WASHINGTON: On April 30, 1789, newly-elected President George Washington, dressed in a plain brown broadcloth suit, stood on the second balcony of Federal Hall in New York City. Before approximately 10,000 spectators, he swore the oath of office to affirm his determination to fulfill the duties of the new office of President of the United States. On this day, in Washington’s First Inaugural Address, the Father of the newly born Republic did not call attention to himself, but he called attention to God’s work in creating the new nation.
“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”
It is recorded that despite all the extensive preparations and detailed planning for this historic ceremony, as the presidential parade carrying Mr. Washington by horse-drawn carriage approached Federal Hall, someone realized that no Holy Bible had been procured.
A Bible would have been required by law for the actual swearing-in part of the ceremony.
The problem was soon resolved, as it has been reported that the parade marshal, Jacob Morton, rushed off and brought back a King James Bible that was laid upon a crimson velvet cushion held by Samuel Otis, Secretary of the Senate.
Robert Livingston, Chancellor of New York in the Court of Chancery, had the honor of administering the oath because he was the highest-ranking judicial official in the state. Livingston had also been one of the original committees of five that in 1776 had drafted the Declaration of Independence.
The King James Bible was opened, and Washington placed his left hand upon it, raised his right hand, and repeated the words of the oath of office, which he had helped to write for Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution:
“I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
It was also recorded that after the official oath, President George Washington said “so help me God,” and bent down and kissed the open Bible.
In 2020, several politicians would rather not publically take an oath of office than be caught in a video using the word God for fear it would be used as a soundbite on some mainstream media report (MSM), which might cost them voters.
So, the mainstream media has the power to cast fear into those brave enough to run for public office today. To challenge their dominion over what they define as the “truth,” or what the MSM constituents willingly tolerate.
This is how far America has strayed from the foundations of our nation.
And, it is not only due to the mainstream media. As Americans look back upon our first President, Washington, we are truly the ones who choose to “buy” into the MSM “gospel of truth” or the narratives of the Left, or the various progressive-revisionist historians.
George Washington in 2020
If George Washington were running in 2020, it is unlikely that he would have been cast in a dignified manner by the MSM. Especially as such a polite gentleman who tended to make references to God in his speeches. He would have done poorly on mainstream media television and on CNN, CBS, or MSNBC news reports.
Yet, Washington’s courage, dignity, and tenacious adherence to republican principles is hard to match among contemporary politicians. The idea that a public figure should not lie to the American public now seems an irrelevant character trait.
Candidates of both major political parties no longer regard honesty as a virtue but as an annoyance.
2020 is still an election year, and there are two men running for the honor to represent the American people as their duly elected president. However, the case may be made that only one, President Trump, is concerned about representing the American people. Biden, the Democrat’s choice, is primarily concerned with representing his Party and all the various interests behind him in support of undermining the citizens and the American Constitution.
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The case may be made that only one candidate, Trump, is concerned about preserving, protecting, and truly defending the Constitution of the United States. In reality, of the two candidates, only President Trump represents the American people. That is when he is not defending himself from false witnesses and false allegations against him.
2020 is still an election year, and one candidate has actually stood up for God and God’s real foundation of this nation:
“That we still hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
The opponent clearly demonstrates that he is an American in name only. He has seemingly violated what he may claim to be his religious principles by supporting abortion when his Party told him needed to do so. Right to Life? Not when Democrats oppose it.
During his time in public office, Biden has not supported liberty in the sense of an overwhelming stance for religious freedom in America or throughout the world.
Our nation was conceived in liberty upon the foundation of the religious freedom that the Pilgrim Fathers sought as they came to America exactly 400 years ago. The seeds of their intense desire for religious freedom were planted by people of faith who willingly gave their lives that it could be realized on this continent.
Such a historical example permitted the founding of this nation.
Sadly, this is a fundamental principle that the Democrats have violated more than once.
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness – for me, not thee
Additionally, Biden seems to have the conception that the pursuit of happiness is for himself, his own family, and his political Party in that order, or whatever order works in the day it needs to work. To the opponent, pursuit of virtue, which is what the Founding Fathers understood as the pursuit of happiness, is a foreign concept. (How five members of Joe Biden’s family got rich through his connections)
Joe Biden is more interested in the pursuit of personal pleasure or of material or political gain. And, that is not only true of the Biden, but it is true of this generation of the “political leaders” of the U.S.A. Today, Donald J. Trump is an anomaly in such a generation because he stands boldly for the fundamental principles in our founding documents.
Donald Trump resembles more a George Washington of this day
Yet many people in various corners of the nation would lose their minds if someone gives him credit for resembling the “Father of the Country.” Certainly, for Americans who treasure religious freedom, Trump has demonstrated in his first three years, that he sincerely believes in religious liberty.
Yet, the mainstream media moguls, the Left, the “Hollowood” elitists, and the Never Trumpers would not care that much about such “antiquated things” as science is a new religion.
On the side of the antiquated ones, in ending his inaugural address Washington concluded with these words:
“I shall take my present leave; but not without resorting once more to the benign Parent of the human race, in humble supplication that since He has been pleased to favor the American people, with opportunities for deliberating in perfect tranquility, and dispositions for deciding with unparalleled unanimity on a form of Government, for the security of their Union, and the advancement of their happiness; so his divine blessing may be equally conspicuous in the enlarged views, the temperate consultations, and the wise measures on which the success of this Government must depend.”
Washington viewed religion and morality as dual pillars of support for the political stability and success of the nation. One very powerful statement that reflected how the first POTUS deeply regarded religious values were expressed in his “Farewell Address” to the American people. It has been regarded as one of the “world’s most remarkable documents” because it served as the humble point of view of a man who was turning control of the nation over to others, and it offered a set of values that Washington hoped would assure the survival of a fledgling America.
In the midst of Washington’s shared wisdom, he highlighted his regard for religion as being important to the political success of the nation:
“Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of patriotism, who should labor to subvert these great pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of men and citizens? The mere politician, equally with the pious man, ought to respect and to cherish them.”
A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity.
Let it simply be asked: Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation deserts the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice?
And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.
Washington, as well as those of the founding generation, in general, had faith in God, an “Almighty Being” and did not want to limit the worship of God.
They saw the precious rights of American citizens as gifts from God – life, liberty, and the pursuit of virtue – leading to the public good or well-being. Today these notions seem foreign because a genuine and insidious domestic enemy is attempting to undermine the foundational principles that George Washington and the Founders fought to establish.
Look around and see the tyrannical actions of politicians in the COVID Pandemic. This is a time that American citizens face a clear choice between the foundation and the eradication of the foundation by any means necessary.
The Democrat Party, or now more clearly perceived as the domestic enemy, has now aligned everyone who opposes the fundamental principles of the Republic. A good indicator of it is the parroting of Chinese accusatory rhetoric against a man who supports those foundational principles.
In a faith-based reality, Trump resembles Washington because he has to fight for the retention of the United States of America just as Washington had to fight for the conception and birth of the Land of the Free. And in both cases, there is an involvement of God Is very much discernable — in spite of what the secular humanists, atheists, and Leftists would like us to believe.
