0:08

Great Originals.

0:10

This is an iHeart original.

0:16

It's October twenty first, eighteen

0:18

ninety two. Across the United

0:21

States, school kids are gathering

0:23

for a once in a lifetime celebration

0:26

the four hundredth anniversary of

0:29

Columbus's discovery of America.

0:32

Of course, Columbus never actually stepped

0:34

foot on American soil, and

0:36

he went to his grave thinking he really

0:38

landed in India. But that's

0:41

a topic for another podcast. Back

0:44

to eighteen ninety two. In

0:46

celebration of this flawed and

0:49

historically inaccurate holiday, then

0:52

President Benjamin Harrison issues

0:54

a special proclamation. He

0:57

calls for America's new system

0:59

of public schools to fly

1:02

the American flag high

1:04

and proud. As parades

1:06

of Civil War veterans file into

1:08

school yards across the country, students

1:11

prepare to salute the flag, and

1:14

not just that, they're about

1:16

to recite a new patriotic

1:18

oath. They've been practicing it

1:20

every day for a month, just

1:23

for this special occasion. It's

1:25

only twenty two words long, but it's

1:27

still a mouthful for a bunch of school

1:30

children. For anyone really.

1:32

Ledge allegiance to my flag and the

1:35

republic for which it stands. One

1:37

Nation indivisible with

1:39

liberty and justice for all.

1:43

Sound familiar, Sure, it's missing

1:45

a few words and phrases. Those

1:48

would come decades later. But

1:51

that day, October twenty first,

1:53

eighteen ninety two, was the

1:55

public debut of what we all

1:57

recognize now as the Pledge

2:00

of Allegiance. The thing

2:02

is, back then, it wasn't called

2:04

the Capital P Pledge of

2:07

Capital A Allegiance. It

2:10

wasn't a thing yet in

2:12

eighteen ninety two, no one had

2:14

an inkling that this short, patriotic

2:17

oath written for a one time

2:19

event would ever be uttered again.

2:22

As we'll see, the story of the

2:24

Pledge of Allegiance is a story

2:27

of a nation at a crossroads,

2:30

a nation still healing from the

2:32

collective trauma of the Civil War,

2:34

a nation experiencing one of the

2:37

largest influxes of immigrants

2:39

in its history. It was a

2:41

time of tremendous anxiety

2:43

over what it meant to be an

2:46

American, and the original

2:48

Pledge, with its twenty two words,

2:51

was supposed to offer an answer. The

2:54

crazy thing is more than one hundred and

2:56

thirty years later, after reciting

2:59

the Pledge every morning in nearly

3:01

every classroom in America, we

3:04

still have absolutely no idea

3:07

who wrote it. Welcome

3:09

to very special episodes and iHeart

3:12

original podcast. I'm

3:14

your host, Danash Schwartz, and this

3:16

is the pledge. I

3:19

think one thing that's always really surprising

3:22

to me is discovering how

3:24

these American traditions that seem so

3:27

ingrained in our country are actually far

3:29

more recent than people realize.

3:31

Oh totally.

3:33

Not only are they more recent, but kind of

3:35

started on a lark as

3:37

part of a don't no

3:39

spoilers. But there's a

3:42

magazine at the center of this. All three

3:44

of us come from at

3:46

one point in our careers working at magazine.

3:49

So good to look back at a time

3:51

when magazines were so dominant in the culture.

3:54

Ah remember those times.

3:56

It's just as so interesting. People have

3:59

such strong emotional feelings

4:02

to the pledge of allegiance and it really

4:04

kind of was arbitrary.

4:07

Also, in my humble opinion, I think America, we

4:09

don't really need a pledge of allegiance. We should

4:12

have like a national jingle like one of those

4:14

ads for a year in car sale, like come

4:16

on, grab the freedom, let's go.

4:18

That's right.

4:19

I will say, if you have a friend who's

4:21

not from the United States, and you tell

4:23

them that every single day in school, every

4:26

student stands up, puts their hand over their hearts

4:28

and says a pledge to the flag. They will

4:30

look at you like you are absolutely

4:32

insane.

4:33

Completely like we yell all brainwashed

4:35

in your cord does Yeah. Also,

4:38

isn't it funny how when you dig into any bit of American

4:40

history, even something simple as a pledge of allegiance, you will

4:42

always find a crime.

4:44

There's always a crime. There's always a crime. America

4:49

in the late nineteenth century was having

4:51

a full blown identity crisis.

4:54

When the pledge was first recited

4:56

in eighteen ninety two. It was

4:58

only twenty seven years since the

5:00

end of the Civil War. Young

5:02

people who had fought in and survived

5:04

the war were now full fledged volts.

5:08

Families who lost loved ones

5:10

still felt the ripple effect, and

5:13

the American institution of slavery

5:16

had only recently been formally

5:18

abolished.

5:19

I mean, we have to keep in mind that an entire

5:22

generation was wiped out in the Civil

5:24

War. Right you think about the number of soldiers

5:26

who were killed in the United States, I mean,

5:29

those are wounds that are not going to heal very quickly.

5:32

That's Charles dorn A historian at

5:34

Boden College.

5:36

Now we're into eighteen nineties and the war

5:38

ends in eighteen sixty five, but it still

5:40

stings, and the country is still trying

5:42

to figure out how to stitch itself back together

5:45

politically, economically, and socially.

