The Pledge_ A History of the Pledge of Allegiance - Jeffrey Owen Jones [30]
This historic shift in dates was what consumed the thoughts of some members of Congress in 1892. After all, Columbus set foot in the Americas on October 12 of the Old Style calendar, not the new. This strictness of historical dates gathered adherents within Congress to move to change the date for the observation of Columbus Day, or “Discovery Day.”
The controversy about Gregorian versus Julian calendars had not been resolved throughout the world in 1892. Many countries by that date had not adopted the Gregorian calendar. In fact, it would not be until 1929 that worldwide adoption of a single calendar—the Gregorian—was achieved. Until that time, world travelers would go from one country to another and literally not know what day it was. Part of the problem with the adoption of the Gregorian calendar is that its original source was a decree by a Catholic pope. Non-Catholic countries had no interest in this new calendar. For example, non-Catholic England and its colonies, including, of course, the American colonies, did not adopt the Gregorian calendar until 1752. By that time there was an eleven-day difference between the Old Style Julian calendar and the Gregorian system. The official change within England and its possessions took place in September of 1752; the day that followed September 2, 1752, was September 14, 1752. All old dates were readjusted to fit the new system. So, for example, George Washington’s birthday, which was February 11, 1732, suddenly jumped to February 22 during the year 1753, as it is noted on the calendar today.
For Bellamy, the arguments over the precise historic date to mark the Columbus landing proved infuriating. He had a deadline to meet and needed an official date, whatever it might be, to focus the Companion’s school events around. Congress, and more significantly congressional staff members, dithered back and forth over the issue as precious weeks melted away.
Bellamy himself wanted to stay with the October 12 date in part because the Companion had already announced that October 12 was the date for the celebration, but also because large-scale events had already been announced and planned on that date for New York City and for the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
But punctilious members of Congress continued to press the importance of strict historic correctness by refusing to allow the United States of America to officially declare any date but October 21 as the date of the Columbus landing—noting that in 1492 the difference between a Julian calendar date and a reconsidered date under the Gregorian calendar would have been nine days.
Back and forth the calendar argument went, until it looked like the entire enterprise might end in a stalemate. With the “21” camp refusing to bend, Bellamy finally gave in, bowing to the need for a timely congressional resolution.
As June turned toward July, Bellamy again descended on the executive mansion, where he learned that paperwork for the proclamation had gone to the State Department where it had stalled for weeks.
“I immediately called upon Secretary of State [John] Foster and asked him if the proclamation might not be hurried,” Bellamy later wrote. Secretary Foster, in his cabinet post less than a month, was about to show the presumptuous magazine factotum the door when an assistant came in to report that the order for the proclamation had just been received. Seizing the moment, Bellamy pressed the issue with a velveteen coyness that might have made Machiavelli blush. “I thought that possibly I was in a position to contribute one or two valuable points of view as to [the proclamation’s] phrasing,” he recounted years later. “I gave as my only excuse that in view of the coming election a tactful wording of that proclamation was very important, and that . . . the whole matter up till now had resulted from personal conferences with Congressional leaders and the