“We give our heads and our hearts to our country. One country, one language, one flag!”
Entry in progress—BP
Wikipedia: Pledge of Allegiance
Balch pledge
An early pledge was created in 1887 by Captain George T. Balch, a veteran of the Civil War, who later became auditor of the New York Board of Education. Balch’s pledge, which was recited contemporaneously with Bellamy’s until the 1923 National Flag Conference, read:
We give our heads and hearts to God and our country; one country, one language, one flag!
Balch was a proponent of teaching children, especially those of immigrants, loyalty to the United States, even going so far as to write a book on the subject and work with both the government and private organizations to distribute flags to every classroom and school. Balch’s pledge, which predates Francis Bellamy’s by 5 years and was embraced by many schools, by the Daughters of the American Revolution until the 1910s, and by the Grand Army of the Republic until the 1923 National Flag Conference, is often overlooked when discussing the history of the Pledge.