Supporting standards comprise 35% of the U. S. History Test 26 (E)

Supporting Standard (26) The student understands how people from various groups contribute to our national identity. The Student is expected to: (E) Discuss the meaning & historical significance of the mottos “E Pluribus Unum” & “In God We Trust”

Supporting Standard (26) The student understands how people from various groups contribute to our national identity. The Student is expected to: (E) 1 Discuss the meaning & historical significance of the motto “E Pluribus Unum”

E pluribus unum E pluribus unum—Latin for “Out of many, one” (alternatively translated as “One out of many” or “One from many”)—is a phrase on the Seal of the U. S., along with Annuit cœptis (Latin for “He approves [has approved] of the undertaking”) and Novus ordo seclorum, (Latin for “New Order of the Ages”) and adopted by an Act of Congress in Never codified by law, E pluribus unum was considered a de facto motto of the United States until 1956 when the U. S. Congress passed an act (H. J. Resolution 396), adopting “In God We Trust” as the official motto.

The motto was suggested in 1776 by Pierre Eugene du Simitiere to the committee responsible for developing the seal. At the time of the American Revolution, the exact phrase appeared prominently on the title page of every issue of a popular periodical, The Gentleman’s Magazine which collected articles from many sources into one “magazine.” While Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum appear on the reverse side of the great seal, E pluribus unum appears on the obverse side of the seal, the image of which is used as the national emblem of the United States, and appears on official documents such as passports. It also appears on the seal of the President & Vice President, as well as the seal of the House of Representatives & Senate, and the Supreme Court.

The understood meaning of the phrase was that out of many states (or colonies) emerge a single nation. However, in recent years its meaning has come to suggest that out of many peoples, races, religions and ancestries has emerged a single people and nation— illustrating the concept of the melting pot. The first coins with E pluribus unum were dated 1786 and struck under the authorization of the State of New Jersey by Thomas Goadsby and Albion Cox in Rahway, New Jersey.

Supporting Standard (26) The student understands how people from various groups contribute to our national identity. The Student is expected to: (E) 2 Discuss the meaning & historical significance of the motto “In God We Trust”

In God we trust “In God we trust” was adopted as the official motto of the U. S. in 1956 as an alternative or replacement to the unofficial motto of E pluribus unum, which was adopted when the Great Seal of the United States was created and adopted in “In God we trust” first appeared on U. S. coins in 1864 and has appeared on paper currency since Some secularists object to its use.

In 1956, the nation was at a particularly tense time in the Cold War, and the United States wanted to distinguish itself from the Soviet Union, which promoted state atheism. As a result, the 84 th Congress passed a joint resolution “declaring IN GOD WE TRUST the national motto of the United States.” 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 The United States Code at 36 U. S. C. § 302 now states: “‘In God we trust’ is the national motto.”

Those who advocate the separation of church & state have questioned the legality of this motto, asserting that it violates United States Constitution which forbids the government from passing any law respecting the establishment of religion. Religious accomodationists state that this entrenched practice has not historically presented any constitutional difficulty, is not coercive, and does not prefer one religious denomination over another.

The motto was first challenged in Aronow v. U. S. in 1970, but the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled: “It is quite obvious that the national motto and the slogan on coinage and currency ‘In God We Trust’ has nothing whatsoever to do with the establishment of religion. Its use is of patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise.” The decision was cited in Elk Grove United School District v. Newdow, a 2004 case on the Pledge of Allegiance. These acts of “ceremonial deism” are “protected from Establishment Clause scrutiny chiefly because they have lost through rote repetition any significant religious content.” In Zorach v. Clauson (1952), the Supreme Court also held that the nation’s “institutions presuppose a Supreme Being” and that government recognition of God does not constitute the establishment of a state church as the Constitution’s authors intended to prohibit.

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