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
Continued, with a great deal more evidence, here: A Discussion of Theocracy and the Thanksgiving Holiday
The True Meaning of Thanksgiving: The Birth of Private Enterprise in America | Richard M. Ebeling