The National Motto - In God We Trust

"In God We Trust", designated as the U. S. National Motto by Congress in 1956, originated during the Civil War as an inscription for U. S. coins, although it was used by Francis Scott Key in a slightly dif- ferent form when he wrote The Star Spangled Banner in 1814.

On November 13, 1861, when Union morale had been shaken by battlefiled defeats, the Rev. M. R. Watkinson, of Ridleyville, PA, wrote to Secre- tary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase. "From my heart I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters," the minister wrote, suggesting "recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins."

Secretary Chase ordered designs prepared with the inscription "In God We Trust" and backed coinage legislation which authorized use of this slogan. It first appeared on some U. S. coins in 1864, disappeared and reappeared on various coins until 1955, when Congress ordered it placed on all paper money and all coins.