Since this
is Presidents’ Day, I thought it might serve us well to look
at an excerpt from
the first president’s inaugural speech,
acknowledging God’s divine hand in the
work of the new nation.
Excerpt from
President George Washington's First Inaugural
Speech (1789)
…Such being the impressions under which I have, in obedience
to the public summons, repaired to the present station, it would be peculiarly
improper to omit in this first official act my fervent supplications to that
Almighty Being who rules over the universe, who presides in the councils of
nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His
benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the
United States a Government instituted by themselves for these essential
purposes, and may enable every instrument employed in its administration to execute
with success the functions allotted to his charge.
In tendering this
homage to the Great Author of every public and private good, I assure myself
that it expresses your sentiments not less than my own, nor those of my fellow-
citizens at large less than either.
No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the
Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United
States.
Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an
independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of
providential agency; and in the important revolution just accomplished in the
system of their united government the tranquil deliberations and voluntary
consent of so many distinct communities from which the event has resulted cannot
be compared with the means by which most governments have been established
without some return of pious gratitude, along with an humble anticipation of
the future blessings which the past seem to presage.
These reflections,
arising out of the present crisis, have forced themselves too strongly on my
mind to be suppressed. You will join with me, I trust, in thinking that there
are none under the influence of which the proceedings of a new and free
government can more auspiciously commence….
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