Senate Chaplain Peter Marshall prayed: "May freedom be seen not as the right to do as we please but as the opportunity to please to do what is right. May it be ever understood that our liberty is under God and can be found nowhere else. May our faith be something that is not merely stamped upon our coins, but expressed in our lives."
Executive Orders are not specifically mentioned in the Constitution, but Article 2, Section 3, does say the President is to "take care that the laws be faithfully executed."
On January 1, 1802, Jefferson wrote back, agreeing with the Baptists: "Gentlemen ... Believing WITH you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions..."
Presidents' Day is actually Washington's birthday, recognized by an Act of Congress for government offices in Washington, D.C., in 1879, and for all federal offices in 1885.
President McKinley approved a Resolution of Congress, April 20, 1898: "Whereas the abhorrent conditions which have existed for more than three years in the island of Cuba, so near our own borders, have shocked the moral sense of the people of the United States, have been a disgrace to Christian civilization ..."
