<P> Louis Albert Bowman, an attorney from Illinois, was the first to suggest the addition of "under God" to the pledge . The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution gave him an Award of Merit as the originator of this idea . He spent his adult life in the Chicago area and was chaplain of the Illinois Society of the Sons of the American Revolution . At a meeting on February 12, 1948, he led the society in reciting the pledge with the two words "under God" added . He said that the words came from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address . Although not all manuscript versions of the Gettysburg Address contain the words "under God", all the reporters' transcripts of the speech as delivered do, as perhaps Lincoln may have deviated from his prepared text and inserted the phrase when he said "that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom ." Bowman repeated his revised version of the Pledge at other meetings . </P> <P> In 1951, the Knights of Columbus, the world's largest Catholic fraternal service organization, also began including the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance . In New York City, on April 30, 1951, the board of directors of the Knights of Columbus adopted a resolution to amend the text of their Pledge of Allegiance at the opening of each of the meetings of the 800 Fourth Degree Assemblies of the Knights of Columbus by addition of the words "under God" after the words "one nation ." Over the next two years, the idea spread throughout Knights of Columbus organizations nationwide . On August 21, 1952, the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus at its annual meeting adopted a resolution urging that the change be made universal, and copies of this resolution were sent to the President, the Vice President (as Presiding Officer of the Senate), and the Speaker of the House of Representatives . The National Fraternal Congress meeting in Boston on September 24, 1952, adopted a similar resolution upon the recommendation of its president, Supreme Knight Luke E. Hart . Several State Fraternal Congresses acted likewise almost immediately thereafter . This campaign led to several official attempts to prompt Congress to adopt the Knights of Columbus policy for the entire nation . These attempts were eventually a success . </P> <P> At the suggestion of a correspondent, Representative Louis C. Rabaut (D - Mich .), of Michigan sponsored a resolution to add the words "under God" to the Pledge in 1953 . </P> <P> Before February 1954, no endeavor to get the pledge officially amended had succeeded . The final successful push came from George MacPherson Docherty . Some American presidents honored Lincoln's birthday by attending services at the church Lincoln attended, New York Avenue Presbyterian Church by sitting in Lincoln's pew on the Sunday nearest February 12 . On February 7, 1954, with President Eisenhower sitting in Lincoln's pew, the church's pastor, George MacPherson Docherty, delivered a sermon based on the Gettysburg Address entitled "A New Birth of Freedom ." He argued that the nation's might lay not in arms but rather in its spirit and higher purpose . He noted that the Pledge's sentiments could be those of any nation: "There was something missing in the pledge, and that which was missing was the characteristic and definitive factor in the American way of life ." He cited Lincoln's words "under God" as defining words that set the US apart from other nations . </P>

When did we stop saying the pledge of allegiance in school