If our country started in 1864 when it first appeared or in 1956 when it was called our national motto. How can someone who thinks the earth is a few thousand years old think US started in 1956.

History

The motto E Pluribus Unum (Latin for “One from many” or “One from many parts.”) was approved for

use on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782. It still appears on coins and currency, and was

widely considered the national motto de facto. However, by 1956 it had not been established so by

legislation as the official “national motto”.

The Congressional Record of 1956 reads: “At the present time the United States has no national motto.

The committee deems it most appropriate that ‘In God we trust’ be so designated as U.S. national motto.”

One possible origin of In God We Trust is the final stanza of The Star-Spangled Banner. Written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key (and later adopted as the U.S. national anthem), the song contains an early reference to a variation of the phrase: “…And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust’.”

Use on coins and currency

As excerpted from the United States Treasury Department’s public education website:

The motto In God We Trust was placed on United States coins largely because

of increased religious sentiment existing during the American Civil War.

Secretary of Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout

Christians throughout the country, urging the United States recognize God on

United States coins.

Wikipedia
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A little bit about Chase:

I find it telling that, whilst he insisted on inserting God onto and into everything, he had no compunction putting his own face on the dollar bill to boost his chance for POTUS.

He would fit in perfectly with the rightwing nuts of today, spouting religion while chasing power with an uncontrollable lust, that knows no bounds and has no conscience.

There is no mention here of “many appeals from devout Christians”.

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Chase was smitten by a malady that would plague him the rest of his life, ‘presidential fever’. He tried to secure the presidential nomination of the first republican convention in 1856 but failed. Trying for the nomination again in 1860 Chase felt he was entitled to the republican presidential nomination.

Failing to muster even the support of the Ohio Delegation Chase lost the nomination to Illinois Senator Abraham Lincoln.

Lincoln made the comment about Chase, “I prefer him to myself; for Doctor Branford says Governor Chase combines greater executive, administrative and high statesmanlike ability than any man living.”9

Ohio, however, preferred Chase in the US Senate in 1860, and returned him there as a republican.

In the campaign of 1863 Treasury Secretary Chase would try unsuccessfully to replace Lincoln on the republican ticket.

During the Impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, 1868, the democrats began to solicit Chief Justice Chase as a presidential candidate.

Chase was not opposed to a democratic nomination if that party accepted universal suffrage.

Two days after being sworn as senator for the second time Chase resigned to accept the offer of Secretary of Treasury from the newly elected president Abraham Lincoln.

Chase brought to the office his fear of monopolies, distrust of bankers, a preference for revenue tariffs and a belief in hard money. His principles would be tested by an empty treasury coffer and a long civil war that would cost the nation more than twenty billion dollars.

Professing a total ignorance of financial matters, Lincoln placed the entire problem of financing the Civil War to Salmon Chase. The Treasury Secretary would issue create the Internal Revenue Division and adopt a national banking system in attempts to keep the nation from going bankrupt.

Against his beliefs, and believing that issuing greenbacks to be unconstitutional, but with the debts from the war mounting and not being paid, Chase lobbied the congress to pass the Legal Tender Acts of 1862 and 1863.

This enabled the printing of paper money as a legal substitute for gold and silver for pre-existing debts including taxes, internal duties, personal debts, and excise taxes. debts.

After the war as Chief Justice, Chase would disown his own offspring and declare the Legal Tender Acts unconstitutional.

‘In God We Trust’ was printed on every piece of U.S. currency for the first time in 1864 by order of the Secretary of the Treasury.

The face of the Treasury Secretary graced the one dollar dominations.

The most common of the bills, it was the one the public was most like to possess. Thereby keeping Mr. Chase’s image in the mind of the potential voters in the next presidential elections. He was nick named ‘Old Mr. Greenbacks.’

While Lincoln admired Chase’s financial genus, relations between the two men were never cordial. Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union at all costs. Chase would not comprise on the abolition of slavery for all states.

‘And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of all mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.’

The last line of the Emancipation Proclamation was written by Chase at the suggestion of Lincoln when Chase called to the President’s attention that there was no mention of the Deity.10

A devout religious man, Chase read the Bible every day and sought comfort from the loss of his wives and children in God.

http://abernassy.tripod.com/

We best take care of the land and the fish if humans want food to eat, a diversity of wildlife with which to cohabit, and a healthy forest.

“Today, we as a nation will pause to honor those who fought to protect our country and especially its Christian heritage…..

…Let us also pause to evaluate our own lives — the Christian lives our soldiers won for us.

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Excuse me, but I thought that American soldiers fought to preserve our freedom, including the freedom to follow ANY religion we choose, or NONE at all. I bet this would come as quite a surprise to all the members of the military who are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Wiccan, atheist…

Sometimes, knowing that there are people out there who really believe this stuff really scares me.

http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/1007606.html