The bill to actually follow through was passed on April 2, 1792. It is believed this was a Benjamin Franklin design.Ĭongress passed a resolution on March 3, 1791, to build and operate a federal mint in Philadelphia.
The first federally authorized coinage, the Fugio Cent, was privately minted in 1787 under contract with the Continental Congress. Some states issued their own coinage which often circulated across state lines.
2, 2018.Rom 1776 to 1791, the United States relied on a mishmash of coinage and paper money to facilitate commerce. This is an updated version of an article originally published on Feb. Rather it represents a particular political, economic and religious perspective – one that is embraced by President Trump and the modern GOP.
“In God We Trust” is a not a motto that reflects universally shared historical values. history, the acceptance of such values ebbed and flowed. But, as my research shows, for much of U.S. In this way then, President Trump’s repeated assertions of “In God We Trust” could be said to reflect certain American values.
First us coins free#
They objected to government intervention in business and Roosevelt’s support for labor unions.Īs Kruse notes, this alliance of conservative business leaders and ministers linked “faith, freedom, and free enterprise.” These wide-ranging programs, designed to tackle the Great Depression, irked many conservatives. Conservative businessmen had allied with ministers, including Billy Graham, to combat the social welfare policies and government expansion that began with Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal. The belief in American religiosity that put “In God We Trust” on coins and made it the national motto in the 1950s had emerged over several decades. “In God We Trust” reflected domestic concerns as well. Recently, however, Princeton University historian Kevin Kruse has shown that religious language was not merely rhetoric against communism. apart from the godlessness of Soviet communism. Historians such as Jonathan Herzog have chronicled how leaders ranging from President Eisenhower to the evangelist Billy Graham stressed on the strong faith of the nation in setting the U.S. USCapitol (īoth of these developments reflected the desire to emphasize Americans’ religious commitment in the early years of the Cold War. The next year, “In God We Trust” was adopted as the first official motto of the United States. “was founded in a spiritual atmosphere and with a firm trust in God.” One sponsor of that legislation, Congressman Charles Bennett, echoed the sentiments that had inspired the Sovereignty of God amendment during the Civil War. In 1955, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill placing the phrase on all American currency. It was that decade that brought “In God We Trust” into widespread use. The 1950s, however, witnessed a dramatic resurgence of religious language in government and politics. For many people at the time, placing religious language in the Constitution or on symbols of government was not consistent with American ideals.
In fact, when coins were redesigned late in the 19th century, it disappeared from coins as well.Īs I demonstrate in my book, these developments were related to the spread of secularism in the post-Civil War U.S. Though “In God We Trust” was added to coins, it was not added to the increasingly common paper money. National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History. Despite lobbying by major Protestant denominations such as the Methodists, this so-called Sovereignty of God amendment was never ratified. If the amendment’s supporters had succeeded in having their way, Christian belief would be deeply embedded in the United States government.īut, such invocations of God in national politics were not to last. The proposed language – which anticipated President Trump’s remarks about the origin of Americans’ rights – would have declared that Americans recognized “Almighty God as the source of all authority and power in civil government.” In 1864, with the Civil War still raging, a group supported by the North’s major Protestant denominations began advocating change to the preamble of the Constitution. Putting the phrase on coins was just the beginning. Such language, Watkinson wrote, would “place us openly under the divine protection.” Watkinson, a Pennsylvania clergyman, encouraged the placement of “In God We Trust” on coins at the war’s outset in order to help the North’s cause. Political rhetoric linking the United States with a divine power emerged on a large scale with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861.