5:48

If recovering from the Civil War wasn't

5:50

enough, the eighteen eighties and

5:52

eighteen nineties were also a time

5:55

of unprecedented urbanization

5:57

and immigration. Suddenly, Americans

6:00

who had been here for generations

6:02

found themselves competing for factory

6:04

jobs and tenement space with

6:07

millions of new immigrants from places

6:09

like Italy, Russia, and Poland.

6:13

So this is a very different kind of immigration

6:15

into the United States than what people

6:17

believe existed prior

6:20

to that. The people comprising

6:22

this wave of immigration are coming from a different

6:24

part of the world. So whereas initially

6:26

immigration in the United States is coming primarily

6:28

from northern and western Europe, now

6:31

these immigrants are coming from southern

6:33

and Eastern Europe. And what this means

6:35

is that they're speaking different languages, Slavic

6:38

languages for instance, They're practicing

6:40

different faiths.

6:43

What if these new arrivals failed

6:45

to assimilate into American

6:47

culture, What if they openly

6:49

rebelled against American ideals

6:52

and institutions. Tensions

6:55

reached a fever pitch, and.

6:57

There's a real fear and a concern

7:00

on the part of resident Americans,

7:02

Americans already living here, that this

7:04

could somehow dilute America,

7:07

and it could really sort of mess with the national

7:09

character, and that something has

7:11

to be done to these people in order

7:14

to essentially make them Americans.

7:16

What exactly do you do

7:19

to people to make them

7:21

American? Well, the

7:23

best way to Americanize people,

7:25

the government decided, was through

7:27

the public schools. Public

7:30

schools were still a relatively

7:32

new concept in most of the country,

7:34

but there were high hopes that these uniquely

7:37

American institutions could

7:39

teach little Italian, Slavic

7:41

and Irish kids to be patriotic

7:44

and productive Americans.

7:47

There's a sense that these public

7:49

schools are unlike anything else

7:51

that exists in any nation in the world, and

7:54

they are in some ways sort of symbols

7:56

of democracy and the democratic republic.

7:58

So there was a real faith in fact that public

8:01

schools could pull off this

8:03

Americanization mission that many

8:05

people believed needed to have happen in

8:07

order for immigrants to become a part of

8:09

the national project.

8:12

From the start, the Americanization

8:14

efforts in public schools centered

8:17

around the flag. Today,

8:19

it's not really unusual to see

8:21

an American flag flying outside

8:23

most schools and inside

8:26

most classrooms, but that wasn't

8:28

always the case. In fact,

8:30

the main reason schools are festooned

8:33

with flags today dates back

8:35

to this immigration anxiety

8:38

that gripped Americans. In the eighteen

8:40

eighties and eighteen nineties, there

8:42

was a nationwide campaign to put

8:45

quote a flag in every schoolhouse.

8:48

It was spearheaded by patriotic civic

8:50

organizations like the Grand Army

8:52

of the Republic and the Women's Relief

8:55

Corps. They wanted the flag

8:57

to be a physical symbol of America

9:00

to which young immigrant children could

9:02

pledge their loyalty.

9:05

And of course, there are national oaths

9:07

of loyalty in many countries

9:10

at this point in time. In fact, the United

9:12

States is a little bit of an outlier in not having

9:14

one, and so the idea that

9:16

there might be a national statement

9:19

of loyalty was not a new idea or

9:21

a strange thing whatsoever.

9:25

The very first version of a pledge

9:27

of allegiance was written around

9:29

eighteen ninety by a New York City

9:32

education reformer and Civil

9:34

War veteran named George

9:36

Balch. Bulch wasn't a fan

9:38

of mass immigration. He

9:40

referred to immigrant school children

9:43

as quote human scum

9:46

cast on our shores by the tidal

9:48

wave of a vast migration end

9:51

quote. So you know the kind

9:53

of person we're dealing with, the

9:55

most popular version of Balch's

9:57

pledge went like this.

10:00

We give our heads and our hearts to God

10:02

and our country, one country, one

10:04

language, one flag.

10:07

The message was hardly subtle. There

10:09

was only room in America for one

10:12

type of American god, fearing

10:14

English speaking and unwaveringly

10:17

loyal to the United States. Balches

10:20

owede to assimilation had

10:22

a nice little run. It was recited

10:24

in New York public schools well

10:27

into the twentieth century. But

10:29

obviously that's not the pledge

10:31

of allegiance that American school kids

10:33

know today, and it was not the

10:36

pledge that was read out during

10:38

the Columbus Day celebration in

10:40

eighteen ninety two. To

10:43

hear the story of that pledge,

10:46

the real pledge, we need to

10:48

travel to Boston. There

10:50

we'll find a former Baptist minister

10:53

turned magazine editor named

10:55

Francis Bellamy. There

10:58

he is hunched over his desk,

11:00

sweating through his wool suit, wrestling

11:04

with the words that would become an

11:06

American institution. It's

11:13

a swelteringly hot August

11:16

night in Boston eighteen ninety

11:18

two. Francis Bellamy, a

11:21

thirty seven year old writer and editor,

11:23

has shut himself away in his office

11:26

at The Youth's Companion, a

11:28

children's magazine and one of

11:30

the most popular magazines in

11:32

America. His waste paper

11:35

bucket overflows with false starts,

11:38

his pencil is ground down

11:40

to a nub. Bellamy's

11:42

boss, James b Upham, has

11:44

given him an impossible writing

11:47

assignment. Compose a

11:49

brief patriotic statement, a

11:51

salute to the American flag that

11:54

somehow encompasses all of

11:56

America's history and founding principles,

11:59

and keep it short. Bellamy

12:01

knows about the existing pledge written

12:04

by George Balch, One Country,

12:06

one language, one Flag, but

12:08

he dismisses it as too juvenile.

