was specifically meant to force those who had held allegiance to other flags, to surrender any other allegiances and especially to ingrain in the children this allegiance to what was viewed in the South, and may I say the Native-Americans, as the Union or a conquering flag.

See, I'm always looking for things in our modern world that are a result of the Civil War. For instance, every time I drive across my expansive home state, here in Texas, I'm reminded that the reason this state is so large, is due to the Abolitionists and Free-Staters in Congress not wanting to admit 3,4 or even 5 new slave states from the newly acquired Republic of Texas.

Also, though I would prefer or think it more appropriate to pledge allegiance to the Constitution of the United States, this would not accomplish the goal of uniting the American people under one emblem. Both the North and the South argued that they were constitutionally correct in their interpretation of the Constitution. The South argued their right to exit a Union they thought was tyrannical or offered them no representation and the North thought the Constitution guaranteed the continuation of the Union. This argument continues today.

I've read the Wikipedia and other online information as to the origins of the pledge and its original wording. Wikipedia states:

"The Pledge of Allegiance was written for the popular children's magazine Youth's Companion by Christian Socialist author and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy on September 7, 1892. The owners of Youth's Companion were selling flags to schools, and approached Bellamy to write the Pledge for their advertising campaign. It was marketed as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the Americas and was first published on the following day."

"Bellamy's original Pledge read as follows: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, and was seen by some as a call for national unity and wholeness after the divisive Civil War. The pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be stated in 15 seconds. He had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided they were too controversial since many people still opposed equal rights for women and blacks. Bellamy said that the purpose of the pledge was to teach obedience to the state as a virtue."

"After a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892 during Columbus Day observances. This date was also significant as it was the dedication day of the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Bellamy thought that the pledge itself and the involvement of children across the country would be a fine show of national solidarity."

"...and was seen by some as a call for national unity and wholeness after the divisive Civil War." seems to reinforce the idea (I need to find the source for this claim)that the pledge was directed at the South or Southern children to indoctrinate them with an allegiance to the flag of the Union.

I'm not saying this is wrong. I love the pledge, say it today without hesitation and mean it when I say it, but, it does appear to me that the pledge and the specific wording is due to the Civil War.

Jim