February 21, 2024 • 46 mins
In today's Episode, Dana, Zaron and Jason tackle a 130-year-old mystery. Although American schoolchildren still recite The Pledge every morning in nearly every classroom, we still aren't sure who actually wrote it. And all these years later, the long-accepted story is showing some cracks.
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Very Special Episodes is a new podcast where we tell one incredible story each week. Follow us down a different rabbit hole every Wednesday.
Hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zaron Burnett, Jason English
Written by Dave Roos
Produced by Josh Fisher
Editing and Sound Design by Jonathan Washington
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Story Editor is Aaron Edwards
Research and Fact-Checking by Austin Thompson and Dave Roos
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Great Originals.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
It's October twenty first, eighteen ninety two. Across the United States,
school kids are gathering for a once in a lifetime
celebration the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America.
Of course, Columbus never actually stepped foot on American soil,
(00:36):
and he went to his grave thinking he really landed
in India. But that's a topic for another podcast. Back
to eighteen ninety two. In celebration of this flawed and
historically inaccurate holiday, then President Benjamin Harrison issues a special proclamation.
(00:57):
He calls for America's new system of public schools to
fly the American flag high and proud. As parades of
Civil War veterans file into school yards across the country,
students prepare to salute the flag, and not just that,
they're about to recite a new patriotic oath. They've been
(01:20):
practicing it every day for a month, just for this
special occasion. It's only twenty two words long, but it's
still a mouthful for a bunch of school children. For
anyone really.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Ledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which
it stands. One Nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Sound familiar, Sure, it's missing a few words and phrases.
Those would come decades later. But that day, October twenty first,
eighteen ninety two, was the public debut of what we
all recognize now as the Pledge of Allegiance. The thing is,
back then, it wasn't called the Capital P Pledge of
(02:07):
Capital A Allegiance. It wasn't a thing yet in eighteen
ninety two, no one had an inkling that this short,
patriotic oath written for a one time event would ever
be uttered again. As we'll see, the story of the
Pledge of Allegiance is a story of a nation at
(02:28):
a crossroads, a nation still healing from the collective trauma
of the Civil War, a nation experiencing one of the
largest influxes of immigrants in its history. It was a
time of tremendous anxiety over what it meant to be
an American, and the original Pledge, with its twenty two words,
(02:51):
was supposed to offer an answer. The crazy thing is
more than one hundred and thirty years later, after reciting
the Pledge every morning in nearly every classroom in America,
we still have absolutely no idea who wrote it. Welcome
to very special episodes and iHeart original podcast. I'm your host,
(03:15):
Danash Schwartz, and this is the pledge. I think one
thing that's always really surprising to me is discovering how
these American traditions that seem so ingrained in our country
are actually far more recent than people realize.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Oh totally.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Not only are they more recent, but kind of started
on a lark as part of a don't no spoilers.
But there's a magazine at the center of this. All
three of us come from at one point in our
careers working at magazine. So good to look back at
a time when magazines were so dominant in the culture.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Ah remember those times.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's just as so interesting. People have such strong emotional
feelings to the pledge of allegiance and it really kind
of was arbitrary.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Also, in my humble opinion, I think America, we don't
really need a pledge of allegiance. We should have like
a national jingle like one of those ads for a
year in car sale, like come on, grab the freedom,
let's go.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I will say, if you have a friend who's not
from the United States, and you tell them that every
single day in school, every student stands up, puts their
hand over their hearts and says a pledge to the flag.
They will look at you like you are absolutely insane.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Completely like we yell all brainwashed in your cord does Yeah. Also,
isn't it funny how when you dig into any bit
of American history, even something simple as a pledge of allegiance,
you will always find a crime.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
There's always a crime. There's always a crime. America in
the late nineteenth century was having a full blown identity crisis.
When the pledge was first recited in eighteen ninety two.
It was only twenty seven years since the end of
the Civil War. Young people who had fought in and
survived the war were now full fledged volts. Families who
(05:08):
lost loved ones still felt the ripple effect, and the
American institution of slavery had only recently been formally abolished.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I mean, we have to keep in mind that an
entire generation was wiped out in the Civil War. Right
you think about the number of soldiers who were killed
in the United States, I mean, those are wounds that
are not going to heal very quickly.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
That's Charles dorn A historian at Boden College.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Now we're into eighteen nineties and the war ends in
eighteen sixty five, but it still stings, and the country
is still trying to figure out how to stitch itself
back together politically, economically, and socially.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
If recovering from the Civil War wasn't enough, the eighteen
eighties and eighteen nineties were also a time of unprecedented
urbanization and immigration. Suddenly, Americans who had been here for
generations found themselves competing for factory jobs and tenement space
with millions of new immigrants from places like Italy, Russia,
(06:10):
and Poland.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So this is a very different kind of immigration into
the United States than what people believe existed prior to that.
The people comprising this wave of immigration are coming from
a different part of the world. So whereas initially immigration
in the United States is coming primarily from northern and
western Europe, now these immigrants are coming from southern and
(06:33):
Eastern Europe. And what this means is that they're speaking
different languages, Slavic languages for instance, They're practicing different faiths.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
What if these new arrivals failed to assimilate into American culture,
What if they openly rebelled against American ideals and institutions.
Tensions reached a fever pitch, and.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
There's a real fear and a concern on the part
of resident Americans, Americans already living here, that this could
somehow dilute America, and it could really sort of mess
with the national character, and that something has to be
done to these people in order to essentially make them Americans.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
What exactly do you do to people to make them American? Well,
the best way to Americanize people, the government decided, was
through the public schools. Public schools were still a relatively
new concept in most of the country, but there were
high hopes that these uniquely American institutions could teach little Italian,
(07:41):
Slavic and Irish kids to be patriotic and productive Americans.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
There's a sense that these public schools are unlike anything
else that exists in any nation in the world, and
they are in some ways sort of symbols of democracy
and the democratic republic. So there was a real faith
in fact that public schools could pull off this Americanization
mission that many people believed needed to have happen in
order for immigrants to become a part of the national project.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
From the start, the Americanization efforts in public schools centered
around the flag. Today, it's not really unusual to see
an American flag flying outside most schools and inside most classrooms,
but that wasn't always the case. In fact, the main
reason schools are festooned with flags today dates back to
(08:35):
this immigration anxiety that gripped Americans. In the eighteen eighties
and eighteen nineties, there was a nationwide campaign to put
quote a flag in every schoolhouse. It was spearheaded by
patriotic civic organizations like the Grand Army of the Republic
and the Women's Relief Corps. They wanted the flag to
(08:57):
be a physical symbol of America to which young immigrant
children could pledge their loyalty.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
And of course, there are national oaths of loyalty in
many countries at this point in time. In fact, the
United States is a little bit of an outlier in
not having one, and so the idea that there might
be a national statement of loyalty was not a new
idea or a strange thing whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
The very first version of a pledge of allegiance was
written around eighteen ninety by a New York City education
reformer and Civil War veteran named George Balch. Bulch wasn't
a fan of mass immigration. He referred to immigrant school
children as quote human scum cast on our shores by
(09:47):
the tidal wave of a vast migration end quote. So
you know the kind of person we're dealing with, the
most popular version of Balch's pledge went like this.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
We give our heads and our hearts to God and
our country, one country, one language, one flag.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
The message was hardly subtle. There was only room in
America for one type of American god, fearing English speaking
and unwaveringly loyal to the United States. Balches owede to
assimilation had a nice little run. It was recited in
New York public schools well into the twentieth century. But
(10:29):
obviously that's not the pledge of allegiance that American school
kids know today, and it was not the pledge that
was read out during the Columbus Day celebration in eighteen
ninety two. To hear the story of that pledge, the
real pledge, we need to travel to Boston. There we'll
(10:50):
find a former Baptist minister turned magazine editor named Francis Bellamy.
There he is hunched over his desk, sweating through his
wool suit, wrestling with the words that would become an
American institution. It's a swelteringly hot August night in Boston
(11:17):
eighteen ninety two. Francis Bellamy, a thirty seven year old
writer and editor, has shut himself away in his office
at The Youth's Companion, a children's magazine and one of
the most popular magazines in America. His waste paper bucket
overflows with false starts, his pencil is ground down to
(11:40):
a nub. Bellamy's boss, James b Upham, has given him
an impossible writing assignment. Compose a brief patriotic statement, a
salute to the American flag that somehow encompasses all of
America's history and founding principles, and keep it short. Bellamy
(12:01):
knows about the existing pledge written by George Balch, One Country,
one language, one Flag, but he dismisses it as too juvenile.