12:11

Bellamy's boss wants something more sweeping

12:14

and comprehensive, so

12:16

Bellamy racks his brain for a new

12:19

approach. But how could

12:21

he possibly express the true

12:23

essence of America in so few

12:25

words? This scene played

12:28

out in a stuffy Boston office

12:30

will become a watershed moment in

12:33

Bellamy's life. When he writes

12:35

about it thirty years later, he recounts

12:37

the details like it was yesterday.

12:42

The strain of the next two hours

12:44

is still a distinct memory.

12:47

Very dramatic stuff. Bellamy

12:49

certainly has a way with words, but

12:52

he wasn't always a writer and editor.

12:55

Before he worked for the Youth's Companion,

12:58

Bellamy was a Baptist minister,

13:01

but he wasn't your typical fire and

13:03

brimstone preacher. Bellamy

13:05

and his friends were Christian socialists

13:09

in the nineteenth century. Christian

13:11

socialists believed that true

13:13

Christians shouldn't just sit around

13:16

praying and waiting for God to act.

13:19

Christians should get out there and actually

13:21

try to fix some of society's

13:23

toughest problems. Here's Charles

13:26

Dorn again.

13:29

And so the Christian Socialists

13:31

are coming out of this kind of belief system that

13:34

society can act in

13:36

cooperative ways to

13:39

create systems that will

13:41

create a kind of paradise or kind

13:43

of heaven on earth.

13:45

Although Bellamy eventually left

13:48

the ministry, he still wanted

13:50

to help people and improve society.

13:53

But like a lot of good old, homegrown

13:55

Americans, in the eighteen nineties, Bellamy

13:58

was pretty rattled by the influx

14:00

of immigrants from Eastern and southern

14:03

Europe.

14:04

There is a real fear, I mean, we shouldn't

14:06

understand, there's a real fear that

14:09

bringing these people to the United

14:11

States could really destabilize

14:14

an already destabilized

14:16

nation. So we've got to do something to make sure

14:18

that that doesn't happen.

14:22

Like many others, Bellamy subscribed

14:24

to the idea that the best way to

14:27

americanize immigrants was

14:29

through public schools, and

14:31

he found a welcome home for his

14:33

ideas at the Youth's Companion.

14:36

The Companion was one of the first

14:39

subscription magazines in America.

14:42

Launched in eighteen twenty seven, It

14:44

was like an early version of Boys

14:47

Life, stuffed with serialized

14:49

adventure novels, news items,

14:51

and casually racist reports

14:54

from around the globe. It was

14:56

a hit with young readers and their

14:58

parents, and every week three

15:01

hundred and eighty five thousand copies

15:03

were delivered to homes across the country.

15:07

James B. Upham, Bellamy's boss

15:09

at The Companion, was a deeply

15:11

patriotic man, but he

15:14

also had magazines to sell.

15:16

It was Upham's idea to get the magazine

15:19

involved in the flag in every

15:21

schoolhouse movement of the eighteen

15:24

eighties. The Companion ran

15:26

ads offering American flags

15:28

to any school that needed one. The

15:31

flags weren't free. A nine foot

15:33

flag cost the equivalent of one

15:35

hundred and sixty dollars today, but

15:38

schools could recoup their money. The

15:40

magazine provided flag certificates

15:43

that students could sell to friends and

15:45

neighbors for about three

15:47

dollars in today's money. Buyers

15:50

were entitled to quote one

15:52

share in the patriotic influence

15:54

of the school flag. It

15:56

was an ingenious scheme that paid

15:59

off handsomely. The

16:01

Youth's Companion sold more than

16:03

twenty five thousand American flags

16:05

to public schools. Not

16:08

only did the Companion make a killing,

16:10

but the magazine became synonymous

16:13

with patriotism. And with

16:15

this pivot to patriotism, the

16:17

magazine brass wanted to lean heavily

16:20

into their new identity, and

16:23

just their luck, the perfect

16:25

opportunity came knocking. As

16:28

I mentioned, eighteen ninety two marked

16:30

the four hundredth anniversary of

16:32

Columbus's historic voyage. Civic

16:35

organizations floated the idea of

16:37

a national public school celebration

16:41

and the Youth's Companion was

16:43

chosen by a committee of educators

16:46

to create the actual program that

16:48

schools would follow during the celebration.

16:51

If the Youth's Companion pulled this off,

16:54

it would sell a crazy amount

16:56

of magazines.

16:59

So the idea is that the Youth's Companion

17:01

will propose a celebratory

17:04

program that will take place

17:06

on a particular weekend, and

17:08

there will literally be like a sequence of activities

17:11

or events or programs that communities

17:14

can adopt and participate in. And

17:17

one of those is going to be bringing kids

17:19

together at schools and listenings

17:22

who has some addresses and some speeches,

17:24

and then celebrating by reciting

17:27

a national pledge.

17:30

A national pledge that was

17:32

the kicker. James Upham was insistent

17:35

that the Youth's Companion program include

17:38

a salute to the flag. He

17:40

tried to write one himself a bunch of

17:42

times, but gave up as

17:45

the date of the celebration neared.

17:47

Upham turned in desperation to his

17:49

junior employee, Francis Bellamy.

