To: PROLIFE who wrote (25553 ) 5/30/1999 10:54:00 AM From: PROLIFE Respond to of 39621
April 30, 1789 George Washington having just taken the oath of office, with his hand on the Bible opened to the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy , went in to address the congress and said in part the following: "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 Unites 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 alloted 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 the people 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, can not 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. We ought be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which Heaven itself has ordained; and since the preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered as deeply, perhaps finally, staked on the experiment...." quote reprinted by permission from America's God And Country; Encyclopedia of Quotations.