Bellamy's boss wants something more sweeping and comprehensive, so Bellamy
racks his brain for a new approach. But how could
he possibly express the true essence of America in so
(12:25):
few words? This scene played out in a stuffy Boston
office will become a watershed moment in Bellamy's life. When
he writes about it thirty years later, he recounts the
details like it was yesterday.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
The strain of the next two hours is still a
distinct memory.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Very dramatic stuff. Bellamy certainly has a way with words,
but he wasn't always a writer and editor. Before he
worked for the Youth's Companion, Bellamy was a Baptist minister,
but he wasn't your typical fire and brimstone preacher. Bellamy
and his friends were Christian socialists in the nineteenth century.
(13:10):
Christian socialists believed that true Christians shouldn't just sit around
praying and waiting for God to act. Christians should get
out there and actually try to fix some of society's
toughest problems. Here's Charles Dorn again.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And so the Christian Socialists are coming out of this
kind of belief system that society can act in cooperative
ways to create systems that will create a kind of
paradise or kind of heaven on earth.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Although Bellamy eventually left the ministry, he still wanted to
help people and improve society. But like a lot of
good old, homegrown Americans, in the eighteen nineties, Bellamy was
pretty rattled by the influx of immigrants from Eastern and
southern Europe.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
There is a real fear, I mean, we shouldn't understand,
there's a real fear that bringing these people to the
United States could really destabilize an already destabilized nation. So
we've got to do something to make sure that that
doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Like many others, Bellamy subscribed to the idea that the
best way to americanize immigrants was through public schools, and
he found a welcome home for his ideas at the
Youth's Companion. The Companion was one of the first subscription
magazines in America. Launched in eighteen twenty seven, It was
(14:44):
like an early version of Boys Life, stuffed with serialized
adventure novels, news items, and casually racist reports from around
the globe. It was a hit with young readers and
their parents, and every week three hundred and eighty five
thousand copies were delivered to homes across the country. James B. Upham,
(15:08):
Bellamy's boss at The Companion, was a deeply patriotic man,
but he also had magazines to sell. It was Upham's
idea to get the magazine involved in the flag in
every schoolhouse movement of the eighteen eighties. The Companion ran
ads offering American flags to any school that needed one.
(15:31):
The flags weren't free. A nine foot flag cost the
equivalent of one hundred and sixty dollars today, but schools
could recoup their money. The magazine provided flag certificates that
students could sell to friends and neighbors for about three
dollars in today's money. Buyers were entitled to quote one
(15:52):
share in the patriotic influence of the school flag. It
was an ingenious scheme that paid off handsomely. The Youth's
Companion sold more than twenty five thousand American flags to
public schools. Not only did the Companion make a killing,
but the magazine became synonymous with patriotism. And with this
(16:15):
pivot to patriotism, the magazine brass wanted to lean heavily
into their new identity, and just their luck, the perfect
opportunity came knocking. As I mentioned, eighteen ninety two marked
the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's historic voyage. Civic organizations
(16:36):
floated the idea of a national public school celebration and
the Youth's Companion was chosen by a committee of educators
to create the actual program that schools would follow during
the celebration. If the Youth's Companion pulled this off, it
would sell a crazy amount of magazines.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So the idea is that the Youth's Companion will propose
a celebratory program that will take place on a particular weekend,
and there will literally be like a sequence of activities
or events or programs that communities can adopt and participate in.
And one of those is going to be bringing kids
(17:19):
together at schools and listenings who has some addresses and
some speeches, and then celebrating by reciting a national pledge.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
A national pledge that was the kicker. James Upham was
insistent that the Youth's Companion program include a salute to
the flag. He tried to write one himself a bunch
of times, but gave up as the date of the
celebration neared. Upham turned in desperation to his junior employee,
(17:51):
Francis Bellamy. That's how Bellamy finds himself cloistered in his
office on a hot August night in eighteen ninety two
with a deadline looming for the most important part of
the Columbus Day program, the Salute to the Flag. Bellamy
sweats it out for a while before finally having his
first breakthrough. One word allegiance. It means loyalty, faithfulness, obedience, everything.
(18:18):
Bellamy wants the flag to inspire in immigrant school children,
and just like that, six fateful words appear at the
top of the page. Here's what Bellamy wrote about that moment,
looking back decades later.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I pledge allegiance to my flag when those first words
looked up at me from the scratch paper. The start
appeared promising.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
On a roll.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Now Bellamy wrestles with the next part. Should it be country,
nation or republic?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Republic? One because it distinguished the form of government chosen
by the fathers and established by the Revolution. The true
reason for allegiance to the flag is the republic for
which it stands.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Next, Bellamy turned to his American heroes, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton,
and Abraham Lincoln. How would they characterize their beloved republic
in the wake of a wretching Civil war.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
After many attempts, all that pictured struggle reduced itself to
three words. One nation, indivisible, to reach that compact brevity was,
as I recall, the most arduous phase of the task,
and the discarded experiments at phrasing overflowed the scrap basket.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Sure he was laying it on a little thick but
with those words locked in One Nation, indivisible, Bellamy searches.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
For a closer What doctrines, then, would everybody agree upon?
As the basis of Americanism, Liberty and justice were surely basic,
were undebatable, and were all that any one nation could
handle if they were exercised for all. They involved the
spirit of equality and fraternity. So that final with liberty
and justice for all came with a cheering rush as
(20:11):
a clincher. It seemed to assemble the past and to
promise the future. That I remember is how the sequence
of the ideas grew, and how the words were found.
On that August night, with the cooling Boston seabreeze coming
softly through the open window of my room.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
After two hours of writing, Bellamy had his twenty two
word national creed. I pledge allegiance to my flag and
the Republic for which it stands, One nation, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. Bellamy proudly presents his pledge
to Upham.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
His reaction, Francis, You've written a thing which I believe
will live long after you and I are dead.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
When the day of the Columbus celebration finally arrives, Bellamy
is there to witness the very first reciting of his
Pledge of Allegiance at a boss in high school. He's
floored when four thousand students roar his words in unison.
At the top of the episode, I said, we have
no idea who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, yet we
(21:20):
just listened to Francis Bellamy's word by word account of
how he wrote it. So case closed, right, Well, that
depends who you ask.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Francis Bellamy insisted that he wrote it in August eighteen
ninety two, had a very specific story about that, and
this is a crucial point. He swore out legal affidavits
telling a detailed story of how he originated it in
August eighteen ninety two. But the evidence that we now
(21:55):
have really suggests that he falsified the entire story. I
think it's impossible to read all the evidence and not conclude.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
That turns out Bellamy's detailed story of a sweltering August night,
hunched over his desk with an impossible assignment, The arduous
search for the right words, the Eureka moment spurred by
patriotic reverence to the founding fathers, Well, it might all
be a big, fat lie. Cherryvale, Kansas, is a tiny
(22:34):
farming town about one hundred miles outside of Wichita, a
flat sea of corn stretching to the horizon. I'm assuming
I've never been. The year is eighteen ninety, a full
two years before Francis Bellamy says he wrote the Pledge
of Allegiance On a hot August night in eighteen ninety two.
(22:54):
In small town Cherryvale, the eighth grade teacher gives her
students an assignment. Like most of her students, the teacher
is an avid reader of the Youth's Companion, the magazine
bell And he works at. And the Companion has just
announced a writing contest for kids. They call it the
(23:14):
Flag and the Public Schools. The teacher encourages her students
to enter. She tells them to write a few sentences
expressing the thoughts that run through their heads when they
salute the American flag. One winning entry would be chosen
from each state, and along with bragging rights, their school
(23:34):
would get a shiny new American flag as a prize.
Not all of the eighth graders take the assignment seriously,
but Frank does. Frank is a naturally patriotic kit. He
likes to read stories about George Washington and the American Revolution.
The flag really means something to him. He wants to
(23:57):
become a soldier someday, but like any thirteen year old,
he struggles to find the right words to express his feelings.
After weeks of writeaceading, and rewriting, Frank finally has something
he's proud of. Before mailing his submission off to the magazine,
he reads it out loud to himself while saluting an
(24:18):
imaginary American flag.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for
which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice
for all.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Sound familiar. Keep in mind this is eighteen ninety in
Kansas and Frank is thirteen years old. Months go by,
but Frank doesn't hear anything from the Youth's companion. He's disappointed,
but figures the magazine must have received a ton of submissions.