17:53

That's how Bellamy finds himself cloistered

17:55

in his office on a hot August night

17:57

in eighteen ninety two with a deadline

18:00

looming for the most important part

18:02

of the Columbus Day program, the

18:04

Salute to the Flag. Bellamy

18:07

sweats it out for a while before finally

18:10

having his first breakthrough. One

18:12

word allegiance. It

18:15

means loyalty, faithfulness, obedience,

18:18

everything. Bellamy wants the flag to

18:20

inspire in immigrant school children,

18:23

and just like that, six fateful

18:25

words appear at the top of the page.

18:29

Here's what Bellamy wrote about that moment,

18:31

looking back decades later.

18:35

I pledge allegiance to my flag when

18:38

those first words looked up at me from the

18:40

scratch paper. The start appeared

18:43

promising.

18:45

On a roll.

18:45

Now Bellamy wrestles with the next part.

18:48

Should it be country, nation or

18:50

republic?

18:52

Republic? One because it distinguished

18:54

the form of government chosen by the fathers

18:57

and established by the Revolution.

18:59

The true reason for allegiance to

19:01

the flag is the republic for which

19:04

it stands.

19:05

Next, Bellamy turned to his American

19:08

heroes, George Washington, Alexander

19:11

Hamilton, and Abraham Lincoln.

19:13

How would they characterize their beloved

19:16

republic in the wake of a

19:18

wretching Civil war.

19:20

After many attempts, all that

19:22

pictured struggle reduced itself

19:24

to three words. One nation,

19:27

indivisible, to reach that compact

19:29

brevity was, as I recall,

19:32

the most arduous phase of the task, and

19:34

the discarded experiments at phrasing overflowed

19:37

the scrap basket.

19:39

Sure he was laying it on a little

19:41

thick but with those words

19:44

locked in One Nation, indivisible,

19:47

Bellamy searches.

19:48

For a closer What

19:50

doctrines, then, would everybody agree upon?

19:52

As the basis of Americanism, Liberty

19:55

and justice were surely basic, were undebatable,

19:58

and were all that any one nation could handle

20:01

if they were exercised for all. They

20:03

involved the spirit of equality and fraternity.

20:06

So that final with liberty and justice

20:08

for all came with a cheering rush

20:11

as a clincher. It seemed to assemble the

20:13

past and to promise the future.

20:15

That I remember is how the sequence of

20:17

the ideas grew, and how the words

20:19

were found. On that August night, with

20:21

the cooling Boston seabreeze coming softly

20:24

through the open window of my room.

20:28

After two hours of writing, Bellamy

20:31

had his twenty two word national

20:33

creed. I pledge allegiance

20:36

to my flag and the Republic

20:38

for which it stands, One nation,

20:41

indivisible, with liberty and

20:43

justice for all. Bellamy

20:45

proudly presents his pledge to Upham.

20:48

His reaction, Francis,

20:51

You've written a thing which I believe will

20:53

live long after you and I are

20:55

dead.

20:56

When the day of the Columbus celebration

20:59

finally arrives, Bellamy is

21:01

there to witness the very first reciting

21:04

of his Pledge of Allegiance at

21:06

a boss in high school. He's floored

21:09

when four thousand students roar

21:12

his words in unison. At

21:14

the top of the episode, I said, we have

21:16

no idea who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance,

21:19

yet we just listened to Francis Bellamy's

21:22

word by word account of how

21:24

he wrote it. So case

21:26

closed, right, Well,

21:28

that depends who you ask.

21:33

Francis Bellamy insisted

21:35

that he wrote it in August

21:37

eighteen ninety two, had a very specific

21:40

story about that, and this

21:42

is a crucial point. He swore

21:45

out legal affidavits telling

21:48

a detailed story of how he originated

21:51

it in August eighteen ninety two.

21:53

But the evidence that we now have

21:56

really suggests that he falsified

21:58

the entire story. I think

22:00

it's impossible to

22:02

read all the evidence and not conclude.

22:04

That turns out

22:07

Bellamy's detailed story of a

22:09

sweltering August night, hunched over

22:11

his desk with an impossible assignment,

22:14

The arduous search for the right words,

22:16

the Eureka moment spurred by patriotic

22:19

reverence to the founding fathers, Well,

22:23

it might all be a big,

22:25

fat lie.

22:31

Cherryvale, Kansas, is a tiny

22:34

farming town about one hundred miles

22:36

outside of Wichita, a flat

22:38

sea of corn stretching to the horizon.

22:41

I'm assuming I've never been. The

22:44

year is eighteen ninety, a full two

22:46

years before Francis Bellamy says

22:48

he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance On a

22:51

hot August night in eighteen ninety

22:53

two. In small town

22:55

Cherryvale, the eighth grade teacher

22:57

gives her students an assignment. Like

23:00

most of her students, the teacher is an

23:03

avid reader of the Youth's Companion,

23:06

the magazine bell And he works at. And

23:08

the Companion has just announced

23:11

a writing contest for kids. They

23:13

call it the Flag and the Public Schools.

23:17

The teacher encourages her students

23:19

to enter. She tells them to

23:21

write a few sentences expressing

23:23

the thoughts that run through their heads when

23:26

they salute the American flag. One

23:28

winning entry would be chosen from each

23:31

state, and along with bragging

23:33

rights, their school would get a shiny

23:36

new American flag as a prize.

23:40

Not all of the eighth graders take the assignment

23:42

seriously, but Frank does.

23:45

Frank is a naturally patriotic

23:48

kit. He likes to read stories

23:50

about George Washington and the American

23:52

Revolution. The flag really

23:55

means something to him. He wants

23:57

to become a soldier someday, but

23:59

like any thirteen year old, he struggles

24:02

to find the right words to express his

24:04

feelings. After weeks

24:06

of writeaceading, and rewriting, Frank

24:09

finally has something he's proud of.

