The Pledge The truth is that in all of the American federalism and states' rights must be de- eral government or be shot. During Recon- founding documents, including the Declara- stroyed. In Bellamy's own words: struction almost all Southern white adult tion of Independence, the Articles of Confed- males were disenfranchised by the require- he US Supreme Court's past decision to The true reason for allegiance to the Flag is eration, and the Constitution, the states refer the " for which it stands." ... And ment that in order to vote or hold political review the constitutionality of the to themselves as "free and independent." The office, they must take the following oath: "I T "under God" wording in the Pledge of what does that vast thing, the Republic Treaty of Paris that ended the Revolutionary mean? It is the concise political word for the ______do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I Allegiance provides an occasion to educate War was a treaty with the individual, free have never voluntarily borne arms against Americans about the ideological purpose of Nation — the One Nation which the Civil and independent states, not "the whole peo- War was fought to prove. To make that One the United States since I have been a citizen the Pledge. A good place to start would be ple" of the United States. thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, John Baer's book, The : Nation idea clear, we must specify that it is The citizens of the states understood that indivisible, as Webster and Lincoln used to countenance, counsel, or encouragement to A Centennial History, 1892-1992 (Free State persons engaged in armed hostility thereto . . Press, 1992). In it one would learn that the they were sovereign over the federal govern- repeat in their great speeches. (See John W. ment, not the other way around, as Lincoln Baer, "The Pledge of Allegiance: A Short ." (Baer, The Pledge of Allegiance, Chapter author of the Pledge was one Francis 4). Few if any Southern men would dare to absurdly claimed. The sovereign states dele- History)." Bellamy, a defrocked Baptist minister from take this public pledge in the post-war years. who identified himself as a Christian gated a few enumerated powers to the central Bellamy considered the "liberty and justice Socialist and who preached in his pulpit that government, as their agent, while maintain- for all" phrase in the Pledge to be an Ameri- Francis Bellamy first published the Pledge of "Jesus was a socialist." ing sovereignty for themselves. canized version of the slogan of the French Allegiance in the September 1892 issue of Despite Lincoln's effort to destroy the system Revolution: "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." The Youth's Companion, which has been de- Bellamy was the cousin of , scribed as "the Reader's Digest of its day." author of the extremely popular 1888 social- of federalism and states' rights that was The French revolutionaries believed that championed by Jefferson and other founders mass killing by the state was always justified By that time, Bellamy had been forced to ist fantasy, . In this novel leave his Boston pulpit because of his prac- the main character, Julian West, falls asleep by waging total war on the South, many if it was done for the "grand purpose" of Americans still believed in the Jeffersonian achieving "equality." In an 1876 commence- tice of preaching socialism rather than the in 1887 and awakens in the year 2000 when Gospel. the socialist "utopia" has been achieved: All states' rights ideal as of the 1880s. Despite all ment speech Francis Bellamy praised the industry is state owned, Soviet style; every- the death and destruction of the war, and sev- as "the poetry of human In addition to his work at the magazine, one is an employee of the state who is con- eral subsequent decades of Lincolnian propa- brotherhood." And "what we call the Civil Francis Bellamy was the vice president in scripted at age 21 and retires at age 45; and ganda about the alleged evils of states' rights, War," Donald Livingston has remarked, "was charge of education for the "Society of all workers earn the same income. many Americans still viewed federalism and in fact America's French Revolution, and Christian Socialists," a national organization states' rights as a safeguard against federal Lincoln was the first Jacobin presi- that advocated income taxation, central bank- Francis Bellamy said that one purpose of the tyranny — just as the American founding dent" (Donald Livingston, "The Litmus Test ing, nationalized education, nationalization Pledge of Allegiance was to help accomplish fathers, especially Jefferson, had done. for American Conservativism," Chronicles, of industry, and other features of socialism. his lifelong goal of making his cousin's so- Francis Bellamy was alarmed by this, for he Jan. 2001). In his classic book, Socialism (p. 223), cialist fantasy a reality in America. He fur- Ludwig von Mises characterized Christian ther stated that the "true