(1856–1931), was a minister from Boston who wrote the Pledge of Allegiance. He was ordained in the Baptist Church, 1879, and served as the pastor of the First Baptist Church, Little Falls, New York. He was a member of the staff of The Youth’s Companion, which first published his Pledge of Allegiance on September 8, 1892. At the dedication of the 1892 Chicago World’s Fair, October 12, 1892, public school children first recited the Pledge of Allegiance during the National School Celebration on the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery of America.
The Pledge was adopted by the 79th Congress on December 28, 1945, as Public Law 287. The words “under God,” taken from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, " … that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth..,"2905 were added to the Pledge of Allegiance on June 14, 1954, by a Joint Resolution of Congress, 243 (Public Law 83–396). President Dwight Eisenhower signed the pledge into law:
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.2906
President Eisenhower gave his support to the Congressional Act, which added the phrase “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance, saying:
In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource in peace and war.2907
President Eisenhower then stood on the steps of the Capitol Building and recited the Pledge of Allegiance for the first time with the phrase, “one Nation under God.”2908