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was the first government of that kind to appear in the history of nations.

"It was with amazement that the kingdoms of the old world beheld the appearance of Columbia, Queen o' the Nations, majestic in her beautiful robe of precious principles.

"No true child of the United States, looking back to the days of the nation's birth can refrain from a feeling of joy and pride. The purity of the lives of 'the fathers,' the loftiness of their principles and precepts, and the rectitude of their intentions, challenge our admiration. The peace which comes with evening fills our breasts as we meditate upon the early hours of the Western Republic.

"The founders of the United States were not filled with greed and lust for power. These were not the motives which buoyed up the hearts of the colonists during the long and weary years of the revolution. A far different light than this flashed from the heart anvils at Valley Forge. They only asked that their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness be accorded them. With that calm determination which lights up martyrs' faces they refer to the Supreme Judge of the world as to the rectitude of their intentions. And for the support of the principles which they declared, with a firm reliance upon the protection of divine Providence, they grandly said, 'we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.'

"Witness the father of his country stipulating that no pay should ever be given him for his services. Listen to the Christian modesty of his first inaugural address.

"Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the

notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month.'

""On the one hand I was summoned by my country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love, from a retreat which I had chosen with the fondest predilection, and in my asylum of declining years, a retreat which was rendered every day more necessary, as well as dear to me by the addition of habit, of inclination and of frequent interruptions in my health, to gradual waste committed on it by time."

"On the other hand, the magnitude and difficulty of the trust to which the voice of my country called being sufficient to awaken in the wisest and most experienced of her citizens, a distrust in his qualifications, inheriting inferior endowments from nature, and unpracticed in the duties of civil administration, one ought to be peculiarly conscious of his own deficiencies. In this conflict of emotions all I dared to aver is that it has been my faithful study to collect my duty from a just appreciation of every circumstance by which it might be affected.'

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"Such being the impression 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 administraton to execute with success the functions allotted to his charge.'

"In tendering this homage to the 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 found 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 in the important revolution just accomplished in the system of their united government, the tranquil deliberation 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 become established without some return of pious gratitude along with an humble anticipation of the future blessings which the past seems to presage.'

"Having thus imparted to you my sentiments as they have been awakened by the occasion which brings us together, 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 favored 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 on which the success of this government must depend.'"

Everywhere, and in every way, peace, prayer and unanim ity seemed to breathe upon the birthday of the United States.

The United States was the first government in the history of nations established upon principles.

There are two underlying principles upon which her government is based and by which the powers of governors are limited. These two principles are Republicanism and Protestantism. They are defined as follows:

First, that government is of the people. This is the essence of Republicanism.

Second, that government is of right entirely separate from religion. This is the essence of Protestantism.

It is because of these two principles that the sifted wheat of all the earth has sought the soil of these United States. It is because of the two precepts of power that the United States has been a pleasant land in which to live.

These two things, Protestantism and Republicanism, are the birthright of the nineteenth century. They are the exact opposite of the systems of he Old World, of all the church of Rome has ever taught, believed or practiced, by them the very foundation stones of her structure were undermined.

The Fathers recognize that this is so. On that mystic symbol of legal government, the Great Seal of the United States, this nation has recorded its thoughts concerning itself as it was in the beginning. On this seal are two inscriptions. One in Latin, "Novus Ordo Seculorum"-a new order of things; the other in English, "God hath favored the undertaking." Republicanism as opposed to monarchy: that government is of right of the people, rather than the divine right of kings, is the first principle in the new order of things. Protestantism as opposed to the tenets of the papacy, that

government is entirely separate from religion, is the second. principle in the new order of things.

"These were the flaming topics, and burning questions at the close of the eighteenth century. These were the goodly heritage of the nineteenth."-The Battle of the Centry, by P. T. Magan.

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