American-Exceptionalism-10.5x10-PRINT-10.5 DIGITAL - Flipbook - Page 15
IN GOD WE TRUST – MOTTO
The
history of our country’s motto — In God We
Trust — replaced E pluribus unum (“from many
one”) in 1956. But the story of “In God We Trust”
dates back to nearly a century earlier when
Americans went to war against each other.
The earliest recorded usage of the phrase is from
January 1748, when a newspaper reported that the
motto of Benjamin Franklin’s Pennsylvania militia
was “In God we Trust.” Versions of it are also found
in literary works of the early 19th century, like
"Defence of Fort M'Henry,” which eventually
became our national anthem. Most of us only know
the first verse of the Star-Spangled Banner, but in
the fourth and final verse you’ll find “In God is
our trust.”
It was not until the Civil War that this phrase, later
our national motto, gained wide usage. It started
when a Pennsylvania pastor wrote the Treasury
Department to add a statement recognizing “God in
some form on our coins" in order to "relieve us from
the ignominy of heathenism.” That is, the purpose
was to show that the Almighty was on the side of the
Union, not the Confederacy, which referenced God
in its Constitution.
President Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary Salmon P.
Chase took up the proposal and considered various
phrases until he settled on “In God We Trust” in
1863. Scholars note that Secretary Chase might have
been inspired by the Latin motto of his alma mater,
Brown University, "In Deo speramus, "In God we hope.”
On March 3, 1865, the U.S. Congress passed a bill
that allowed the Mint Director to place "In God We
Trust" on all gold and silver coins that "shall admit
the inscription thereon.” The phrase first appeared on
two-cent coins. Other coins, like quarters, have had
“In God We Trust” engraved since 1866. Banknotes
did not have formal authorization to have "In God We
Trust" engraved until 1955. And then, on July 30 of
the next year, President Eisenhower signed legislation
declaring the phrase to be the national motto.
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