24:11

Before mailing his submission off to

24:14

the magazine, he reads it out loud

24:16

to himself while saluting an imaginary

24:19

American flag.

24:20

I pledge allegiance to my flag and

24:22

the Republic for which it stands, one

24:25

nation indivisible with

24:27

liberty and justice for all.

24:30

Sound familiar. Keep

24:32

in mind this is eighteen ninety

24:35

in Kansas and Frank is

24:37

thirteen years old. Months

24:39

go by, but Frank doesn't hear anything

24:42

from the Youth's companion. He's

24:44

disappointed, but figures the magazine

24:46

must have received a ton of submissions.

24:49

Maybe his just wasn't good enough. More

24:52

time passes two years

24:54

to be exact. Now it's eighteen

24:57

ninety two. School kids across

24:59

the country are preparing for the

25:01

national public school celebration

25:04

of Columbus Day. Frank

25:06

is excited. He picks up

25:08

the official program published

25:10

in The Youth's Companion, and

25:13

he can't believe his eyes. There

25:18

it is the very same

25:20

pledge he wrote two years ago

25:22

in eighth grade. Word for word,

25:25

Frank is blown away. How

25:27

did this happen? Did he win the

25:29

contest but the magazine couldn't find

25:31

him? His own words are in

25:34

a national magazine. But

25:36

why hadn't he heard from the Companion?

25:39

There must have been some kind of mistake.

25:41

Frank rushes home after school and

25:44

writes a letter to The Youth's Companion

25:46

explaining everything. How

25:48

he submitted his pledge for the contest

25:51

two years ago, how there must

25:53

have been some confusion because

25:55

no one told him that he'd won. He

25:58

couldn't wait to tell his parents.

26:00

They'd be so proud. A

26:03

few weeks later, a letter finally

26:05

arrives from the magazine. Frank

26:07

tears it open, holding his breath as

26:09

he reads the reply.

26:11

All essays, statements, or written matter submitted

26:13

in this contest, she'll remain and is the

26:16

property of the Youth's Companion magazine.

26:19

What that's it? No

26:22

congratulations, not even a

26:24

flag. Didn't they understand

26:26

that he had written the pledge of allegiance.

26:30

That's the last that Frank hears

26:32

from the Youth's Companion, But

26:36

despite his disappointment, he doesn't

26:38

lose his love for his country. In

26:40

eighteen ninety eight, he achieves his dream

26:43

of becoming a soldier. He enlists

26:45

in the army to fight in the Spanish American

26:48

War. While serving in the Philippines,

26:50

he contracts tuberculosis. Frank

26:53

makes it home but never gets his

26:55

health back. It's a struggle, and

26:58

he dies a few months shy of

27:00

his fortieth birthday. Frank

27:03

is buried in the Fairview Cemetery

27:05

back in Cherryvale, Casas. His

27:08

gravestone says nothing about

27:10

the pledge, just his service

27:12

in the war and his name, Frank

27:16

Bellamy.

27:18

Hold on, hold on, hold on. This

27:20

kid's name is Frank Bellamy. Yep,

27:23

as in Francis Bellamy.

27:26

Spelled exactly the same, but

27:29

it's not.

27:29

The same person. Somehow, Frank

27:32

isn't short for Francis.

27:34

Nope, Frank Bellamy is a

27:36

completely different person than

27:38

Francis Bellamy. They're unrelated.

27:42

They just happen to have the same

27:44

name, and they both claim

27:46

that they wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.

27:49

That's insane, completely

27:51

insane, but it's true.

27:53

Just ask Fred Shapiro.

27:57

The story really gets astonishing

28:00

when you mentioned Frank E.

28:02

Bellamy.

28:03

If you look in Kansas newspapers

28:06

and Kansas Historical Society

28:09

website and resolutions

28:11

that have been passed by the Kansas Legislature.

28:14

In Kansas, they have long believed

28:16

that Frank E. Bellamy

28:19

wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.

28:21

Fred is the editor of the New

28:23

Yale Book of Quotations, and

28:25

he is the authoritative

28:28

source on who said what when.

28:31

As Fred correctly points out, the

28:33

state of Kansas has always backed

28:36

a different Bellamy, thirteen

28:38

year old Frank Elmer Bellamy,

28:40

as the true author of the Pledge of

28:43

Allegiance. As recently

28:45

as twenty fourteen, the Kansas

28:47

State Senate passed a resolution

28:50

to quote recognize and

28:52

celebrate Cherryvale, Kansas, and

28:55

Frank Bellamy's authorship of the Pledge

28:57

of Allegiance. In nineteen

28:59

ninety six, the citizens of Cherryvale

29:02

erected a memorial with a

29:04

photo of Frank Bellamy. A small

29:07

plaque explains how Frank, as

29:09

a school kid, composed the

29:12

nation's best known patriotic

29:14

statement. But could

29:16

it be true? Could an eighth grader

29:19

from Kansas have written the original

29:21

pledge in eighteen ninety and

29:24

could Francis Bellamy and The

29:26

Youth's Companion have stolen

29:29

Frank's pledge and claimed it as

29:31

their own. Fred Shapiro

29:33

thinks it's possible.

