In God We Trust...

[devilmech]

In light of the recent developments relating to the Ten Commandments situation, i decided to look into the history of the phrase "In God We Trust", and how it got to be on our currency. was the person who headed the 'IGWT' campaign referring to any specific deity? read on...

The year was 1861. This preacher dude named Rev. M. R. Watkinson of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania sent a letter to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase stating the following(excerpt):

"One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins.

You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were not shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation? What I propose is that instead of the goddess of liberty we shall have next inside the 13 stars a ring inscribed with the words PERPETUAL UNION; within the ring the allseeing eye, crowned with a halo; beneath this eye the American flag, bearing in its field stars equal to the number of the States united; in the folds of the bars the words GOD, LIBERTY, LAW."

this letter was written by a Christian minister, and it seems as if the deity being referred to is none other than the God of the Christian faith.

so what happens next you say? well, the secratary of the treasury was so moved by the letter that he himself wrote a letter 7 days later to a guy by the name of James Pollock, who ran the show over at the Philedelphia Mint. the letter read like this:

"Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins. You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition."

well, 2 years later, the dude who ran the mint designed the coins and came up with two choices for a motto:
1. "OUR COUNTRY; OUR GOD"
2. "GOD, OUR TRUST"

The secratary of the treasury emailed (o wait, 1863, nm) the MintMaster back and said the following:
"I approve your mottoes, only suggesting that on that with the Washington obverse the motto should begin with the word OUR, so as to read OUR GOD AND OUR COUNTRY. And on that with the shield, it should be changed so as to read: IN GOD WE TRUST. "

now, you may say, hold the friggen phone birdman! you mean 3 guys got together, came up with the idea, and started pumping out coins!?!?

nah, its doesnt fly like that; the group still needed federal legislation to start pressing the new coinage. well, on April 22, 1964, they got the go-ahead for the motto on the one and two cent coins. a year later, March 3, 1865, another act of congress put the motto on all coins.

and the rest is history!

[bballad]

You missed one point, that secratary of the tresury was from a political party whose stated goal was to abolish the constitution and replace it with a thocracy. Humm I guess we wheren't a christian nation after all.

[THE RADICAL]

Lol, looks like some leftist feathers have been ruffled here huh?

Although I do find devilmech's historical findings pretty interesting, if he can back it up with a source.

Just as well, it is obvious that when our government was founded there were people involved that applied biblical principals to it, but hey? that's another thread .

By the way, that...

preacher dude

you were talking about is more commonly known as a priest.

Just a little r-e-s-p-e-c-t, tell me what it means to me cha! We'll get along fine that way.

-- So excited, finally got my car all set today, ready to take her out on the road!

--Peace

[cheyenne1212]

One piece of advice radical.

Cars do not mix with a a ditch and a bunch of trees.

Trust me

Now to this post at hand.

I think that we should keep the ten commandmets, and that we should keep "In God we Trust" on our money. After all if you read you history books, America was founded on christian beliefs.

[bballad]

Umm lets see proff of that founding on chirstian belifes. oh an radical unless hes catholic hes not a preist, as this guy was protistant I think preacher dude is just as fitting as anything.

[devilmech]

Myself, I don't believe anything belongs on our money besides the value of it, and something to authenticate that it came from the us mint. You can put a pretty picture of some historical building if you want, but putting crap like "In god we trust" on our money is going to make a lot of people bitch, much like they are doing now.


Myself, it's friggin money. It spends the same, no matter if they put "You are stupid" on it.

Besides, the way I look at it, the more of it I get rid of, the more trust in god I get rid of... in a rather literal sense anyway

[FrameWork]

Myself, it's friggin money. It spends the same, no matter if they put "You are stupid" on it.

Then what are you so worried about?

[devilmech]

Originally posted here by FrameWork


Then what are you so worried about?

Who said I was worried about anything?

[FrameWork]

Your post's imply you are.

[cheyenne1212]

Hey people why is The Radical getting negged???

This is the cosmos forum in case you have forgotten. You are suppose to leave your AP's outside. People in here are purely stating there opinion which should not be judged.

Go read the sticky at the top of this forum. It clearly says no negging in here.