Maybe his just wasn't good enough. More time passes two
(24:54):
years to be exact. Now it's eighteen ninety two. School
kids across the country are preparing for the national public
school celebration of Columbus Day. Frank is excited. He picks
up the official program published in The Youth's Companion, and
he can't believe his eyes. There it is the very
(25:19):
same pledge he wrote two years ago in eighth grade.
Word for word, Frank is blown away. How did this happen?
Did he win the contest but the magazine couldn't find him?
His own words are in a national magazine. But why
hadn't he heard from the Companion? There must have been
(25:39):
some kind of mistake. Frank rushes home after school and
writes a letter to The Youth's Companion explaining everything. How
he submitted his pledge for the contest two years ago,
how there must have been some confusion because no one
told him that he'd won. He couldn't wait to tell
his parents. They'd be so proud. A few weeks later,
(26:04):
a letter finally arrives from the magazine. Frank tears it open,
holding his breath as he reads the reply.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
All essays, statements, or written matter submitted in this contest,
she'll remain and is the property of the Youth's Companion magazine.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
What that's it? No congratulations, not even a flag. Didn't
they understand that he had written the pledge of allegiance.
That's the last that Frank hears from the Youth's Companion,
But despite his disappointment, he doesn't lose his love for
his country. In eighteen ninety eight, he achieves his dream
(26:43):
of becoming a soldier. He enlists in the army to
fight in the Spanish American War. While serving in the Philippines,
he contracts tuberculosis. Frank makes it home but never gets
his health back. It's a struggle, and he dies a
few months shy of his fortieth birthday. Frank is buried
(27:04):
in the Fairview Cemetery back in Cherryvale, Casas. His gravestone
says nothing about the pledge, just his service in the
war and his name, Frank Bellamy.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Hold on, hold on, hold on. This kid's name is
Frank Bellamy. Yep, as in Francis Bellamy.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Spelled exactly the same, but it's not.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
The same person. Somehow, Frank isn't short for Francis.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Nope, Frank Bellamy is a completely different person than Francis Bellamy.
They're unrelated. They just happen to have the same name,
and they both claim that they wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
That's insane, completely insane, but it's true. Just ask Fred Shapiro.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
The story really gets astonishing when you mentioned Frank E.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
Bellamy.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
If you look in Kansas newspapers and Kansas Historical Society
website and resolutions that have been passed by the Kansas Legislature.
In Kansas, they have long believed that Frank E. Bellamy
wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Fred is the editor of the New Yale Book of Quotations,
and he is the authoritative source on who said what when.
As Fred correctly points out, the state of Kansas has
always backed a different Bellamy, thirteen year old Frank Elmer Bellamy,
as the true author of the Pledge of Allegiance. As
(28:44):
recently as twenty fourteen, the Kansas State Senate passed a
resolution to quote recognize and celebrate Cherryvale, Kansas, and Frank
Bellamy's authorship of the Pledge of Allegiance. In nineteen ninety six,
the citizens of Cherryvale erected a memorial with a photo
(29:05):
of Frank Bellamy. A small plaque explains how Frank, as
a school kid, composed the nation's best known patriotic statement.
But could it be true? Could an eighth grader from
Kansas have written the original pledge in eighteen ninety and
could Francis Bellamy and The Youth's Companion have stolen Frank's
(29:29):
pledge and claimed it as their own. Fred Shapiro thinks
it's possible.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
They did have a contest. I've looked at the old
issues of The Youth's Companion. They definitely had a contest.
The core Frank Bellamy argument is that he sent it
in as part of this contest, which definitely did happen
with Youth's Companion. So the part of the anti Francis
Bellamy argument may be that if Frankie Bellamy did send
(29:59):
it in, that Francis spell Me plagiarized it and wouldn't
show anyone the original mission and later claimed it as
his own. That's the conspiracy theory to deny Frankie bell
and his priority if he was indeed the first.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
And if it is a conspiracy theory, it's a pretty
juicy one. Big City Magazine guy steals credit for the
pledge of allegiance from farm Kit in Kansas, who has
the exact same name. But does this theory hold up
to scrutiny. To get some answers, let's take a closer
look at the writing contest held by the Youth's companion,
(30:44):
Fred Shapiro is right. In the January ninth, eighteen ninety
issue of the magazine, there's a call for submissions to
a contest called the Flag and the Public Schools. But
something is a little off. The description of the writing
contest given in the magazine is really different from the
(31:05):
assignment supposedly given by Frank's teacher. The ad in the
magazine says.
Speaker 7 (31:12):
Students are invited to write an essay of not more
than six hundred words in length on the patriotic influence
of the American flag when raised over the public schools.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Huh okay. This is very clearly an essay contest with
a six hundred word limit. It seems a little weird
that Frank Bellamy would have submitted a single twenty three
word sentence. To be fair, maybe the pledge portion was
a part of a longer essay about the importance of
flags in schools. We don't know. Unfortunately, there are no
(31:46):
documents or other tangible proof that Frank Bellamy ever submitted
a pledge to the Youth's Companion in eighteen ninety fast
forward to nineteen fifty seven. Believe it or not, the
Library of Congress decided to get to the bottom of this.
They assigned a researcher to investigate the various authorship claims
(32:08):
for the pledge of allegiance. James Upham, Bellamy's boss, was
also in the running, but we don't have time to
fall down that particular rabbit hole. The Library of Congress investigation,
all one hundred and forty eight pages of it, concluded
that the most likely author of the pledge was Francis
Bellamy of the Youth's Companion. While the report acknowledged some
(32:32):
doubts about Bellamy's account, it decided, quote.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
Unless one is prepared to believe that Francis Bellamy was
a deliberate and consciousless liar, the mass of his testimony
is overwhelmingly in his favor.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
So where does that leave little Frank Bellamy? In a
short paragraph in the report, the Library of Congress dismissed
the kid from Kansas as nothing more than a plagiarist.
It alleged that Frank quote lifted the text from the
Columbus Day Program and attempted to claim it as his own.
(33:08):
So much for Frank E. Bellamy, it seemed. But remember
the Library of Congress report was written in nineteen fifty seven.
That was sixty seven years ago. Would you believe that
new evidence has come to light that puts young Frank
Bellamy back in the running. A few minutes ago, I
(33:32):
said there were no surviving documents that corroborated Frank Bellamy's
story that he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in eighteen
ninety while a school kid in Kansas. That's not quite
the case anymore.
Speaker 6 (33:47):
Barry Popic is a retired attorney who has done fantastic
research on all kinds of questions of priority origination for
American history. Barry is probably the greatest NewSpace paper researcher
(34:08):
in the world, and this is a fantastic discovery and
his part.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
In twenty twenty two, Barry Poppeck was searching newspapers dot
com for the earliest published mention of the Pledge of
Allegiance when he made a wild discovery. On May twenty first,
eighteen ninety two, a Kansas newspaper called the Ellis County
Republican ran a tiny story on page four. It's a
(34:37):
dispatch from the nearby town of Victoria, Kansas.
Speaker 8 (34:41):
It reads, on April thirtieth, our schools closed with a
flag raising. The pupils had been drilled to make a
military salute and to repeat the following words while holding
the hand at arm's length toward the flag. I pledge
allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands,
one nation inseparable with liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Francis Bellamy, the adult magazine editor, swore up and down
that he wrote the pledge of allegiance in August of
eighteen ninety two. He literally swore multiple legal affidavits to
that effect. But here, buried in a small town Kansas
newspaper is irrefutable proof that he didn't. The article says
(35:32):
that on April thirtieth, eighteen ninety two, school kids in
Kansas recited an almost identical pledge that's more than three
months before Francis Bellamy says that he wrote the pledge.
Who could forget to quote that August night with the
cooling Boston Sea breeze coming softly through the open window
(35:53):
of my room. What's more, the only difference between Bellamy's
pledge and the one that predates it in a Kansas
newspaper is a single word inseparable instead of india visible.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
How do we explain the fact that the exact same
words virtually appeared several months earlier in a Kansas newspaper.
And the thing is in his affidavits, Francis belling me.
