This commentary is by Paul L. Kendall, a retired corporate and not-for-profit executive who lives in Braintree.
On Town Meeting Day we begin by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance to remind us of the values we share and to set the tone for our public discussion. Whether we were born in Vermont or are newcomers, are high school or college graduates, gun owners or haters, Libertarians, Progressives, Republicans or Democrats, the pledge reminds us of what we all hold most sacred: the unity of our nation and its promise of “liberty and justice for all.” But it was not always so.
In school we learned that the Declaration of Independence declared that “all men are created equal.” We also learned that, a few years later, after the Revolutionary War, the promise of equality was compromised when slavery was protected in our Constitution.
The resulting conflict, between the ideal that we fought for in the Revolution and what we accepted in order to become a nation, ultimately led to the Civil War. But what many of us do not realize is that our Civil War resolved this conflict in favor of the declaration’s ideal of equality.
President Lincoln’s 1863 Gettysburg Address signaled the end of the Constitution’s compromise. His opening words — “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation” — date the founding of our nation to 1776, the date of the declaration and not to 1787, the writing of the Constitution.
Then after the war, this commitment of our country to equality among all men was confirmed by the adoption of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments to the Constitution. (The Nineteenth Amendment, giving women the right to vote, followed some decades later.)
Hearts and minds are seldom changed by words alone, however. Even after the Civil War, many resisted the promise of equality. Lingering prejudice, plus the differing economic, social and political self-interests of a rapidly expanding and industrializing country that was also trying to welcome waves of immigrants added new regional and cultural challenges.
It looked to some leaders in the last half of the nineteenth century as though the nation was coming apart again.
In response arose the idea of having a patriotic pledge that could pull the nation back together. Among the first proposals, one written in 1892, was the pledge that we use today. In the spirit of Lincoln, it said, “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” It quickly spread across the country, especially in our public schools.
Although gradually modified over the years — especially to include “under God” — this is the only pledge that has been endorsed by congressional resolutions, enacted into federal law and found to be constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court. It has been recited in schools for over 130 years. It has been used by our military service since the First World War. Both houses of Congress say it to begin their daily business. And today in Vermont we commence our Town Meetings by repeating it. No other pledge comes close to being as authoritative a commitment to our nation’s unity and values.
Unfortunately, these newer words of unity can also fail to change hearts and minds. When we listen to current political rhetoric and attend some public meetings, too often we hear a few people shouting that their rights to liberty are greater than the rights of others or that granting justice for them can deny justice to others. This behavior is anathema to the pledge.
And so, while the Pledge of Allegiance unites us, it also sits in judgment of our political rhetoric.
When we stand beside our neighbors and our children to recite the pledge, we commit ourselves to listen respectfully to the views of others and to gracefully accept the decisions of the whole assembly. That is what we do on Town Meeting Day here in Vermont, and it is heart-warming to see it happen elsewhere all year long.