29:37

They did have a contest. I've looked

29:39

at the old issues of The Youth's

29:41

Companion. They definitely had a

29:43

contest. The core Frank Bellamy

29:46

argument is that he sent it in as part

29:48

of this contest, which definitely did happen

29:51

with Youth's Companion. So the part

29:53

of the anti Francis

29:55

Bellamy argument may be that if Frankie

29:58

Bellamy did send it in, that Francis

30:00

spell Me plagiarized

30:02

it and wouldn't show

30:05

anyone the original mission

30:08

and later claimed it as his

30:10

own. That's the conspiracy

30:12

theory to deny

30:14

Frankie bell and his priority

30:17

if he was indeed the first.

30:21

And if it is a conspiracy

30:23

theory, it's a pretty juicy one.

30:26

Big City Magazine guy steals

30:28

credit for the pledge of allegiance from farm

30:30

Kit in Kansas, who has the exact

30:33

same name. But does

30:35

this theory hold up to scrutiny.

30:38

To get some answers, let's take

30:40

a closer look at the writing contest

30:42

held by the Youth's companion, Fred

30:44

Shapiro is right. In the

30:46

January ninth, eighteen ninety

30:49

issue of the magazine, there's a call

30:51

for submissions to a contest called

30:54

the Flag and the Public Schools.

30:57

But something is a little off.

30:59

The description of the writing contest

31:01

given in the magazine is really

31:04

different from the assignment supposedly

31:07

given by Frank's teacher. The

31:09

ad in the magazine says.

31:12

Students are invited to write an essay

31:14

of not more than six hundred words in length

31:16

on the patriotic influence of the American

31:18

flag when raised over the public schools.

31:22

Huh okay. This is very clearly

31:25

an essay contest with a

31:27

six hundred word limit. It

31:29

seems a little weird that Frank Bellamy would

31:31

have submitted a single twenty three word

31:34

sentence. To be fair, maybe

31:36

the pledge portion was a part of

31:39

a longer essay about the importance

31:41

of flags in schools. We don't

31:43

know. Unfortunately, there

31:45

are no documents or other tangible

31:48

proof that Frank Bellamy ever

31:50

submitted a pledge to the Youth's Companion

31:53

in eighteen ninety

31:56

fast forward to nineteen fifty seven.

31:59

Believe it or not, the Library of Congress

32:01

decided to get to the bottom of this.

32:03

They assigned a researcher to investigate

32:06

the various authorship claims for the pledge

32:09

of allegiance. James Upham, Bellamy's

32:11

boss, was also in the running, but

32:13

we don't have time to fall down that particular

32:16

rabbit hole. The Library of Congress

32:18

investigation, all one hundred and forty

32:20

eight pages of it, concluded

32:23

that the most likely author

32:25

of the pledge was Francis Bellamy

32:28

of the Youth's Companion. While

32:30

the report acknowledged some doubts

32:33

about Bellamy's account, it decided,

32:35

quote.

32:36

Unless one is prepared to believe that

32:38

Francis Bellamy was a deliberate

32:41

and consciousless liar, the mass

32:43

of his testimony is overwhelmingly

32:45

in his favor.

32:47

So where does that leave little Frank

32:50

Bellamy? In a short paragraph

32:52

in the report, the Library of Congress

32:55

dismissed the kid from Kansas

32:57

as nothing more than a plagiarist. It

33:00

alleged that Frank quote lifted

33:03

the text from the Columbus Day Program

33:06

and attempted to claim it as his own.

33:08

So much for Frank E. Bellamy,

33:11

it seemed. But remember

33:13

the Library of Congress report was

33:15

written in nineteen fifty seven.

33:18

That was sixty seven years ago. Would

33:21

you believe that new evidence

33:23

has come to light that puts

33:25

young Frank Bellamy back

33:27

in the running. A

33:30

few minutes ago, I said there were no

33:33

surviving documents that corroborated

33:35

Frank Bellamy's story that

33:37

he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in eighteen

33:40

ninety while a school kid in

33:42

Kansas. That's not quite

33:45

the case anymore.

33:47

Barry Popic is

33:49

a retired attorney who

33:52

has done fantastic

33:55

research on all kinds of questions

33:58

of priority origination

34:01

for American history.

34:03

Barry is probably the greatest

34:06

NewSpace paper researcher in

34:08

the world, and this is a fantastic

34:10

discovery and his part.

34:13

In twenty twenty two, Barry Poppeck

34:16

was searching newspapers dot com

34:18

for the earliest published mention

34:21

of the Pledge of Allegiance when

34:23

he made a wild discovery.

34:26

On May twenty first, eighteen ninety

34:29

two, a Kansas newspaper

34:31

called the Ellis County Republican

34:33

ran a tiny story on page

34:36

four. It's a dispatch from

34:38

the nearby town of Victoria, Kansas.

34:41

It reads, on April thirtieth,

34:43

our schools closed with a flag raising.

34:46

The pupils had been drilled to make a military

34:49

salute and to repeat the following

34:51

words while holding the hand at arm's

34:53

length toward the flag. I

34:56

pledge allegiance to my flag and

34:58

the Republic for which it stands, one

35:01

nation inseparable with liberty

35:03

and justice for all.

35:07

Francis Bellamy, the adult magazine

35:10

editor, swore up and down

35:12

that he wrote the pledge of allegiance in

35:15

August of eighteen ninety two. He

35:18

literally swore multiple legal

35:20

affidavits to that effect. But

35:22

here, buried in a small

35:25

town Kansas newspaper is

35:27

irrefutable proof that

35:29

he didn't. The article says

35:32

that on April thirtieth, eighteen ninety

35:34

two, school kids in Kansas

35:37

recited an almost identical

35:39

pledge that's more than three

35:42

months before Francis

35:44

Bellamy says that he wrote the pledge.

