The phrase appears to have originated in "The
Star-Spangled Banner", written during the War of 1812. The fourth stanza
includes the phrase, "And this be our motto: 'In God is our Trust.'"
Aspirations for the motto arose surrounding the turmoil and
heightened religious sentiment that existed during the Civil War. The Reverend
M. R. Watkinson, as part of a campaign initiated by eleven northern Protestant
Christian denominations in a letter dated November 13, 1861, petitioned the
Treasury Department to add a statement recognising "Almighty God in some
form in our coins." At least part of the motivation was to declare that
God was on the Union side of the Civil War. According to Brian Burrell, the
actual wording of the motto was inspired by a Union Civil War unit's company
motto.
Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase acted on this proposal and
directed the then-Philadelphia Director of the Mint, James Pollock, to begin
drawing up possible designs that would include the religious phrase. Chase
chose his favorite designs and presented a proposal to Congress for the new
designs in late 1863.
As Chase was preparing his recommendation to Congress, it was
found that the Act of Congress dated January 18, 1837, prescribed the mottoes
and devices that should be placed upon the coins of the United States. This
meant that the mint could make no changes without the enactment of additional
legislation by the Congress. Such legislation was introduced and passed on April
22, 1864, allowing the Secretary of the Treasury to authorize the inclusion of
the phrase on one-cent and two-cent coins.
Another Act of Congress passed on March 3, 1865. It allowed
the Mint Director, with the Secretary's approval, to place the motto on all
gold and silver coins that "shall admit the inscription thereon." In
1873, Congress passed the Coinage Act, granting that the Secretary of the
Treasury "may cause the motto IN GOD WE TRUST to be inscribed on such
coins as shall admit of such motto."
The use of In God we trust has not been uninterrupted. The
motto disappeared from the five-cent coin in 1883, and did not reappear until
production of the Jefferson nickel began in 1938. In 1908, Congress made it
mandatory that the phrase be printed on all coins upon which it had previously
appeared. The motto has been in continuous use on the one-cent coin since 1909
and on the ten-cent coin since 1916. It also has appeared on all gold coins and
silver dollar coins, half-dollar coins, and quarter-dollar coins struck since
July 1, 1908. Since 1938, all US coins have borne the motto.
In 1956, the nation was at a particularly tense time in the
Cold War. As a result, the 84th Congress passed a joint resolution to replace
the existing motto with "In God we trust". The change was partly
motivated by a desire to differentiate between communism, which promotes
atheism, and Western capitalistic democracies, which were at least nominally
Christian. The law was signed by President Eisenhower on July 30, 1956, and the
motto was progressively added to paper money over a period from 1957 to 1966.
(Public Law 84-851) The United States Code at 36 U.S.C. § 302, now states:
"'In God we trust' is the national motto."
In 2006, on the 50th anniversary of its adoption, the Senate
reaffirmed "In God we trust" as the official national motto of the
United States of America. In 2011 the House of Representatives passed an
additional resolution reaffirming "In God we trust" as the official
motto of the United States, in a 396-9 vote. According to a 2003 joint poll by
USA Today, CNN, and Gallup, 90% of Americans support the inscription "In
God We Trust" on U.S. coins.
The phrase has been incorporated in many hymns and
religio-patriotic songs. During the American Civil War, the 125th Pennsylvania
Infantry for the Union Army assumed the motto "In God we trust" in
early August 1862.
Feisal Abdul Rauf, a Muslim imam writes that the phrase “In
God we trust” resonates with Islamic teaching, offering two verses from the
Qur’an: "Our Lord, we have indeed heard a Crier calling to faith, saying
'Trust in your Lord, so we have trusted..." (Quran 3:193) or "[The
messenger and the believers] trust in God, in His Angels, His Scriptures, His
Books and His Messengers..." (Quran 2:285). Similarly, Melkote Ramaswamy,
an Hindu American scholar, writes that the presence of the phrase “In God we
trust” on American currency is a reminder that “there is God everywhere,
whether we are conscious or not.”
After the September 11 attacks, public schools across the United
States posted "In God We Trust" framed posters in their
"libraries, cafeterias and classrooms." The American Family
Association supplied several 11-by-14-inch posters to school systems and vowed
to defend any legal challenges to the displaying of the posters.
