I hardly see a conflict there, since the original intention of promulgating the Pledge, shortly after the Civil War, was to brainwash everyone into viewing the U.S. as one big homogenized entity happily existing under one big government, state sovereignty be d@mned.
The Pledge was written in 1892, not exactly "shortly after" the CW. It didn't take off big-time till the patriotic frenzy of our entry into WWI in 1917.