Francis Bellamy wrote the original Pledge of Allegiance as part of the program for the the public school system's quadricentennial celebration of Columbus Day in 1892. This is what he had to say about the phrasing of the Pledge.
It began as an intensive communing with salient points of our national history, from the Declaration of Independence onwards; with the makings of the Constitution...with the meaning of the Civil War; with the aspiration of the people...
The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is the 'republic for which it stands.' ...And what does that vast thing, the Republic mean? It is the concise political word for the Nation - the One Nation which the Civil War was fought to prove. To make that One Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to repeat in their great speeches. And its future?
Just here arose the temptation of the historic slogan of the French Revolution which meant so much to Jefferson and his friends, 'Liberty, equality, fraternity.' No, that would be too fanciful, too many thousands of years off in realization. But we as a nation do stand square on the doctrine of liberty and justice for all...
The Pledge is a concise statement of intention...the intention to respect and protect the ideals of liberty and justice upon which the United States of America was founded, represented in the Stars and Stripes of our honored Flag.
I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
That is my Pledge. It is how I have always said it, from the time I first learned it. It is my stand. It is my statement.
It is a statement as inclusive to me as "We the people...", and it is just as important to me.
I just thought I'd say that today.
