:|Hotel Charlie One wrote:
:|>
:|> Note" that does *not* say that "E Pluribus Unum"
:|> or anything else for that matter was not the national motto at that
:|> time.
:|
:|"AT PRESENT THE UNITED STATES HAS NO NATIONAL MOTTO."
:|
:|That sentence excludes the possibility that E Pluribus Unum was the
:|national motto.
:|
:|> The Newdow complaint goes on to say:
:|
:|Newdow's complaint is no authoritative source of any fact.
:|
:|As a matter of fact, his "In God We Trust" suit was rejected and
:|dismissed about a month ago.
:|
:|> 6 264. It should also be noted that the de facto motto of the United
:|> States was "E pluribus
:|> 7 unum" for the 180 years from 1776 until 1956.
:|
:|Notice that even Newdow has the integrity to call it the "de facto"
:|motto.
:|
:|Do you know what "de facto" means? It means that it is not official,
:|but generally accepted in practice.
:|
:|> This motto was
:|> chosen by a committee
:|> formed on July 4, 1776, whose members were none other than
:|> Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams.
:|
:|Actually it was Pierre Eugène Du Simitière who proposed the motto for
:|the front of the seal, E Pluribus Unum. The mottos Franklin and
:|Jefferson derived on their own was "Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience
:|to God." (so much for Jefferson not wanting to involve God in the
:|identity of the State)
:|
:|SOURCE: http://memory.loc.gov/ll/lljc/005/0200/02750690.gif
:|
:|Also, note that Franklin and Jefferson wanted the National Seal to
:|include a picture of Moses leading the Hebrews through the Red Sea with
:|God's presence guiding them, pursuant to the Bible.
:|
:|> 10 265. Now that's historic! Yet that motto - in place since its
:|> creation by a committee that had
:|> 11 its birth on the day we declared our independence, and that
:|> was comprised of three of
:|> 12 the most renowned and important architects of our
:|> constitutional democracy - was
:|> 13 discarded by Congress.
:|
:|Newdow is wrong. The motto wasn't discarded. That motto remains on the
:|front of the Seal, and consequently on the back of every one dollar
:|bill. It was never adopted as "the national motto." It was, with two
:|others, a motto adopted for the National Seal.
:|
:|> 14 266. This was done even though "an unbroken practice . . . is not
:|> something to be lightly cast
:|> 15 aside." Marsh v. Chambers, 463 U.S. 783, 790 (1983) (citing
:|> Walz v. Tax Comm'n, 397
:|> 16 U.S. 664, 678 (1970).
:|> 17 267. That no concern for "history" was heard from Congress when "E
:|> Pluribus Unum" was
:|> 18 replaced by "In God We Trust" shows clearly that the
:|> "history" justification is a mere
:|> 19 pretext.
:|
:|One of the most idiotic aspects of Newdow's complaint about discarding
:|a secular motto (E Pluribus Unum) with a religious one (In God We
:|Trust), is that E Pluribus Unum is only one of the three mottos on the
:|seal. Another motto found there, which was proposed and adopted by
:|those "founding architects" of the U.S. is Annuit Coeptis (latin for
:|"God has favored our beginning"). This continues to be printed on every
:|dollar bill.
:|
:|Sources:
:|U.S. Treasury
:|http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currency/portraits.html#q3
:|U.S. Mint http://www.moneyfactory.com/document.cfm/18/120
:|U.S. State Department
:|http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/27807.pdf
:|
:|> > http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/36/302.html
:|>
:|> Very good, that's what it is now. It says nothing about what the motto
:|> was before.
:|
:|Fine, show me a cite in the U.S. Code prior to 1956 that says the same
:|thing about E Pluribus Unum. If you can't, then its fair to say that In
:|God We Trust is the national motto IN A WAY THAT E PLURIBUS UNUM NEVER
:|WAS.
:|
:|> Specifically what is needed from you is another reference to say that
:|> we had *no* national motto before 1956.
:|
:|The reality is that there were a whole lot of mottos prior to 1956 that
:|were used in various places as phrases identifying the character of the
:|nation. Each of these is accurately identified as "A national motto"
:|but only one of them ever attained the official status as "THE national
:|motto."
:|
:|These mottos include, but are not limited to:
:|
:|Don't Tread On Me (used on the most prominent battle Flag when
:|independence was declared 1776)
:|Rebellion to Tyrants is Obedience to God (proposed by Jefferson &
:|Franklin, 1776)
:|Deo Favente (proposed by William Barton 1782)
:|E Pluribus Unum (used on the national seal 1782)
:|Unum E Pluribus (used on early U.S. coins)
:|Novus Ordo Seclorum (used on the national seal 1782)
:|Annuit Coeptis (used on the national seal 1782)
:|Libertas Americana (used on a gold coin proposed by Franklin, 1783)
:|Non Sine Diis Animosus Infans (used on a gold coin proposed by
:|Franklin, 1783)
:|Liberty (used on early coins 1793 and following)
:|Fugio (used on early coins 1787)
:|Mind Your Business (used on early coins 1787)
:|We are One (used on U.S. coin 1787)
:|In God is Our Trust (used in the national hymn, 1814)
:|In God We Trust (used on buttons @1834, coins 1864)
:|Maintain the Union (used on U.S. currency during the civil war)
:|
:|As all of these mottos were approved by the U.S. government to be used
:|as national identifiers on various official products of the government,
:|any one of them can be called a national motto, in a sense. But as far
:|as "THE *official* national motto" is concerned, the U.S. government
:|has only voted on ONE: to wit,
:|
:|http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/36/302.html
:|
:|If you can show where the government adopted any other as *the*
:|national motto, I would be very interested to see your source.
:|Otherwise, "In God We Trust" did not *replace* any previous official
:|motto. The language of the 1956 bill was not in error.
:|
:|E Pluribus Unum was no more the unique one-and-only national motto than
:|Annuit Coeptis was. They both were national mottos. In God We Trust is
:|the first motto that is officially THE national motto.