[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16736-16737]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  REAFFIRMING ``IN GOD WE TRUST'' AS THE OFFICIAL MOTTO OF THE UNITED 
                                 STATES

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. JAMES LANKFORD

                              of oklahoma

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, November 3, 2011

  Mr. LANKFORD. Mr. Speaker, I hear many people say, that our country 
has never been more at odds or our rhetoric more divisive than now--I 
would strongly disagree. While I believe that our debate and tone 
should reflect respect for each person, regardless of the deep 
philosophical divide--I would remind us of a time in 1861 when our 
nation stood at the precipice of the Civil War and the oratory spilled 
over into bloodshed. During that dark moment in our nation's history, 
the Secretary of the Treasury ordered the Director of the US Mint to 
create a new inscription for the nation's coins: He wrote,

       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.

  The Director of the Mint responded back with a variation of the 
phrase used in the Star

[[Page 16737]]

Spangled Banner, The Motto, ``In God is our trust''--since it was a 
familiar hymn and indicative of the American people, but though he 
thought it had too many letters for a coin, so he recommended ``God our 
Trust'', it was later finalized as, ``In God we Trust'' and was first 
put on a two cent coin in 1864, near the end of the Civil War. Most 
coins then followed with that motto until 1907 when some coins were 
approved without the words, In God we Trust, but after a huge public 
outcry, it was added back in 1908.
  This was not an isolated moment in our American story, it was a 
consistent theme of our American story.
  As we struggled as a group of thirteen small colonies we penned, ``We 
are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights. . . .''
  As I already mentioned, Francis Scott Key watched the shelling of 
Baltimore in 1814 after the burning of Washington, DC thinking that 
this could be the decisive moment when our young nation would be wiped 
out, he wrote the Star Spangled Banner--which ends with ``So this be 
our motto, In God is our Trust.''
  After fighting World War I and then in short order World War II, then 
immediately finding the world waging the Cold War against Communism in 
the 1950's, we declared again our national value, what defines our 
nation--how we are different than the rest of the world.
  The Communists declared their confidence that man can solve every 
problem of mankind, the educated and benevolent heart and mind of a few 
leaders could fix all of man's inequities, if you would only put your 
trust in the government.
  In 1954 and 1956 our nation declared again with a resounding voice by 
adding, Under God, to the pledge, In God we trust to all currency and 
declaring ``In God we Trust'' as our official national motto. The 
Francis Scott Key's poem, that became a song, that declared since 1814, 
``this is our motto, In God is our trust'' finally actually became our 
official motto.
  In a time of national crisis the nation, through its elected leaders 
declared again that as a free people, we do not put our trust in 
Congress, the President, the Supreme Court, in the creativity of people 
or anyone else. We expect that the nation's leaders will also be the 
nation's humble servants, but we do not put our trust in them.
  We have a national optimism because we believe that this world and 
this nation was created with a purpose and that the creator cares for 
his creation--from our founding documents, we believe that all people 
are created equal and are given certain rights from God, including 
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. We are different as 
American, we believe that our rights come from God, not men--our core 
value comes from something higher than ourselves. It is that belief 
that drives Americans to not give up in the struggle to restore our 
great Republic.
  We have been through hard times before, war, depression, poverty and 
struggle, but in this world of chaos, debt, irresponsibility and fear 
it is wise to stop and reflect again on our hope and our trust--we must 
work with all diligence to do what is right--but we should also 
remember that at the end of the day, we will have this world and its 
problems in right perspective if we will work and put our trust in God. 
This is not an establishment of a religion, it is an acknowledgement of 
our history, our present and our future--we are a diverse nation, with 
all kinds of belief and some with no belief--but a common theme has 
resonated through each national crisis, In God we Trust.
  In this moment of national debate over the issue of our day, I 
encourage the continued support of this simple and historic national 
motto.