He didn't just say yeah, I think I wrote it
in eighteen ninety two. He told us very specific story
where his boss asked him to come up with a
(36:30):
pledge and he sat down and it was a hot
day in August. This is not just a question of dates.
This affects the question of authorship. How could Francis Beelmy
be the author?
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Good question, Fred, I've got another one for you. This
article was published in a small town Kansas newspaper. You
know who else was from a small town in Kansas.
After all this time, after being ignored by the youth's
companion and being labeled a pleagiarist by the Library of Congress,
(37:05):
could thirteen year old Frank E. Bellamy from Cherry Vale,
Kansas have been telling the truth. Did a kid really
write the Pledge of Allegiance?
Speaker 6 (37:17):
I can't say that Frankie Bellamy was the originator, but
he may have been. The fact that he was the
only person from Kansas, and that this this strong link
with Kansas, suggests that he may have been the author.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
In a few years, Fred plans to publish a revised
and updated edition of the New Yale's Book of Quotations.
He's still on the fence about what to do with
the entry for the Pledge of Allegiance. He always attributed
it to Francis Bellamy, editor at the Youth's Companion, just
like everybody else. Now Fred is considering changing the author
(37:58):
to anonymous. A long forgotten article in a long forgotten
Kansas newspaper has called everything into question. Fred can't read
Francis Bellamy's overwrought descriptions of that hot August night in
eighteen ninety two, the overflowing waste paper basket, Bellamy racking
(38:21):
his brains for inspiration, the words finally coming to him
one by one, each imbued with immense patriotic significance. Fred
can't read all of that without wondering, was it an
elaborate fiction. Did Francis Bellamy make the whole story up?
And if so, who really wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker 6 (38:47):
It's a complex story. I can't say for sure who
the author was, but I do feel that I can
say that it was not Francis Bellamy, and that it
appears to me that he essentially fabricated a detailed story
of how he wrote it, which was not accurate.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Today, in schools across America, kids start each day by
standing up, hand over heart and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker 9 (39:20):
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
of America, and do the Republic for which it stands,
one nationship under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
The Pledge has gone through some changes since it debuted
more than one hundred and thirty years ago. The biggest
was the addition of under God. That was President Dwight D.
Eisenhower's idea. He wanted to stick it to those godless
commis in the Soviet Union, so under God was added
in nineteen fifty four. But despite a few new words,
(39:57):
the job of the Pledge is still very much the
same as it was in eighteen ninety two to instill
a spirit of patriotism in the next generation. Meanwhile, we're
still arguing about what it means to be an American
until we find an answer, We'll keep saying the Pledge.
We'll probably never know who really wrote it, but we
(40:20):
can take its message to heart. Wouldn't it be nice
if this nation was a little less divided and more indivisible,
and that liberty and justice were truly for all. One
of those Bellamy boys was onto something, unless, of course,
they were both liars. Okay, Saren, I feel like you
(40:43):
already have casting in mind for this one. Yes, our
go to casting director.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
You are one hundred percent right. I'm going to put
on my Hollywood hat for a second. Okay, imagine the
movie version of this you go to see it, because
on the poster and in the trailers you have as
Frank Bellamy, the older one, the adult Paul Rudd, and
as Kid Bellamy, it's the kid from Young Sheldon.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yeah, get Young Sheldon here.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
That's perfect, right, He's got the vibe you want for this.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Yeah, a little poem writing child, perfect.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Totally sensitive, loves America. He's in the heartland, looks good
in a bow tie exactly. Little Geeky really cares.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
I'd see that movie. I would also see the off
Broadway play version where one person plays both Frank and
young Frank Bellamy and you just kind of go with
it and and lean into the insanity that they both yes, yes,
and if he's unavailable, Paul Dano, it's perfect. How about
(41:43):
very special character? Did anyone jump out at you to
to anoint this episode? I'm gonna throw out Fred Shapiro
while you're thinking yes, from the Book of Quotations, because
keeping this alive one hundred thirty years later, good for him,
giving us a nice hook to bring it back to
(42:04):
the present day as well.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
And he's like the snow dot Com of quotes. We
need people like him to make sure we get these
things right. It's like, Okay, here's the real story people.
Did you know Dana? Do you do you have one?
Because I have one? But it's a little bit of
a theory.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
I want your theory please.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Okay. Mine is the anonymous woman who I believe actually
wrote this pledge. And you're wondering, Zaren, I didn't hear
any woman in this Where are you coming with this?
Speaker 7 (42:26):
Right?
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Wow, here's how it goes ready. I think both Bellamies
were plagiarists because the adult Frank Bellamy clearly he played
dress from kid Bellamy and Kansas right. But the newspapers
dot com guy, he finds it two years earlier than that.
Kid Bellamy apparently allegedly wrote his pledge of allegiance in
a nearby town in Kansas. Right now, imagine a school
marm is going between these two towns. She's the one
(42:48):
who wrote the pledge of allegiance. She teaches these Kansas kids.
One day, Kid Bellamy sees the contest, he pilfers her pledge.
She sends it in. Editor Frank Bellamy's like, oh this
is amazing. He pilfers it from the kid. Both Bellambi's
they steal the pledge of allegiance from some anonymous school
marm in Kansas. It's like Virginia Wolf's goold quote about
the women, which is you know, for most of history
(43:09):
anonymous was a woman. Did you point out, Jason the
Yale Book of Quotations they were going to consider listing
dude is anonymous, And I think dude is a woman
because it's anonymous. I bet a woman wrote it. That's
my theory.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
I love this theory. And just a round of applause
on behalf of all women.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
I would have Elizabeth Moss play that.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Woman in our film, Yes amazing.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
One other quick thing that came to mind while listening
to this one. We've talked about my dated cultural references
in the past. The Sports Illustrated football phone was a
big one growing up, and commercials they would try to
get people to subscribe to Sports Illustrated by promising this
phone that looked like a football in this story, like
(43:54):
the American flag is the original football?
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Og football phone? Oh my god, good connection. Wow.
Speaker 5 (44:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
It was such like a leveraged buy for the schools too.
I mean like it's like, there, let's get these kids
out there. It's like pushing the chocolate bars. It's like, though,
like these kids, how are you gonna say no to
a kid? Let's make him part of capitalism now, Jason,
are you upset about the death of Sports Illustrated?
Speaker 4 (44:18):
I mean I'm upset whenever I hear the entire publications
are laying off all their staff. Just uh, just a
very sad. It feels like it's a little bit of
a long time coming. It's been a slow death, uh
time and time again, so hopefully they get back on
their feet sometime. I'm worried it's gonna be like Toys
(44:40):
r Us which like nine years ago. They bring it
back every year and there's some now it's like it's
in a corner of Macy's or it's there's one store
and one mall in Houston and uh so, yes, I
would say it was always in my house growing up
as a kid. We didn't have a football phone though.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
I see.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
I think that's the mistake. They need to bring back
the football phone or whatever would be the modern equivalent.
That's going to save SI because they had the flag boom,
we need a football phone.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
I think that wraps it up for another very special episode.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 4 (45:14):
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people.
This episode was written by Dave Rouse. Our producer is
Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by Jonathan Washington, Mixing
and mastering by Beheid Fraser. Very Special Episodes is hosted
by Danish Schwartz, Zaren Burnette and me Jason English. Original
(45:38):
music by Elise McCoy. Our story editor is Aaron Edwards.
Research in fact checking by Austin Thompson. Show logo by
Lucy Quintania. I'd like to thank our excellent voice actors,
especially two of my three daughters, Kate and Juliette English.
(45:59):
We couldn't meet Charlotte's asking price, but good work Kate
and Juliette. And today is Juliette's birthday.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Happy Birthday.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
No better way to spend your birthday than reading the
Pledge of Allegiance multiple times into a podcast microphone. So
Special Day, Very Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Great Originals.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
This is an iHeart original.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
It's October twenty first, eighteen ninety two. Across the United States,
school kids are gathering for a once in a lifetime
celebration the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America.
Of course, Columbus never actually stepped foot on American soil,
(00:36):
and he went to his grave thinking he really landed
in India. But that's a topic for another podcast. Back
to eighteen ninety two. In celebration of this flawed and
historically inaccurate holiday, then President Benjamin Harrison issues a special proclamation.
