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Government-Sponsored Prayer
Sponsored by the Government that Wrote the Constitution
On April 6, 1789, following the ratification of the Constitution, George Washington was
selected president; he accepted the position on April 14, 1789, and his inauguration was
scheduled in New York City (the nation's capitol) for April 30, 1789. A leading New York
Daily newspaper reported on the planned inaugural:
[O]n the morning of the day on which our illustrious President will be invested with
his office, the bells will ring at nine o'clock, when the people may go up to the house of
God and in a solemn manner commit the new government, with its important train of
consequences, to the holy protection and blessing of the most high. An early hour is
prudently fixed for this peculiar act of devotion and . . . is designed wholly for prayer.
(New York Daily Advertiser, Thursday, April 23,
1789, p. 2)
The details of this report are in line with Congressional resolutions. On April 27,
three days before the inauguration, the Senate:
Resolved, That after the oath shall have been administered to the President, he,
attended by the Vice President and members of the Senate and House of Representatives,
shall proceed to St. Paul's Chapel, to hear divine service. (Annals of Congress,
Vol 1, p. 25, April 27, 1789; available online at Library of Congress.)
After being sworn in, George Washington delivered his "Inaugural Address" to a joint session of Congress.
In it Washington declared:
[I]t 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 . . . . 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 . . . 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.
[W]e ought to 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 . . . .
Messages and Papers of the Presidents, George Washington,
Richardson, ed., vol. 1, p.44-45
Following his address, the Annals of Congress
reported that:
The President, the Vice-President, the Senate, and House of Representatives, &c.,
then proceeded to St. Paul's Chapel, where Divine service was performed by the chaplain of
Congress.
Several months later, Congress contemplated whether it should request the President to
declare a national day of Thanksgiving. The Annals of Congress for
Sept 25, 1789 record these discussions:
Mr [Elias] Boudinot said he could not think of letting the session pass
over without offering an opportunity to all the citizens of the United States of joining
with one voice in returning to Almighty God their sincere thanks for the many blessings He
had poured down upon them. With this view, therefore, he would move the following
resolution:
Resolved, That a joint committee of both Houses be directed to wait upon the President
of the United States to request that he would recommend to the people of the United States
a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful
hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity
peaceably to establish a Constitution of government for their safety and happiness.
. . .
Mr. [Roger] Sherman justified the practice of thanksgiving, on any signal event, not
only as a laudable one in itself but as warranted by a number of precedents in Holy Writ:
for instance, the solemn thanksgivings and rejoicings which took place in the time of
Solomon after the building of the temple was a case in point. This example he thought
worthy of Christian imitation on the present occasion; and he would agree with the
gentleman who moved the resolution. Mr Boudinot quoted further precedents from the
practice of the late Congress, [he was a member of the Continental Congress from 1778-79
and 1781-84 and President of the Continental Congress 1782-83] and hoped the motion would
meet a ready acquiescence. [Boudinot was also founder and first president of the American
Bible Society.] The question was now put on the resolution and it was carried in the
affirmative.
On this very same day, Congress approved the final wording of the First Amendment.
The Congressional resolution was delivered to President Washington who heartily
concurred with its request. On Oct 3, 1789, he issued the
following proclamation:
Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to
obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and
favor, and Whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me
"to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanks-giving and
prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of
Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of
government for their safety and happiness."
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th. day of November next to be
devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who
is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may
then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and
protection of the People of this country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the
signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we
experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of
tranquillity, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and
rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for
our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the
civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring
and diffusing useful knowledge and in general for all the great and various favors which
he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications
to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other
transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our
several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a
blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and
constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide
all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless
them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of
true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and Us, and generally to
grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.
Would Washington, Sherman, and other signers of the Founding
Charters of America approve of a public school system in which non-sectarian prayer and
Bible reading have no place? Isn't a "duty of all nations" a duty of schools as
well?
Only the most dedicated Secularist or the most ignorant fool could miss the truth.
Notes
The New York Daily Advertiser is quoted in Barton, Original
Intent, p. 113.
More on prayer available at http://www.christiananswers.net/wall/et_schoolprayer.html
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