35:47

Who could forget to quote that August

35:49

night with the cooling Boston Sea breeze

35:51

coming softly through the open window of

35:54

my room. What's more,

35:56

the only difference between Bellamy's

35:58

pledge and the one that predates it in

36:01

a Kansas newspaper is a

36:03

single word inseparable

36:05

instead of india visible.

36:08

How do we explain the fact that

36:10

the exact same words virtually

36:13

appeared several months earlier

36:15

in a Kansas newspaper. And the

36:17

thing is in his affidavits,

36:20

Francis belling me. He didn't just say

36:22

yeah, I think I wrote it in eighteen

36:24

ninety two. He told us very

36:26

specific story where his boss asked

36:29

him to come up with a pledge and he sat

36:31

down and it was a hot day in August.

36:34

This is not just a question of dates. This

36:37

affects the question of authorship.

36:39

How could Francis Beelmy be the

36:42

author?

36:43

Good question, Fred, I've got

36:45

another one for you. This article

36:48

was published in a small town Kansas

36:50

newspaper. You know who else was

36:52

from a small town in Kansas. After

36:56

all this time, after being ignored

36:58

by the youth's companion and

37:01

being labeled a pleagiarist by the

37:03

Library of Congress, could

37:05

thirteen year old Frank E. Bellamy

37:08

from Cherry Vale, Kansas have

37:10

been telling the truth. Did

37:13

a kid really write the

37:15

Pledge of Allegiance?

37:17

I can't say that Frankie Bellamy

37:20

was the originator, but he may

37:22

have been. The fact that he was the only person

37:24

from Kansas, and that this this strong

37:26

link with Kansas, suggests

37:29

that he may have been the author.

37:33

In a few years, Fred plans to

37:35

publish a revised and updated

37:38

edition of the New Yale's Book of Quotations.

37:41

He's still on the fence about what to do

37:44

with the entry for the Pledge of Allegiance.

37:46

He always attributed it to Francis

37:49

Bellamy, editor at the Youth's

37:51

Companion, just like everybody

37:53

else. Now Fred

37:55

is considering changing the author

37:58

to anonymous. A

38:00

long forgotten article in a long

38:03

forgotten Kansas newspaper has

38:05

called everything into question.

38:08

Fred can't read Francis Bellamy's

38:11

overwrought descriptions of that

38:13

hot August night in eighteen ninety

38:16

two, the overflowing waste

38:18

paper basket, Bellamy racking

38:21

his brains for inspiration, the

38:23

words finally coming to him one

38:26

by one, each imbued

38:28

with immense patriotic significance.

38:31

Fred can't read all of that without wondering,

38:34

was it an elaborate fiction. Did

38:37

Francis Bellamy make the whole story

38:40

up? And if so, who

38:43

really wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.

38:47

It's a complex story. I

38:49

can't say for sure who the author

38:52

was, but I do feel that I can

38:54

say that it was not Francis

38:56

Bellamy, and that it

38:59

appears to me that he essentially

39:02

fabricated a detailed

39:04

story of how he wrote it, which

39:07

was not accurate.

39:10

Today, in schools across America,

39:12

kids start each day by standing

39:15

up, hand over heart and

39:17

reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

39:20

I pledge allegiance to the flag

39:23

of the United States of America,

39:25

and do the Republic for which it stands,

39:28

one nationship under God, indivisible

39:31

with liberty and justice for all.

39:34

The Pledge has gone through some changes since

39:36

it debuted more than one hundred and thirty

39:39

years ago. The biggest was the addition

39:41

of under God. That was

39:43

President Dwight D. Eisenhower's

39:46

idea. He wanted to stick it to

39:48

those godless commis in the Soviet

39:50

Union, so under God was

39:52

added in nineteen fifty four. But

39:55

despite a few new words, the job

39:57

of the Pledge is still very much

39:59

the same as it was in eighteen

40:02

ninety two to instill

40:04

a spirit of patriotism in the

40:06

next generation. Meanwhile,

40:08

we're still arguing about what it means

40:11

to be an American until

40:13

we find an answer, We'll keep saying

40:15

the Pledge. We'll probably

40:17

never know who really wrote it,

40:20

but we can take its message to heart.

40:23

Wouldn't it be nice if this nation

40:25

was a little less divided and more

40:28

indivisible, and that liberty

40:30

and justice were truly for all.

40:33

One of those Bellamy boys was onto

40:36

something, unless, of course,

40:38

they were both liars. Okay,

40:42

Saren, I feel like you already have casting

40:45

in mind for this one. Yes, our go to casting

40:47

director.

40:48

You are one hundred percent right. I'm going to put on my Hollywood

40:50

hat for a second. Okay, imagine the movie version

40:53

of this you go to see it, because on the

40:55

poster and in the trailers you have as

40:57

Frank Bellamy, the older one, the adult

40:59

Paul Rudd, and as Kid Bellamy,

41:02

it's the kid from Young Sheldon.

41:05

Yeah, get Young Sheldon here.

41:07

That's perfect, right, He's got the vibe you want

41:09

for this.

41:10

Yeah, a little poem writing child,

41:12

perfect.

41:13

Totally sensitive, loves America. He's in the

41:15

heartland, looks good in a bow tie

41:18

exactly. Little Geeky really cares.