reason for allegiance understood perfectly well that the first step Bellamy intended the Pledge of Allegiance to along the way to his socialist utopia was a be a vow of allegiance to the state, a quintes- socialism as "merely a variety of State So- to the Flag" was to indoctrinate American cialism school children in the false history of the consolidated or unitary state, just like the one sentially un-American idea. He stated that he American founding that was espoused first Bismarck had created in Germany through got the idea from the "loyalty oaths" that The Bellamy cousins decided that American by Daniel Webster and, later, by Abraham "blood and iron," and the one Abraham Lin- were imposed on Southerners during Lin- youth needed to be taught "loyalty to the Lincoln. coln championed in the U.S. Monopoly gov- coln's invasion of the Southern states and state" because they realized that the individu- ernment, in other words, was a necessary afterward, during Reconstruction. During the alism and the love of liberty of the American Lincoln falsely claimed that the states were first step on the road to socialism. All sem- war, adult male civilians in the South were founding fathers would always stand in the never sovereign and that the union created blances of the Jeffersonian philosophy of compelled to take a loyalty oath to the fed- way of achieving the socialist utopia that was the states, not the other way around. described in Looking Backward. America sup- cialists. MEMBERSHIP IN THE FLS posedly suffered from too much liberty and not If the Supreme Court ever decides that the All levels of membership are for one year. enough equality, said the author of the Pledge "under God" wording in the Pledge is unconsti- of Allegiance. The Pledge of tutional, it will be doing the right thing for the As a member, you will be on the front lines The "one nation, indivisible" wording was es- wrong reason (it does not "establish a relig- of history in the making as we bring sover- Allegiance pecially important to the Bellamy cousins, for ion"). The Pledge itself is an oath of allegiance eignty and independence to a free if secession were legitimized, their pipe dream to the central state, and the "under God" lan- republic. of socialism through a consolidated, monopoly guage only serves to deify the state. From the A Tool of Socialist government would be destroyed. This was the perspective of a , George To join and/or view membership information Engineering? thinking of all the worst tyrants of the twenti- Washington, or James Madison, nothing could Please visit freeflorida.org/join.html eth century, including Hitler and Stalin. (Hitler be more un-American. After all, they and their even quoted approvingly Lincoln's "union cre- contemporaries had fought a long and bloody ated the states" theory from his first inaugural war of secession to sever their forced alle- Distributed in your area by: address in Mein Kampf in order to make his giance, complete with loyalty oaths, to another own case for destroying federalism and states' overbearing and tyrannical state, namely the rights in Germany.) British empire. The public schools must be used to teach blind obedience to the state, the Bellamys reasoned, and the National Education Association was pleased to help them accomplish this goal. They planned a "National Public School Cele- bration" in 1892, which was the first national propaganda campaign on behalf of the Pledge This information is being offered to you by of Allegiance. It was a massive campaign that The Florida League of the South, an organi- zation of God-fearing Southern patriots. We involved government schools and politicians Visit us on Facebook at: are laborers, doctors, teachers, pastors, college throughout the country. The government freeflorida.org/ professors, lawyers, businessmen, students and schools were promoted, along with the Pledge, RestoringFloridasSovereignty while private schools, especially parochial your neighbors. Children performing the Bellamy salute to the flag of the United States, ones, were criticized. Hawaii, 1941 We cordially invite you to join us in our mu- Students were taught to recite the Pledge with tual cause. We have a vision. Do you dare their arms outstretched, palms up, similar to dream with us? Can you bear to tell your how Roman citizens were required to hail Cae- The Florida League of the South grandchildren that you were not named sar, and not too different from the way in P.O. Box 37338 among us? Take your stand today! Join the which Nazi soldiers saluted their Führer. Jacksonville, Florida 32236 The Florida League of the South Florida League of the South! The Pledge of Allegiance is an oath of alle- 904-388-2253 giance to the omnipotent, Lincolnian state. Its Thanks to Thomas J. DeLorinzo for the [email protected] purpose was never to inculcate in children the research and inspiration www.freeflorida.org ideals of the American founding fathers, but those of two eccentric nineteenth-century so- Rev 1118.2