I haven’t written a history post in awhile because I’ve
started a new manuscript that’s a little outside my normal American Colonial
and Revolutionary focus. I decided to take one of the very minor characters
from Le Chevalier, Christiana, Mont
Trignon’s youngest sister and write her story.
If you read LeChevalier, you may recall that Christiana’s makes her debut in a painting
that
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| Le Chevalier |
Fast-forward almost fifteen years. The American Revolution
has ended and the fledgling United States is off to a fairly solid start. By
1793, they’ve ditched the Articles of Confederation and structured a
Constitution. Things aren’t perfect, but the Americans have proven it can be
done.
BTW, for those of you who want to know why the Pledge of
Allegiance is ironic, bear with me. I’m getting there.
Inspired by the success of the Americans and in deep in debt
because of their support for the American Revolution, the French have launched
their own revolutionary cause. Based on the philosophy of natural rights,
things started out well enough, but by 1993, they’ve turned decidedly sour.
All of Mont Trignon’s sisters, except Christiana, have emigrated
to the US. Christiana stayed behind with her husband. Fifteen years and her
first-hand experience with the Reign of Terror have changed Christiana in ways
that only Captain Neil Blakely can heal. Yes, Neil is the younger brother of
Amanda Blakely, the heroine of Caution to the Wind, but he’s all grown up now. J
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| Caution to the Wind |
While I’m reasonably familiar with the story of the French
Revolution – as in I’ve read Tale of Two Cities and The Scarlet Pimpernel –
that’s not nearly enough to leverage it as a backdrop for the story. Hence, the
reason for my limited posts. I’ve been studying!
This morning, I was pedaling away on the elliptical and
listening to Great Courses: Living theFrench Revolution and the Age of Napoleon. (If it weren’t for Audible, I’d
probably never get a workout in.) The author mentioned that French children were
proudly reciting the pledge to the new nation. Nothing wrong with that. U.S.
school children have been doing it for decades – although perhaps not as much
anymore.
But then it got me to thinking. I know nothing about the
origins of the United States Pledge of Allegiance. Was it something modeled
after the French? Well, that would be a little ironic. You see, if you study
the French Revolution, you’d have to be a pretty big ideologue not to notice
some pretty big discrepancies between French and American philosophy.
The American Revolution was based on representation in
government. It wasn’t that the Americans objected to the current system of
government so much as they wanted a say in it.
As those who are proponents of aggressive taxation have a tendency to
argue, “they didn’t actually complain about the taxes, just the lack of
representation.” After independence looked to be the only option, much of what
the Americans said and did showed their determination never to be ruled in such
a way again. I’m simplifying things, of course, but in a blog post, it’s hard
to do otherwise!
The French Revolution started in much the same way, but it
took on, for lack of a better word, a Marxist twist. Of course, Marx wouldn’t
grace the world with his gloomy presence for another twenty-five years, so they
wouldn’t have called it that. Besides, liberté, égalité, fraternité sounds so innocuous, doesn’t it? Perhaps until you realize that some
were agreeing with the demands of the sloganeers at the point – or should I say
blade – of the guillotine.
So back to the Pledge of
Allegiance for those of you who are still with me. A quick Google search for
it’s origins led me to posts like
this one that claim the pledge was introduced in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a
Christian Socialist leader. (I didn’t know there were any of those, but then,
this was 1892.) It sounds like he clearly had
The irony – in case you
really don’t see it – is that those who usually recite the Pledge today tend to
be on the opposite spectrum from the socialists. And the socialists I know
would never utter anything that included the words “under God” on principle
alone. Some don’t even know that you’re supposed to put your hand over your
heart – or maybe they do. By the way, according to Wikipedia, the “under God”
part wasn’t added until 1948, and the socialists appear to have nothing to do
with it by then.
Anyway, the writer of
this post is just as stumped as I am as to how the Pledge could have been so
abandoned by its founders and adopted by their polar opposites. Actually, I
have some theories, but they will have to wait for another day.
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