This Day in History: “In God We Trust”

On this day in 1864, the stage is set for a change in American coinage. The country was then in the midst of the Civil War. Times were difficult, and some had been calling for a way to boost morale. Do you know the story of the 1864 two-cent coin?

It was the first time that “In God We Trust” appeared on American money.

The groundwork had been laid much earlier, in 1861. The Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase, was then receiving appeals to recognize God on coins. Most famously, he received a November 13 letter from M.R. Watkinson, a minister.

“You are probably a Christian,” Watkinson wrote. “What if our Republic were now shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation?” He argued that the “Goddess of Liberty” on coins should be replaced with a design including “the words God, Liberty, Law.”

“This would make a beautiful coin,” he concluded, “to which no citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the divine protection we have personally claimed. From my heart I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.”

The words seem to have struck Chase. Soon afterwards, he wrote his own letter, directing the Philadelphia Mint to prepare some potential designs. “The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins,” Chase declared. “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.”

But what should the motto be? Several options were floated: “Our Country; Our God,” “God, Our Trust.”  Or what about “Our God and Our Country” or “In God is our Trust”?

It was Chase who finally suggested “In God We Trust.”

One final hurdle presented itself: Congressional approval was needed before any such change could be made. That approval came on April 22, 1864. Congress did not dictate the motto, but it did authorize a change in composition for the one-cent coin and allowed the Mint to create a two-cent coin.

The two-cent coin was the first to be minted and to bear the inscription “In God We Trust.”  While that coin didn’t last long, as a historical matter, Congress acted several times in the years that followed to ensure the motto would appear on other coins and, eventually, paper money.

In 1956, of course, “In God We Trust” officially became the national motto.

“[W]e are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America’s heritage and future,” Dwight Eisenhower explained shortly before the motto was adopted, “in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country’s most powerful resource, in peace or in war.” 

The General turned President was simply echoing the thoughts of another General turned President. George Washington felt that America owed its very existence to a divine hand.

“No People can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand,” Washington famously stated, “which conducts the Affairs of men more than the People of the United States. Every step, by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.”

Obviously, we are free to be religious—or to not be religious. But as we approach our 250th birthday, perhaps it’s worth remembering that many Founders believed reliance on Divine Providence was an important component of our early success.

Constitution4Kids.com

Primary Sources:

• David Kemper Watson, History of American Coinage (1899)

• Dwight D. Eisenhower, Remarks Recorded for the “Back-to-God” Program of the American Legion (Feb. 20, 1955)

• Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President Upon Signing Bill To Include the Words “Under God” in the Pledge to the Flag (June 14, 1954)

• George Washington, First Inaugural Address (Apr. 30, 1789)

• “No Motto” Letter, Philadelphia, United States, 1861

• The Motto “In God We Trust” (Journal of Numismatics; April 1901)

• The Restoration of the Motto (United States Mint)

• Tara Ross & Joseph C. Smith, Jr., Under God: George Washington and the Question of Church and State (2007)