<P> In subsequent publications of the Daughters of the American Revolution, such as in 1915's "Proceedings of the Twenty - Fourth Continental Congress of the Daughters of the American Revolution" and 1916's annual "National Report," the Balch Pledge, listed as official in 1906, is now categorized as "Old Pledge" with Bellamy's version under the heading "New Pledge ." However, the "Old Pledge" continued to be used by other organizations until the National Flag Conference established uniform flag procedures in 1923 . </P> <P> In 1923, the National Flag Conference called for the words "my Flag" to be changed to "the Flag of the United States," so that new immigrants would not confuse loyalties between their birth countries and the US . The words "of America" were added a year later . Congress officially recognized the Pledge for the first time, in the following form, on June 22, 1942: </P> <P> 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 . </P> <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>

Words to the pledge of allegiance to the flag