"It is, therefore, recommended to the legislatures, or executives, powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the 18th of December next, for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the people of this country may express their grateful reverence, and consecrate themselves to the service of their divine benefactor, and that together, with their sincere acknowledgments, they may join in a penitent confession of their manifold sins, whereby they had forfeited every favor, and their humble and earnest supplication may be that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive and blot them out of remembrance; that it may please him graciously to shower his blessings on the government of these States, respectively, and to prosper the public council of the whole United States; to inspire our commanders, both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude which may render them fit instruments, under the providence of Almighty God, to secure for these United States the greatest of all blessings--independence and peace; that it may please him to prosper the trade and manufactures of the people, and the labor of the husbandman, that our land may yield its increase; to protect schools and seminaries of learning, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety, under his nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of religion for the promotion and enlargement of the kingdom which consists of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. "It is further recommended that all servile labor and such recreation as at other times innocent may be unbecoming the purpose of this appointment on so solemn an occasion." This historic document was adopted by Congress on the 30th of October, 1777, and sent to the governors of the respective States on the 1st of November by the President of the Congress, Henry Lawrens, of South Carolina, who had just been elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Hancock, of Massachusetts. THE WHISKEY REBELLION. It was Henry Lee, of Westmoreland county, a Virginian, known through the war for independence as "Light Horse Harry," who, in 1792, crushed out the Whiskey Rebellion in Pennsylvania and restored order to the four counties in rebellion. He was at the time Governor of Virginia, and was in command of 15,000 troops, raised by special requisition of President Washington from the States of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. It was this Henry Lee who delivered the funeral oration in Congress on Washington, in which he used those words which will last in history as long as the memory of Washington shall be revered, "He was first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen." CHIEF JUSTICE MARSHALL AND SUPREME COURT.