(00:57):
He calls for America's new system of public schools to
fly the American flag high and proud. As parades of
Civil War veterans file into school yards across the country,
students prepare to salute the flag, and not just that,
they're about to recite a new patriotic oath. They've been
(01:20):
practicing it every day for a month, just for this
special occasion. It's only twenty two words long, but it's
still a mouthful for a bunch of school children. For
anyone really.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
Ledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which
it stands. One Nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Sound familiar, Sure, it's missing a few words and phrases.
Those would come decades later. But that day, October twenty first,
eighteen ninety two, was the public debut of what we
all recognize now as the Pledge of Allegiance. The thing is,
back then, it wasn't called the Capital P Pledge of
(02:07):
Capital A Allegiance. It wasn't a thing yet in eighteen
ninety two, no one had an inkling that this short,
patriotic oath written for a one time event would ever
be uttered again. As we'll see, the story of the
Pledge of Allegiance is a story of a nation at
(02:28):
a crossroads, a nation still healing from the collective trauma
of the Civil War, a nation experiencing one of the
largest influxes of immigrants in its history. It was a
time of tremendous anxiety over what it meant to be
an American, and the original Pledge, with its twenty two words,
(02:51):
was supposed to offer an answer. The crazy thing is
more than one hundred and thirty years later, after reciting
the Pledge every morning in nearly every classroom in America,
we still have absolutely no idea who wrote it. Welcome
to very special episodes and iHeart original podcast. I'm your host,
(03:15):
Danash Schwartz, and this is the pledge. I think one
thing that's always really surprising to me is discovering how
these American traditions that seem so ingrained in our country
are actually far more recent than people realize.
Speaker 5 (03:31):
Oh totally.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Not only are they more recent, but kind of started
on a lark as part of a don't no spoilers.
But there's a magazine at the center of this. All
three of us come from at one point in our
careers working at magazine. So good to look back at
a time when magazines were so dominant in the culture.
Speaker 1 (03:54):
Ah remember those times.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
It's just as so interesting. People have such strong emotional
feelings to the pledge of allegiance and it really kind
of was arbitrary.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
Also, in my humble opinion, I think America, we don't
really need a pledge of allegiance. We should have like
a national jingle like one of those ads for a
year in car sale, like come on, grab the freedom,
let's go.
Speaker 5 (04:18):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
I will say, if you have a friend who's not
from the United States, and you tell them that every
single day in school, every student stands up, puts their
hand over their hearts and says a pledge to the flag.
They will look at you like you are absolutely insane.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Completely like we yell all brainwashed in your cord does Yeah. Also,
isn't it funny how when you dig into any bit
of American history, even something simple as a pledge of allegiance,
you will always find a crime.
Speaker 3 (04:44):
There's always a crime. There's always a crime. America in
the late nineteenth century was having a full blown identity crisis.
When the pledge was first recited in eighteen ninety two.
It was only twenty seven years since the end of
the Civil War. Young people who had fought in and
survived the war were now full fledged volts. Families who
(05:08):
lost loved ones still felt the ripple effect, and the
American institution of slavery had only recently been formally abolished.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
I mean, we have to keep in mind that an
entire generation was wiped out in the Civil War. Right
you think about the number of soldiers who were killed
in the United States, I mean, those are wounds that
are not going to heal very quickly.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
That's Charles dorn A historian at Boden College.
Speaker 2 (05:36):
Now we're into eighteen nineties and the war ends in
eighteen sixty five, but it still stings, and the country
is still trying to figure out how to stitch itself
back together politically, economically, and socially.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
If recovering from the Civil War wasn't enough, the eighteen
eighties and eighteen nineties were also a time of unprecedented
urbanization and immigration. Suddenly, Americans who had been here for
generations found themselves competing for factory jobs and tenement space
with millions of new immigrants from places like Italy, Russia,
(06:10):
and Poland.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
So this is a very different kind of immigration into
the United States than what people believe existed prior to that.
The people comprising this wave of immigration are coming from
a different part of the world. So whereas initially immigration
in the United States is coming primarily from northern and
western Europe, now these immigrants are coming from southern and
(06:33):
Eastern Europe. And what this means is that they're speaking
different languages, Slavic languages for instance, They're practicing different faiths.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
What if these new arrivals failed to assimilate into American culture,
What if they openly rebelled against American ideals and institutions.
Tensions reached a fever pitch, and.
Speaker 2 (06:57):
There's a real fear and a concern on the part
of resident Americans, Americans already living here, that this could
somehow dilute America, and it could really sort of mess
with the national character, and that something has to be
done to these people in order to essentially make them Americans.
Speaker 3 (07:16):
What exactly do you do to people to make them American? Well,
the best way to Americanize people, the government decided, was
through the public schools. Public schools were still a relatively
new concept in most of the country, but there were
high hopes that these uniquely American institutions could teach little Italian,
(07:41):
Slavic and Irish kids to be patriotic and productive Americans.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
There's a sense that these public schools are unlike anything
else that exists in any nation in the world, and
they are in some ways sort of symbols of democracy
and the democratic republic. So there was a real faith
in fact that public schools could pull off this Americanization
mission that many people believed needed to have happen in
order for immigrants to become a part of the national project.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
From the start, the Americanization efforts in public schools centered
around the flag. Today, it's not really unusual to see
an American flag flying outside most schools and inside most classrooms,
but that wasn't always the case. In fact, the main
reason schools are festooned with flags today dates back to
(08:35):
this immigration anxiety that gripped Americans. In the eighteen eighties
and eighteen nineties, there was a nationwide campaign to put
quote a flag in every schoolhouse. It was spearheaded by
patriotic civic organizations like the Grand Army of the Republic
and the Women's Relief Corps. They wanted the flag to
(08:57):
be a physical symbol of America to which young immigrant
children could pledge their loyalty.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
And of course, there are national oaths of loyalty in
many countries at this point in time. In fact, the
United States is a little bit of an outlier in
not having one, and so the idea that there might
be a national statement of loyalty was not a new
idea or a strange thing whatsoever.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
The very first version of a pledge of allegiance was
written around eighteen ninety by a New York City education
reformer and Civil War veteran named George Balch. Bulch wasn't
a fan of mass immigration. He referred to immigrant school
children as quote human scum cast on our shores by
(09:47):
the tidal wave of a vast migration end quote. So
you know the kind of person we're dealing with, the
most popular version of Balch's pledge went like this.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
We give our heads and our hearts to God and
our country, one country, one language, one flag.
Speaker 3 (10:07):
The message was hardly subtle. There was only room in
America for one type of American god, fearing English speaking
and unwaveringly loyal to the United States. Balches owede to
assimilation had a nice little run. It was recited in
New York public schools well into the twentieth century. But
(10:29):
obviously that's not the pledge of allegiance that American school
kids know today, and it was not the pledge that
was read out during the Columbus Day celebration in eighteen
ninety two. To hear the story of that pledge, the
real pledge, we need to travel to Boston. There we'll
(10:50):
find a former Baptist minister turned magazine editor named Francis Bellamy.
There he is hunched over his desk, sweating through his
wool suit, wrestling with the words that would become an
American institution. It's a swelteringly hot August night in Boston
(11:17):
eighteen ninety two. Francis Bellamy, a thirty seven year old
writer and editor, has shut himself away in his office
at The Youth's Companion, a children's magazine and one of
the most popular magazines in America. His waste paper bucket
overflows with false starts, his pencil is ground down to
(11:40):
a nub. Bellamy's boss, James b Upham, has given him
an impossible writing assignment. Compose a brief patriotic statement, a
salute to the American flag that somehow encompasses all of
America's history and founding principles, and keep it short. Bellamy
(12:01):
knows about the existing pledge written by George Balch, One Country,
one language, one Flag, but he dismisses it as too juvenile.
Bellamy's boss wants something more sweeping and comprehensive, so Bellamy
racks his brain for a new approach. But how could
he possibly express the true essence of America in so
(12:25):
few words? This scene played out in a stuffy Boston
office will become a watershed moment in Bellamy's life. When
he writes about it thirty years later, he recounts the
details like it was yesterday.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
The strain of the next two hours is still a
distinct memory.
Speaker 3 (12:47):
Very dramatic stuff. Bellamy certainly has a way with words,
but he wasn't always a writer and editor. Before he
worked for the Youth's Companion, Bellamy was a Baptist minister,
but he wasn't your typical fire and brimstone preacher. Bellamy
and his friends were Christian socialists in the nineteenth century.
