of this fearful struggle. The following words conclude his terse and appropriate reply: "Perhaps, sir, no occasion may offer, more suitable than the present, to express my humble thanks to God, and my grateful acknowledgments to my country, for the great and uniform support I have received in every vicissitude of fortune, and for the many distinguished honors which Congress has been pleased to confer upon me in the course of the war." Washington renders "humble thanks to God," the Being who, as we have seen, had been so devoutly addressed in the prayers urgently invited by Congress for the success of the American arms.

In the great act of the resignation, we find him alluding reverently to "the patronage of Heaven," and his " gratitude for the interposition of Providence." Who can read, without profound emotion, the following language? - "I consider it an indispensable duty to close this last act of my official life by committing the interests of our dearest country to the protection of Almighty God; and those who have the superintendence of them, to his holy keeping." Immortal sage, honored of God and man!- may the inspirations of thy exalted statesmanship fall upon the future representatives of American liberty!

We have thus before us the devout manner in which the Father of his Country passed through the eight years of his military life. Let us now observe the spirit with which he began his civil career. On the thirtieth day of April, 1789, he who had surrendered his sword to the people he had saved, at the very time when, according to the history of human ambition, he should have used it to fasten upon them the chains of a military despotism, was inaugurated the first Chief Magistrate of the new nation. With unaffected dignity and humility, he had mentioned the anxieties and selfdistrust which mingled with his gratitude and joy; and he then added, "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 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 cannot be compared with the means by which most governments have been established, without some return of pious gratitude, along with a humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seems to presage. The reflections arising out of the present crisis have forced themselves too strongly upon 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." Thus spake the great Washington, the broadest, truest representative man of his country and of his age. He felt the heavy pressure of this hitherto unequalled responsibility, and bore his burden immediately to the throne of grace. He could not perform his first official act without presenting his "fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who presides over the

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councils of nations, and whose providential aid can supply every human defect;" and, "in tendering this homage to the great Author of every public and private good," he believes that he expresses the sentiments of the members of Congress, and of his "fellow-citizens at large," not less than his own; states most forcibly the paramount obligation of the American people to acknowledge and adore the invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men;" and solemnly affirms "that 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." With what profound satisfaction do we find here thus vigorously and reverently stated, as if from the very heart and intellect of the Great Republic, the broad, fundamental idea under the control of which this book is written!

THE RELIGION OF AMERICA CONSTRUCTS A GRAND AND DURABLE GOVERNMENT.

We have seen that the outward forms of the nation were marred with great defects, and that vices utterly inconsistent with the fundamental principles of liberty sought to incorporate themselves into the organic law, and, by obstinate persistence and astute scheming, obtained an apologetic, deprecatory expression in that great instrument; but we have also seen that the grand, fundamental fact of republican freedom took its position of rank and power to fight the battles of justice through the ages, and to triumph gloriously when the fulness of time had come.

But we may now glory in the potential reason why right triumphed over might in the War of Independence; why the true theory of government emerged with such clearness and vigor from the conflicts with English despotism; why the freedom of speech and the press, the ballot and the pulpit, triumphed over the restrictions which Papal bigotry had for ages imposed upon the energies of mind and

the struggles of modern civilization; why there was power enough in conceded rights to eradicate the most inveterate evils which had come down from the past. God was the recognized Sovereign of the nation. In the spirit of true humility, all the great achievements of the past were ascribed to him; and, in fervent prayer, all the difficult problems and severe trials of the future were confided to his infinite wisdom and sovereign control.

Besides, and above all that could be found in the convictions and acts of men, there was the historical development of a divine plan for establishing a nation in advance of any that had gone before in the great principles of civil and religious liberty, and providing for a new development of Christian civilization. Hence, and hence only, the amazing foresight and prospective adjustments of that forming age,— provisions as complete for future unknown emergencies as for those which were present. For this reason, despite all its imperfections and wrongs condemned for future destruction, the government has risen in majesty and glory, while rival theories have paled before its steady and increasing light. Philosophical attempts to show its impracticability, and malignant prophecies of its failure, have alike disappeared amid the splendors of its march, until jealous tyrants have alternately eulogized and cursed it; and the longing eyes of the oppressed of all nations have turned to it as the star of hope amid the darkness of despotism. How evidently, therefore, is the whole system pervaded by the elements of an immortal life! The religious influence which presided over its councils, and gave more than human energy to its contending armies, has entered into every organ and tissue of the body politic, and rendered clear as light the fact of a divine purpose in its organization and development.

American liberty - what language can express the glow of rapture with which we contemplate it? We feel the thrill of its life and the throb of its joy as it courses through our veins. Liberty to think and utter our thoughts;

liberty to write and print and read, and no fear of servile police or loathsome cells or murderous injustice; liberty to study and proclaim God's holy word, kneel at his sacred altar, and claim for ourselves the blood of atonement, with no intervening priest, and no artificial terrors from the thunders of the Vatican, - with what gratitude ought we to recognize privileges so exalted, as the gift of Providence alone! But if God be the author of the American system, then here is our grand reliance for permanence and prosperity. We need not be alarmed at the threatening rivalry of selfish politicians, nor the murmurings of sectional strife. Our gallant ship of State will mount the foaming crest, or plunge into ocean deeps, with no peril or harm. Amid the wailings of the storm, you shall hear from her towering mast the joyous cry of "Land ahead!" to hush every fear, and fill every throbbing heart with joy. The ambitious partisan may sound the alarm of impending ruin, - ruin upon a given contingency, and ruin upon the exact opposite: but, by the hand of power which guides our destiny, mere politicians will hereafter, as before, be used or swept aside like cobwebs; while our glorious Republic will move on, in the sphere of a wise and comprehensive Providence, to accomplish her great mission. The life-power of the nation is indestructible.