After being sworn in as President of the United States,
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