This Day in American History: "In God We Trust" Becomes the National Motto
- ForAmerica
- 13 hours ago
- 2 min read
On this day in 1956, Congress passed a resolution unanimously and without debate, making four simple words the official motto of the United States.
The phrase "In God We Trust" had already been on American coins since the Civil War, first appearing on a two-cent piece in 1864 after Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase acted on a minister's request to acknowledge God on the nation's currency. By 1938, the phrase appeared on every U.S. coin. But it had never been the nation's official motto -- that unofficial status belonged to "E Pluribus Unum," Latin for "Out of many, one," dating back to the earliest days of the republic.
That changed during the Cold War. Two years after successfully pushing to add "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, President Eisenhower signed Public Law 84-851 on July 30, 1956, declaring "In God We Trust" the official national motto and requiring it be printed on all U.S. paper currency. Rep. Charles E. Bennett of Florida, who sponsored the legislation, argued the country needed an official motto reflecting its spiritual foundation -- explicitly framed as a contrast to the officially atheist Soviet Union. The motto first appeared on paper money the following year, on the 1957 series of $1 silver certificates.
Nearly seven decades later, "In God We Trust" remains in your wallet on every bill and coin, carved above the Speaker's rostrum in the House of Representatives, and adopted as an official state motto in Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi -- a four-word phrase that outlasted the Cold War that inspired it.
Also on this day:
1619 -- The first representative assembly in America convenes in Jamestown, Virginia.
1863 -- Henry Ford is born in Greenfield Township, Michigan.
1945 -- The USS Indianapolis is sunk by a Japanese submarine days after delivering components for the atomic bombs.
1965 -- President Johnson signs Medicare into law, dedicating it to former President Truman.
1966 -- "Wild Thing" by The Troggs reaches No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Four words, unanimous votes, and a motto that's ridden in every American's pocket ever since.
Source: HISTORY.com, U.S. Treasury