The Pledge of Allegiance was written for the popular children’s magazine Youth’s Companion by Christian Socialist author and Baptist minister Francis Bellamy on September 7, 1892. The owners of Youth’s Companion were selling flags to schools, and approached Bellamy to write the Pledge for their advertising campaign. It was marketed as a way to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus arriving in the Americas and was first published on the following day.[1]

An excerpt from the September 8, 1892 Youth’s Companion with the original Pledge of Allegiance (the full page is available from firstmention.com/Documents/pledge1.jpg ).

An excerpt from the September 8, 1892 Youth’s Companion with the original Pledge of Allegiance (the full page is available from firstmention.com/Documents/pledge1.jpg ).

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Bellamy’s original Pledge read as follows: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, and was seen by some as a call for national unity and wholeness after the divisive Civil War. The pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be stated in 15 seconds. He had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided they were too controversial since many people still opposed equal rights for women and blacks. Bellamy said that the purpose of the pledge was to teach obedience to the state as a virtue.[citation needed]

After a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892 during Columbus Day observances. This date was also significant as it was the dedication day of the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois. Bellamy thought that the pledge itself and the involvement of children across the country would be a fine show of national solidarity.

In 1923 and 1924 the National Flag Conference called for the words my Flag to be changed to the Flag of the United States of America. The reason given was to ensure that immigrants knew to which flag reference was being made. The U.S. Congress officially recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge on December 28, 1945.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance

and:

The Pledge of Allegiance was first published for Columbus Day, on September 8, 1892, in the Boston magazine The Youth’s Companion. It was written by a member of the magazine’s staff, Francis Bellamy. The publication of the Pledge, and its wide redistribution to schools in pamphlet form later that year lead to a recitation by millions of school children, starting a tradition that continues today.

The original text is: “I pledge of allegiance to my flag and the Republic for which it stands – One nation indivisible – with liberty and justice for all.”

Several minor changes to the text, including changing “my flag” to “to the Flag of the United States of America,” were made over time, some “official” and some less so.

In its 1940 Gobitis decision (310 US 586), the Supreme Court ruled that schools can compel students to recite the Pledge. The U.S. Congress recognized the Pledge officially in 1942, and in 1954 added the phrase “under God” to the text. In 1943, the Supreme Court overturned Gobitis and ruled in its Barnette decision (319 US 624) that school children could not be forced to recite the Pledge as a part of their school day routine.

Today, the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance is set in the US Code, at 4 USC 4. The text of that section is below.

If you would like more information on the U.S. flag, I suggest that you visit USFlag.org, an excellent site with lots of resources concerning the flag and its evolution.

http://www.usconstitution.net/pledge.html

and:

A Brief History of the Pledge of Allegiance

The U.S. Constitution, which represents the supreme law of the United States of America, was completed in 1787. Over a hundred years later, Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister from New York, wrote a pledge of allegiance.

Bellamy chaired a committee of state superintendents of education, and public schools all around the country were preparing a celebration the anniversary of Columbus Day. Rev. Bellamy desired a special celebration, and he wanted to center it around a flag-raising ceremony and salute.

The first pledge stated:

“I pledge allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The phrase was printed on leaflets and sent to schools throughout the United States. The first organized use of the Pledge of Allegiance came on Oct. 12, 1892, when some twelve million American school children recited it to commemorate the 400-year anniversary of Columbus’ voyage.

Notice the words “my Flag” in the first pledge. This phrase was in the Pledge until 1924, when a National Flag Conference announced that the words “my Flag” would be changed to “the Flag of the United States of America.” This change stemmed from a fear that that the children of immigrants might confuse “my Flag” for the flag of their homeland. Thus the second pledge was:

“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

The phrase, “under God,” was added by Congress in 1954 during the Eisenhower administration at the urging of the Knights of Columbus in order to distinguish the United States from the “godless atheistic” communistic Soviets. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, fearing an atomic war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, joined the lobbyist requesting changes be made to the pledge. Congress submitted to Eisenhower’s wishes and the Pledge was revised to:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

http://www.teachingaboutreligion.org/WhatsNew/ThePledge.htm#A%20Brief%20History

Have Fun!

“Bellamy’s original Pledge read as follows: I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all, and was seen by some as a call for national unity and wholeness after the divisive Civil War. The pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be stated in 15 seconds. He had initially also considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided they were too controversial since many people still opposed equal rights for women and blacks. Bellamy said that the purpose of the pledge was to teach obedience to the state as a virtue.

After a proclamation by President Benjamin Harrison, the Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892 during Columbus Day observances.

Before World War II, the Pledge would begin with the right hand over the heart during the phrase “I pledge allegiance”. The arm was then extended toward the Flag at the phrase “to the Flag”, and it remained outstretched during the rest of the pledge, with the palm facing upward, as if to lift the flag.

The Knights of Columbus in New York City felt that the pledge was incomplete without any reference to a deity. Appealing to the authority of Abraham Lincoln, the Knights felt that the words “under God” which were from Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address were most appropriate to add to the Pledge.

Though the Knights of Columbus tried, they were unsuccessful in their attempts to persuade the United States government to amend the pledge. Bills were introduced as early as 1953, when Representative Louis C. Rabaut of Michigan sponsored a resolution at the suggestion of a correspondent. It was a Presbyterian minister who made the difference in 1954 by preaching a sermon about Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. The minister was George MacPherson Docherty, a native of Scotland who was called to succeed Peter Marshall as pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church near the White House, where, in 1863, the same year as the address, Lincoln attended and even rented a pew. After Lincoln’s death, the pew that he rented became something of a national monument. It became customary for later United States presidents to attend services at the church and sit in the Lincoln pew on the Sunday closest to Lincoln’s birthday (February 12) each year.”

Just some of it. Want the entire document? Go to my source!

Quoted from wikipedia.com.

Here’s the actual page where the Pledge first appeared in 1892:

http://firstmention.com/Documents/pledge1.jpg

and there’s lot’s more detail here:

http://firstmention.com/pledgeofallegiance.aspx