Religion: In God We Trust

“What if our republic were now shattered?” wrote the Rev. M. R. Watkinson to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon Portland Chase on Nov. 13, 1861. “Would not antiquaries of succeeding centuries reason from our past that we were heathen nation?” Secretary Chase’s response was the motto, “In God We Trust,” which first appeared on the bronz two-cent pieces of 1864.

Last year Congress made the slogan compulsory for all coins and paper cur rency (TIME, June 20, 1955). Last week the Senate passed a bill making it the official motto of the U.S. Said Wyoming’ Democratic Senator Joseph O’Mahoney reporting on the bill for the Judiciary Committee: “It will be of great spiritua and psychological value to our country.”