A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Section 1 (of 3) of Volume 10.
History
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Section 1 (of 3) of Volume 10.
Presidents -- United States; United States -- History -- Sources; United States -- Politics and government
The Union of the States is at the present moment threatened with
alarming and immediate danger; panic and distress of a fearful character
prevail throughout the land; our laboring population are without
employment, and consequently deprived of the means of earning their
bread. Indeed, hope seems to have deserted the minds of men. All classes
are in a state of confusion and dismay, and the wisest counsels of our
best and purest men are wholly disregarded.
In this the hour of our calamity and peril to whom shall we resort for
relief but to the God of our fathers? His omnipotent arm only can save
us from the awful effects of our own crimes and follies--our own
ingratitude and guilt toward our Heavenly Father.
Let us, then, with deep contrition and penitent sorrow unite in humbling
ourselves before the Most High, in confessing our individual and
national sins, and in acknowledging the justice of our punishment. Let
us implore Him to remove from our hearts that false pride of opinion
which would impel us to persevere in wrong for the sake of consistency
rather than yield a just submission to the unforeseen exigencies by
which we are now surrounded. Let us with deep reverence beseech Him to
restore the friendship and good will which prevailed in former days
among the people of the several States, and, above all, to save us from
the horrors of civil war and "blood guiltiness." Let our fervent prayers
ascend to His throne that He would not desert us in this hour of extreme
peril, but remember us as He did our fathers in the darkest days of the
Revolution, and preserve our Constitution and our Union, the work of
their hands, for ages yet to come.
An omnipotent Providence may overrule existing evils for permanent good.
He can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath
He can restrain. Let me invoke every individual, in whatever sphere of
life he may be placed, to feel a personal responsibility to God and his
country for keeping this day holy and for contributing all in his power
to remove our actual and impending calamities.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS.
[From Sparks's Washington, Vol. X, pp. 11-12.]
NEW YORK, _June 8, 1789_.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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