(13:10):
Christian socialists believed that true Christians shouldn't just sit around
praying and waiting for God to act. Christians should get
out there and actually try to fix some of society's
toughest problems. Here's Charles Dorn again.
Speaker 2 (13:29):
And so the Christian Socialists are coming out of this
kind of belief system that society can act in cooperative
ways to create systems that will create a kind of
paradise or kind of heaven on earth.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
Although Bellamy eventually left the ministry, he still wanted to
help people and improve society. But like a lot of
good old, homegrown Americans, in the eighteen nineties, Bellamy was
pretty rattled by the influx of immigrants from Eastern and
southern Europe.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
There is a real fear, I mean, we shouldn't understand,
there's a real fear that bringing these people to the
United States could really destabilize an already destabilized nation. So
we've got to do something to make sure that that
doesn't happen.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Like many others, Bellamy subscribed to the idea that the
best way to americanize immigrants was through public schools, and
he found a welcome home for his ideas at the
Youth's Companion. The Companion was one of the first subscription
magazines in America. Launched in eighteen twenty seven, It was
(14:44):
like an early version of Boys Life, stuffed with serialized
adventure novels, news items, and casually racist reports from around
the globe. It was a hit with young readers and
their parents, and every week three hundred and eighty five
thousand copies were delivered to homes across the country. James B. Upham,
(15:08):
Bellamy's boss at The Companion, was a deeply patriotic man,
but he also had magazines to sell. It was Upham's
idea to get the magazine involved in the flag in
every schoolhouse movement of the eighteen eighties. The Companion ran
ads offering American flags to any school that needed one.
(15:31):
The flags weren't free. A nine foot flag cost the
equivalent of one hundred and sixty dollars today, but schools
could recoup their money. The magazine provided flag certificates that
students could sell to friends and neighbors for about three
dollars in today's money. Buyers were entitled to quote one
(15:52):
share in the patriotic influence of the school flag. It
was an ingenious scheme that paid off handsomely. The Youth's
Companion sold more than twenty five thousand American flags to
public schools. Not only did the Companion make a killing,
but the magazine became synonymous with patriotism. And with this
(16:15):
pivot to patriotism, the magazine brass wanted to lean heavily
into their new identity, and just their luck, the perfect
opportunity came knocking. As I mentioned, eighteen ninety two marked
the four hundredth anniversary of Columbus's historic voyage. Civic organizations
(16:36):
floated the idea of a national public school celebration and
the Youth's Companion was chosen by a committee of educators
to create the actual program that schools would follow during
the celebration. If the Youth's Companion pulled this off, it
would sell a crazy amount of magazines.
Speaker 2 (16:59):
So the idea is that the Youth's Companion will propose
a celebratory program that will take place on a particular weekend,
and there will literally be like a sequence of activities
or events or programs that communities can adopt and participate in.
And one of those is going to be bringing kids
(17:19):
together at schools and listenings who has some addresses and
some speeches, and then celebrating by reciting a national pledge.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
A national pledge that was the kicker. James Upham was
insistent that the Youth's Companion program include a salute to
the flag. He tried to write one himself a bunch
of times, but gave up as the date of the
celebration neared. Upham turned in desperation to his junior employee,
(17:51):
Francis Bellamy. That's how Bellamy finds himself cloistered in his
office on a hot August night in eighteen ninety two
with a deadline looming for the most important part of
the Columbus Day program, the Salute to the Flag. Bellamy
sweats it out for a while before finally having his
first breakthrough. One word allegiance. It means loyalty, faithfulness, obedience, everything.
(18:18):
Bellamy wants the flag to inspire in immigrant school children,
and just like that, six fateful words appear at the
top of the page. Here's what Bellamy wrote about that moment,
looking back decades later.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
I pledge allegiance to my flag when those first words
looked up at me from the scratch paper. The start
appeared promising.
Speaker 4 (18:45):
On a roll.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Now Bellamy wrestles with the next part. Should it be country,
nation or republic?
Speaker 1 (18:52):
Republic? One because it distinguished the form of government chosen
by the fathers and established by the Revolution. The true
reason for allegiance to the flag is the republic for
which it stands.
Speaker 3 (19:05):
Next, Bellamy turned to his American heroes, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton,
and Abraham Lincoln. How would they characterize their beloved republic
in the wake of a wretching Civil war.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
After many attempts, all that pictured struggle reduced itself to
three words. One nation, indivisible, to reach that compact brevity was,
as I recall, the most arduous phase of the task,
and the discarded experiments at phrasing overflowed the scrap basket.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
Sure he was laying it on a little thick but
with those words locked in One Nation, indivisible, Bellamy searches.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
For a closer What doctrines, then, would everybody agree upon?
As the basis of Americanism, Liberty and justice were surely basic,
were undebatable, and were all that any one nation could
handle if they were exercised for all. They involved the
spirit of equality and fraternity. So that final with liberty
and justice for all came with a cheering rush as
(20:11):
a clincher. It seemed to assemble the past and to
promise the future. That I remember is how the sequence
of the ideas grew, and how the words were found.
On that August night, with the cooling Boston seabreeze coming
softly through the open window of my room.
Speaker 3 (20:28):
After two hours of writing, Bellamy had his twenty two
word national creed. I pledge allegiance to my flag and
the Republic for which it stands, One nation, indivisible, with
liberty and justice for all. Bellamy proudly presents his pledge
to Upham.
Speaker 4 (20:48):
His reaction, Francis, You've written a thing which I believe
will live long after you and I are dead.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
When the day of the Columbus celebration finally arrives, Bellamy
is there to witness the very first reciting of his
Pledge of Allegiance at a boss in high school. He's
floored when four thousand students roar his words in unison.
At the top of the episode, I said, we have
no idea who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance, yet we
(21:20):
just listened to Francis Bellamy's word by word account of
how he wrote it. So case closed, right, Well, that
depends who you ask.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Francis Bellamy insisted that he wrote it in August eighteen
ninety two, had a very specific story about that, and
this is a crucial point. He swore out legal affidavits
telling a detailed story of how he originated it in
August eighteen ninety two. But the evidence that we now
(21:55):
have really suggests that he falsified the entire story. I
think it's impossible to read all the evidence and not conclude.
Speaker 3 (22:04):
That turns out Bellamy's detailed story of a sweltering August night,
hunched over his desk with an impossible assignment, The arduous
search for the right words, the Eureka moment spurred by
patriotic reverence to the founding fathers, Well, it might all
be a big, fat lie. Cherryvale, Kansas, is a tiny
(22:34):
farming town about one hundred miles outside of Wichita, a
flat sea of corn stretching to the horizon. I'm assuming
I've never been. The year is eighteen ninety, a full
two years before Francis Bellamy says he wrote the Pledge
of Allegiance On a hot August night in eighteen ninety two.
(22:54):
In small town Cherryvale, the eighth grade teacher gives her
students an assignment. Like most of her students, the teacher
is an avid reader of the Youth's Companion, the magazine
bell And he works at. And the Companion has just
announced a writing contest for kids. They call it the
(23:14):
Flag and the Public Schools. The teacher encourages her students
to enter. She tells them to write a few sentences
expressing the thoughts that run through their heads when they
salute the American flag. One winning entry would be chosen
from each state, and along with bragging rights, their school
(23:34):
would get a shiny new American flag as a prize.
Not all of the eighth graders take the assignment seriously,
but Frank does. Frank is a naturally patriotic kit. He
likes to read stories about George Washington and the American Revolution.
The flag really means something to him. He wants to
(23:57):
become a soldier someday, but like any thirteen year old,
he struggles to find the right words to express his feelings.
After weeks of writeaceading, and rewriting, Frank finally has something
he's proud of. Before mailing his submission off to the magazine,
he reads it out loud to himself while saluting an
(24:18):
imaginary American flag.
Speaker 4 (24:20):
I pledge allegiance to my flag and the Republic for
which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice
for all.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
Sound familiar. Keep in mind this is eighteen ninety in
Kansas and Frank is thirteen years old. Months go by,
but Frank doesn't hear anything from the Youth's companion. He's disappointed,
but figures the magazine must have received a ton of submissions.
Maybe his just wasn't good enough. More time passes two
(24:54):
years to be exact. Now it's eighteen ninety two. School
kids across the country are preparing for the national public
school celebration of Columbus Day. Frank is excited. He picks
up the official program published in The Youth's Companion, and
he can't believe his eyes. There it is the very
(25:19):
same pledge he wrote two years ago in eighth grade.