41:20

I'd see that movie. I would also see

41:22

the off Broadway

41:24

play version where one person plays

41:27

both Frank and young Frank Bellamy

41:29

and you just kind of go with it and and

41:32

lean into the insanity

41:34

that they both

41:37

yes, yes, and if he's unavailable,

41:39

Paul Dano, it's

41:42

perfect. How about very

41:44

special character? Did anyone jump

41:46

out at you to to

41:48

anoint this episode?

41:50

I'm gonna throw out Fred Shapiro while

41:53

you're thinking yes, from the Book

41:55

of Quotations, because keeping

41:57

this alive one hundred thirty

42:00

years later, good for him, giving

42:02

us a nice hook to bring it back to the present

42:04

day as well.

42:06

And he's like the snow dot Com of

42:08

quotes. We need people like him to make sure we

42:10

get these things right. It's like, Okay, here's the real

42:12

story people. Did you know Dana? Do you do you have one?

42:14

Because I have one? But it's a little bit of a theory.

42:17

I want your theory please.

42:18

Okay. Mine is the anonymous

42:21

woman who I believe actually wrote this pledge.

42:23

And you're wondering, Zaren, I didn't hear any woman in this

42:25

Where are you coming with this?

42:26

Right?

42:27

Wow, here's how

42:29

it goes ready. I think both Bellamies

42:31

were plagiarists because the adult Frank Bellamy

42:33

clearly he played dress from kid Bellamy and Kansas

42:35

right. But the newspapers dot com guy, he finds

42:38

it two years earlier than that.

42:40

Kid Bellamy apparently allegedly wrote his

42:42

pledge of allegiance in a nearby town in Kansas.

42:44

Right now, imagine a school marm is going

42:46

between these two towns. She's the one who wrote

42:49

the pledge of allegiance. She teaches these Kansas

42:51

kids. One day, Kid Bellamy sees the contest,

42:54

he pilfers her pledge. She sends it

42:56

in. Editor Frank Bellamy's like, oh this is

42:58

amazing. He pilfers it from the kid. Both

43:00

Bellambi's they steal the pledge of allegiance from

43:02

some anonymous school marm in Kansas.

43:04

It's like Virginia Wolf's goold quote about the

43:07

women, which is you know, for most of history anonymous

43:09

was a woman. Did you point out, Jason the Yale

43:11

Book of Quotations they were going to consider listing

43:14

dude is anonymous, And I think dude is a woman

43:16

because it's anonymous. I bet a woman

43:18

wrote it. That's my theory.

43:20

I love this theory. And just a round of

43:22

applause on behalf of all women.

43:25

Thank you.

43:26

I would have Elizabeth Moss play that.

43:27

Woman in our film, Yes amazing.

43:30

One other quick thing that came to mind

43:33

while listening to this one.

43:36

We've talked about my dated cultural references

43:38

in the past. The

43:40

Sports Illustrated football phone was

43:42

a big one growing up, and commercials

43:45

they would try to get people to subscribe

43:47

to Sports Illustrated by promising

43:50

this phone that looked like a football

43:54

in this story, like the American flag is

43:56

the original football?

43:59

Og football phone? Oh my god, good

44:01

connection. Wow.

44:03

Yeah.

44:04

It was such like a leveraged buy for

44:06

the schools too. I mean like it's like, there, let's

44:08

get these kids out there. It's like pushing the chocolate

44:10

bars. It's like, though, like these kids, how are you gonna

44:12

say no to a kid? Let's make him part

44:14

of capitalism now, Jason, are you upset

44:16

about the death of Sports Illustrated?

44:18

I mean I'm upset whenever

44:20

I hear the entire publications

44:23

are laying off all their staff. Just

44:25

uh, just a very

44:28

sad. It feels like it's a little bit of a

44:30

long time coming. It's been a slow death,

44:33

uh time and time again, so

44:36

hopefully they get back on their feet sometime. I'm

44:38

worried it's gonna be like Toys r Us

44:40

which like nine years ago.

44:43

They bring it back every year and there's

44:45

some now it's like it's in a corner of Macy's

44:48

or it's there's one store and

44:50

one mall in Houston and uh

44:53

so, yes, I would say it was

44:55

always in my house growing up as a kid. We

44:57

didn't have a football phone though.

44:58

I see.

44:59

I think that's the mistake. They need to bring back the football

45:01

phone or whatever would be the modern equivalent. That's going

45:03

to save SI because they had the flag

45:05

boom, we need a football phone.

45:07

I think that wraps it up for another very

45:10

special episode.

45:11

Thanks for listening.

45:14

Very Special Episodes is made by some

45:16

very special people. This episode

45:18

was written by Dave Rouse. Our

45:21

producer is Josh Fisher. Editing

45:24

and sound design by Jonathan Washington,

45:28

Mixing and mastering by Beheid Fraser.

45:31

Very Special Episodes is hosted by Danish

45:33

Schwartz, Zaren Burnette and

45:35

me Jason English.

45:38

Original music by Elise McCoy.

45:41

Our story editor is Aaron Edwards.

45:45

Research in fact checking by Austin Thompson.

45:48

Show logo by Lucy Quintania.

45:52

I'd like to thank our excellent voice actors,

45:54

especially two of my three daughters,

45:56

Kate and Juliette English. We

45:59

couldn't meet Charlotte's asking price,

46:01

but good work Kate and Juliette. And

46:04

today is Juliette's birthday.

46:06

Happy Birthday.

46:07

No better way to spend your birthday than

46:09

reading the Pledge of Allegiance multiple times

46:12

into a podcast microphone. So

46:15

Special Day, Very

46:17

Special Episodes is a production of iHeart

46:20

Podcasts.