U.S. and the Bellamy salute

Above: A group of schoolchildren performing the Bellamy salute, May 1942

The U.S. and the Bellamy salute

Mitt Romney’s misfire on the national anthem

“We are the only people on the earth that put our hand over our heart during the playing of the national anthem. It was FDR who asked us to do that, in honor of the blood that was being shed by our sons and daughters in far-off places.”

— Mitt Romney, Feb. 2, 2012

President Obama later explained that he had been taught as a child that the hand goes over the heart during the Pledge of Allegiance, but that it was optional during the national anthem.

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      Since these statements have surfaced in the news recently, the Embroiled News top researcher, Jack Baloney, has made an extensive research in the abyss of our archive and has found an abundance of information. Needlessness to say, we only report  true facts made available from reliable sources so our readers will not be perceived as dunces during heated discussions at cocktail parties. Misleading news information will never be our intent.
      Briefly then and to the point, the Bellamy salute is the salute described by Francis Bellamy (1855–1931) to accompany the American Pledge of Allegiance, which he had authored. During the period when it was used with the Pledge of Allegiance, it was sometimes known as the "flag salute.”
      The inventor of the saluting gesture was James B. Upham, junior partner and editor of The Youth's Companion. Bellamy recalled Upham, upon reading the pledge, came into the posture of the salute, snapped his heels together, and said, "Now up there is the flag; I come to salute; as I say 'I pledge allegiance to my flag,' I stretch out my right hand and keep it raised while I say the stirring words that follow . . . "
      The Bellamy salute was first demonstrated on October 12, 1892 according to Bellamy's published instructions for the "National School Celebration of Columbus Day." Pupil, in ordered ranks, hands to the side, faced the Flag; a signal was then given and every pupil gave the flag the military salute -- right hand lifted, palm downward, in line with the forehead and close to it. Standing thus, all repeat together, slowly, the pledge allegiance to the Flag and Republic.
     
      The initial civilian salute was replaced with a hand-on-heart gesture, followed by the extension of the arm as described by Bellamy.

      In the 1920s, Italian fascists adopted the Roman salute to symbolize their claim to have revitalized Italy on the model of ancient Rome. This was quickly copied by the German Nazis, creating the Nazi salute. The similarity to the Bellamy salute led to confusion, especially during World War II. From 1939 until the attack on Pearl Harbor, detractors of Americans who argued against intervention in World War II produced propaganda using the salute to lessen those Americans' reputations.

Above: Children performing the Bellamy salute to the flag of the United States, Hawaii, March 1941.

     In order to prevent further confusion or controversy, President Franklin D. Roosevelt instituted the hand-over-the-heart gesture as the salute to be rendered by civilians during the Pledge of Allegiance and the national anthem in the United States, instead of the Bellamy salute. This was done when Congress officially amended the Flag Code on 22 December 1942.
       There was initially some resistance to dropping the Bellamy salute, for example from the Daughters of the American Revolution, but this opposition died down quickly.
      As it stands now, in actuality, the U.S. Flag Code says that, for civilians, the hand should go over the heart during both the pledge and the anthem. But the language is precatory (“should”), not mandatory (“shall”). In other words, Obama may have violated a patriotic custom enacted by Congress, but no legal sanctions are authorized for failing to put one’s hand over the heart during the national anthem.

      Jack Baloney

>> In part, quoted passages for this article came from Wikipedia, and the Washington Post.