Word for word, Frank is blown away. How did this happen?
Did he win the contest but the magazine couldn't find him?
His own words are in a national magazine. But why
hadn't he heard from the Companion? There must have been
(25:39):
some kind of mistake. Frank rushes home after school and
writes a letter to The Youth's Companion explaining everything. How
he submitted his pledge for the contest two years ago,
how there must have been some confusion because no one
told him that he'd won. He couldn't wait to tell
his parents. They'd be so proud. A few weeks later,
(26:04):
a letter finally arrives from the magazine. Frank tears it open,
holding his breath as he reads the reply.
Speaker 4 (26:11):
All essays, statements, or written matter submitted in this contest,
she'll remain and is the property of the Youth's Companion magazine.
Speaker 3 (26:19):
What that's it? No congratulations, not even a flag. Didn't
they understand that he had written the pledge of allegiance.
That's the last that Frank hears from the Youth's Companion,
But despite his disappointment, he doesn't lose his love for
his country. In eighteen ninety eight, he achieves his dream
(26:43):
of becoming a soldier. He enlists in the army to
fight in the Spanish American War. While serving in the Philippines,
he contracts tuberculosis. Frank makes it home but never gets
his health back. It's a struggle, and he dies a
few months shy of his fortieth birthday. Frank is buried
(27:04):
in the Fairview Cemetery back in Cherryvale, Casas. His gravestone
says nothing about the pledge, just his service in the
war and his name, Frank Bellamy.
Speaker 4 (27:18):
Hold on, hold on, hold on. This kid's name is
Frank Bellamy. Yep, as in Francis Bellamy.
Speaker 3 (27:26):
Spelled exactly the same, but it's not.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
The same person. Somehow, Frank isn't short for Francis.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Nope, Frank Bellamy is a completely different person than Francis Bellamy.
They're unrelated. They just happen to have the same name,
and they both claim that they wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
That's insane, completely insane, but it's true. Just ask Fred Shapiro.
Speaker 6 (27:57):
The story really gets astonishing when you mentioned Frank E.
Speaker 5 (28:02):
Bellamy.
Speaker 6 (28:03):
If you look in Kansas newspapers and Kansas Historical Society
website and resolutions that have been passed by the Kansas Legislature.
In Kansas, they have long believed that Frank E. Bellamy
wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Fred is the editor of the New Yale Book of Quotations,
and he is the authoritative source on who said what when.
As Fred correctly points out, the state of Kansas has
always backed a different Bellamy, thirteen year old Frank Elmer Bellamy,
as the true author of the Pledge of Allegiance. As
(28:44):
recently as twenty fourteen, the Kansas State Senate passed a
resolution to quote recognize and celebrate Cherryvale, Kansas, and Frank
Bellamy's authorship of the Pledge of Allegiance. In nineteen ninety six,
the citizens of Cherryvale erected a memorial with a photo
(29:05):
of Frank Bellamy. A small plaque explains how Frank, as
a school kid, composed the nation's best known patriotic statement.
But could it be true? Could an eighth grader from
Kansas have written the original pledge in eighteen ninety and
could Francis Bellamy and The Youth's Companion have stolen Frank's
(29:29):
pledge and claimed it as their own. Fred Shapiro thinks
it's possible.
Speaker 6 (29:37):
They did have a contest. I've looked at the old
issues of The Youth's Companion. They definitely had a contest.
The core Frank Bellamy argument is that he sent it
in as part of this contest, which definitely did happen
with Youth's Companion. So the part of the anti Francis
Bellamy argument may be that if Frankie Bellamy did send
(29:59):
it in, that Francis spell Me plagiarized it and wouldn't
show anyone the original mission and later claimed it as
his own. That's the conspiracy theory to deny Frankie bell
and his priority if he was indeed the first.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
And if it is a conspiracy theory, it's a pretty
juicy one. Big City Magazine guy steals credit for the
pledge of allegiance from farm Kit in Kansas, who has
the exact same name. But does this theory hold up
to scrutiny. To get some answers, let's take a closer
look at the writing contest held by the Youth's companion,
(30:44):
Fred Shapiro is right. In the January ninth, eighteen ninety
issue of the magazine, there's a call for submissions to
a contest called the Flag and the Public Schools. But
something is a little off. The description of the writing
contest given in the magazine is really different from the
(31:05):
assignment supposedly given by Frank's teacher. The ad in the
magazine says.
Speaker 7 (31:12):
Students are invited to write an essay of not more
than six hundred words in length on the patriotic influence
of the American flag when raised over the public schools.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Huh okay. This is very clearly an essay contest with
a six hundred word limit. It seems a little weird
that Frank Bellamy would have submitted a single twenty three
word sentence. To be fair, maybe the pledge portion was
a part of a longer essay about the importance of
flags in schools. We don't know. Unfortunately, there are no
(31:46):
documents or other tangible proof that Frank Bellamy ever submitted
a pledge to the Youth's Companion in eighteen ninety fast
forward to nineteen fifty seven. Believe it or not, the
Library of Congress decided to get to the bottom of this.
They assigned a researcher to investigate the various authorship claims
(32:08):
for the pledge of allegiance. James Upham, Bellamy's boss, was
also in the running, but we don't have time to
fall down that particular rabbit hole. The Library of Congress investigation,
all one hundred and forty eight pages of it, concluded
that the most likely author of the pledge was Francis
Bellamy of the Youth's Companion. While the report acknowledged some
(32:32):
doubts about Bellamy's account, it decided, quote.
Speaker 5 (32:36):
Unless one is prepared to believe that Francis Bellamy was
a deliberate and consciousless liar, the mass of his testimony
is overwhelmingly in his favor.
Speaker 3 (32:47):
So where does that leave little Frank Bellamy? In a
short paragraph in the report, the Library of Congress dismissed
the kid from Kansas as nothing more than a plagiarist.
It alleged that Frank quote lifted the text from the
Columbus Day Program and attempted to claim it as his own.
(33:08):
So much for Frank E. Bellamy, it seemed. But remember
the Library of Congress report was written in nineteen fifty seven.
That was sixty seven years ago. Would you believe that
new evidence has come to light that puts young Frank
Bellamy back in the running. A few minutes ago, I
(33:32):
said there were no surviving documents that corroborated Frank Bellamy's
story that he wrote the Pledge of Allegiance in eighteen
ninety while a school kid in Kansas. That's not quite
the case anymore.
Speaker 6 (33:47):
Barry Popic is a retired attorney who has done fantastic
research on all kinds of questions of priority origination for
American history. Barry is probably the greatest NewSpace paper researcher
(34:08):
in the world, and this is a fantastic discovery and
his part.
Speaker 3 (34:13):
In twenty twenty two, Barry Poppeck was searching newspapers dot
com for the earliest published mention of the Pledge of
Allegiance when he made a wild discovery. On May twenty first,
eighteen ninety two, a Kansas newspaper called the Ellis County
Republican ran a tiny story on page four. It's a
(34:37):
dispatch from the nearby town of Victoria, Kansas.
Speaker 8 (34:41):
It reads, on April thirtieth, our schools closed with a
flag raising. The pupils had been drilled to make a
military salute and to repeat the following words while holding
the hand at arm's length toward the flag. I pledge
allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands,
one nation inseparable with liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Francis Bellamy, the adult magazine editor, swore up and down
that he wrote the pledge of allegiance in August of
eighteen ninety two. He literally swore multiple legal affidavits to
that effect. But here, buried in a small town Kansas
newspaper is irrefutable proof that he didn't. The article says
(35:32):
that on April thirtieth, eighteen ninety two, school kids in
Kansas recited an almost identical pledge that's more than three
months before Francis Bellamy says that he wrote the pledge.
Who could forget to quote that August night with the
cooling Boston Sea breeze coming softly through the open window
(35:53):
of my room. What's more, the only difference between Bellamy's
pledge and the one that predates it in a Kansas
newspaper is a single word inseparable instead of india visible.
Speaker 6 (36:08):
How do we explain the fact that the exact same
words virtually appeared several months earlier in a Kansas newspaper.
And the thing is in his affidavits, Francis belling me.
He didn't just say yeah, I think I wrote it
in eighteen ninety two. He told us very specific story
where his boss asked him to come up with a
(36:30):
pledge and he sat down and it was a hot
day in August. This is not just a question of dates.
