American Quotations by William J. Federer 2024

United States Congress (May 18, 1789) the U.S. Senate delivered the following address to President George Washington and Vice-President John Adams: <We, the Senate of the United States, return you our sincere thanks for your excellent speech delivered to both Houses of Congress.... We are, with you, unavoidably led to acknowledge and adore the Great Arbiter of the universe, by whom empires rise and fall. A review of the many signal instances of divine interposition in favor of this country, claims our most pious gratitude; and permit us, sir, to observe, that, among the great events which have led to...

United States Congress (May 8, 1789) the U.S. House of Representatives delivered the following address to President George Washington: <The Representatives of the People of the United States present their congratulations on the event by which your fellow-citizens have attested the pre- eminence of your merit. You have long held the first place in their esteem.... We feel with you the strongest obligations to adore the Invisible Hand which has led the American People through so many difficulties, to cherish a conscious responsibility for the destiny of republican liberty; and to seek the only sure means of preserving and recommending...

United States Congress (May 1, 1789) elected the Reverend William Linn, a Presbyterian minister from New York City, as the first chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives, appropriating $500.00 dollars from the Federal treasury to pay his salary. In addition to opening Congressional sessions with prayers, House Chaplains regularly held Christian services in the Capitol House Chambers every Sunday. In 1860, Rabbi Morris Jacob Raphall was the first Jewish clergyman invited to open a House session with prayer. Both the House and the Senate have continued to regularly open every session with prayer. On March 23, 2000, The Reverend...

United States Congress (April 30, 1789) was addressed by President George Washington in his First Inaugural Speech to Both Houses of Congress. He had just taken the oath of office on the balcony of Federal Hall, at Wall and Nassau Streets in New York City, with his hand upon a Bible, reportedly opened to Deuteronomy, chapter 28. Following in the tradition of English coronation ceremonies, where the newly crowned Sovereign would place his hand on the Bible and say "The things which I have here before promised, I will perform and keep. So help me God," President George Washington kissed...

United States Congress (April 23, 1789) the schedule of events for that special day was published in the newspaper, Daily Advertiser: <On 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 and in a solemn manner commit the new Government, with its important train of consequences, to the holy protection and blessings of the Most High. An early hour is prudently fixed for this peculiar act of devotion, and it is designed wholly for prayer.> 1789US005 On April 25, 1789, the...