This affects the question of authorship. How could Francis Beelmy
be the author?
Speaker 3 (36:43):
Good question, Fred, I've got another one for you. This
article was published in a small town Kansas newspaper. You
know who else was from a small town in Kansas.
After all this time, after being ignored by the youth's
companion and being labeled a pleagiarist by the Library of Congress,
(37:05):
could thirteen year old Frank E. Bellamy from Cherry Vale,
Kansas have been telling the truth. Did a kid really
write the Pledge of Allegiance?
Speaker 6 (37:17):
I can't say that Frankie Bellamy was the originator, but
he may have been. The fact that he was the
only person from Kansas, and that this this strong link
with Kansas, suggests that he may have been the author.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
In a few years, Fred plans to publish a revised
and updated edition of the New Yale's Book of Quotations.
He's still on the fence about what to do with
the entry for the Pledge of Allegiance. He always attributed
it to Francis Bellamy, editor at the Youth's Companion, just
like everybody else. Now Fred is considering changing the author
(37:58):
to anonymous. A long forgotten article in a long forgotten
Kansas newspaper has called everything into question. Fred can't read
Francis Bellamy's overwrought descriptions of that hot August night in
eighteen ninety two, the overflowing waste paper basket, Bellamy racking
(38:21):
his brains for inspiration, the words finally coming to him
one by one, each imbued with immense patriotic significance. Fred
can't read all of that without wondering, was it an
elaborate fiction. Did Francis Bellamy make the whole story up?
And if so, who really wrote the Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker 6 (38:47):
It's a complex story. I can't say for sure who
the author was, but I do feel that I can
say that it was not Francis Bellamy, and that it
appears to me that he essentially fabricated a detailed story
of how he wrote it, which was not accurate.
Speaker 3 (39:10):
Today, in schools across America, kids start each day by
standing up, hand over heart and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Speaker 9 (39:20):
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States
of America, and do the Republic for which it stands,
one nationship under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
The Pledge has gone through some changes since it debuted
more than one hundred and thirty years ago. The biggest
was the addition of under God. That was President Dwight D.
Eisenhower's idea. He wanted to stick it to those godless
commis in the Soviet Union, so under God was added
in nineteen fifty four. But despite a few new words,
(39:57):
the job of the Pledge is still very much the
same as it was in eighteen ninety two to instill
a spirit of patriotism in the next generation. Meanwhile, we're
still arguing about what it means to be an American
until we find an answer, We'll keep saying the Pledge.
We'll probably never know who really wrote it, but we
(40:20):
can take its message to heart. Wouldn't it be nice
if this nation was a little less divided and more indivisible,
and that liberty and justice were truly for all. One
of those Bellamy boys was onto something, unless, of course,
they were both liars. Okay, Saren, I feel like you
(40:43):
already have casting in mind for this one. Yes, our
go to casting director.
Speaker 1 (40:48):
You are one hundred percent right. I'm going to put
on my Hollywood hat for a second. Okay, imagine the
movie version of this you go to see it, because
on the poster and in the trailers you have as
Frank Bellamy, the older one, the adult Paul Rudd, and
as Kid Bellamy, it's the kid from Young Sheldon.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
Yeah, get Young Sheldon here.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
That's perfect, right, He's got the vibe you want for this.
Speaker 3 (41:10):
Yeah, a little poem writing child, perfect.
Speaker 1 (41:13):
Totally sensitive, loves America. He's in the heartland, looks good
in a bow tie exactly. Little Geeky really cares.
Speaker 4 (41:20):
I'd see that movie. I would also see the off
Broadway play version where one person plays both Frank and
young Frank Bellamy and you just kind of go with
it and and lean into the insanity that they both yes, yes,
and if he's unavailable, Paul Dano, it's perfect. How about
(41:43):
very special character? Did anyone jump out at you to
to anoint this episode? I'm gonna throw out Fred Shapiro
while you're thinking yes, from the Book of Quotations, because
keeping this alive one hundred thirty years later, good for him,
giving us a nice hook to bring it back to
(42:04):
the present day as well.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
And he's like the snow dot Com of quotes. We
need people like him to make sure we get these
things right. It's like, Okay, here's the real story people.
Did you know Dana? Do you do you have one?
Because I have one? But it's a little bit of
a theory.
Speaker 3 (42:17):
I want your theory please.
Speaker 1 (42:18):
Okay. Mine is the anonymous woman who I believe actually
wrote this pledge. And you're wondering, Zaren, I didn't hear
any woman in this Where are you coming with this?
Speaker 7 (42:26):
Right?
Speaker 1 (42:27):
Wow, here's how it goes ready. I think both Bellamies
were plagiarists because the adult Frank Bellamy clearly he played
dress from kid Bellamy and Kansas right. But the newspapers
dot com guy, he finds it two years earlier than that.
Kid Bellamy apparently allegedly wrote his pledge of allegiance in
a nearby town in Kansas. Right now, imagine a school
marm is going between these two towns. She's the one
(42:48):
who wrote the pledge of allegiance. She teaches these Kansas kids.
One day, Kid Bellamy sees the contest, he pilfers her pledge.
She sends it in. Editor Frank Bellamy's like, oh this
is amazing. He pilfers it from the kid. Both Bellambi's
they steal the pledge of allegiance from some anonymous school
marm in Kansas. It's like Virginia Wolf's goold quote about
the women, which is you know, for most of history
(43:09):
anonymous was a woman. Did you point out, Jason the
Yale Book of Quotations they were going to consider listing
dude is anonymous, And I think dude is a woman
because it's anonymous. I bet a woman wrote it. That's
my theory.
Speaker 3 (43:20):
I love this theory. And just a round of applause
on behalf of all women.
Speaker 5 (43:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (43:26):
I would have Elizabeth Moss play that.
Speaker 3 (43:27):
Woman in our film, Yes amazing.
Speaker 4 (43:30):
One other quick thing that came to mind while listening
to this one. We've talked about my dated cultural references
in the past. The Sports Illustrated football phone was a
big one growing up, and commercials they would try to
get people to subscribe to Sports Illustrated by promising this
phone that looked like a football in this story, like
(43:54):
the American flag is the original football?
Speaker 1 (43:59):
Og football phone? Oh my god, good connection. Wow.
Speaker 5 (44:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
It was such like a leveraged buy for the schools too.
I mean like it's like, there, let's get these kids
out there. It's like pushing the chocolate bars. It's like, though,
like these kids, how are you gonna say no to
a kid? Let's make him part of capitalism now, Jason,
are you upset about the death of Sports Illustrated?
Speaker 4 (44:18):
I mean I'm upset whenever I hear the entire publications
are laying off all their staff. Just uh, just a
very sad. It feels like it's a little bit of
a long time coming. It's been a slow death, uh
time and time again, so hopefully they get back on
their feet sometime. I'm worried it's gonna be like Toys
(44:40):
r Us which like nine years ago. They bring it
back every year and there's some now it's like it's
in a corner of Macy's or it's there's one store
and one mall in Houston and uh so, yes, I
would say it was always in my house growing up
as a kid. We didn't have a football phone though.
Speaker 5 (44:58):
I see.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
I think that's the mistake. They need to bring back
the football phone or whatever would be the modern equivalent.
That's going to save SI because they had the flag boom,
we need a football phone.
Speaker 4 (45:07):
I think that wraps it up for another very special episode.
Speaker 3 (45:11):
Thanks for listening.
Speaker 4 (45:14):
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people.
This episode was written by Dave Rouse. Our producer is
Josh Fisher. Editing and sound design by Jonathan Washington, Mixing
and mastering by Beheid Fraser. Very Special Episodes is hosted
by Danish Schwartz, Zaren Burnette and me Jason English. Original
(45:38):
music by Elise McCoy. Our story editor is Aaron Edwards.
Research in fact checking by Austin Thompson. Show logo by
Lucy Quintania. I'd like to thank our excellent voice actors,
especially two of my three daughters, Kate and Juliette English.
(45:59):
We couldn't meet Charlotte's asking price, but good work Kate
and Juliette. And today is Juliette's birthday.
Speaker 1 (46:06):
Happy Birthday.
Speaker 4 (46:07):
No better way to spend your birthday than reading the
Pledge of Allegiance multiple times into a podcast microphone. So
Special Day, Very Special Episodes is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Hosts And Creators
Zaron Burnett
Dana Schwartz
Jason English
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