[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 26, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: January 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
INAUGURAL PRAYER BREAKFAST ELECTION SERMON FOR VIRGINIA GOVERNOR GEORGE 
                                 ALLEN

                                 ______


                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 26, 1994

  Mr. WOLF. Mr. Speaker, I had the pleasure of witnessing the 
inauguration of our former colleague George Allen as the Governor of 
the Commonwealth of Virginia on Saturday, January 15. As part of the 
inaugural activities, I attended the inaugural prayer breakfast and 
heard the moving election sermon delivered by David Barton which I 
commend to the attention of our colleagues. Mr. Barton of Aledo, TX, is 
president of Speciality Research Associates, an organization which 
specializes in societal, legal, and historical research.

          Inauguration of Virginia Governor-Elect George Allen

       As part of the inaugural activities of this new 
     administration, we have gathered here this morning as people 
     of faith--people who believe in one God, the Creator and 
     Governor of the universe, and the God Who has ordained 
     certain standards for conduct by which both man's 
     relationship to man and man's relationship to God should be 
     governed. What God broadly expects from man may be summarized 
     very simply in these words:
       ``He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth 
     the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love 
     mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?''--MICAH 6:8
       ``The first of all the commandments is . . . The Lord our 
     God is one Lord: and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
     all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, 
     and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. And 
     the second is like, namely this, thou shalt love thy neighbor 
     as thyself. There is no other commandment greater than 
     these.''--MARK 12:29-31
       Although this is the broad overview of what God expects, He 
     does give us many more specifics. We shall consider a few of 
     these specifics in the same format followed by Governor 
     Allen's ancient precedessors from the founding of the nation 
     up to and even after the time of the Civil War. That format 
     was traditionally termed an ``Election Sermon,'' and 
     Virginia's long tradition of election sermons began 375 years 
     ago, with Virginia's first election sermon being delivered in 
     1619.
       This book\1\ from 1809 was written by a foreign visitor to 
     America and describes election sermons and what typically 
     occurred as part of elections here. For example, concerning 
     the election of 1807, it states:
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     Footnotes at end of article.
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       ``[In] the state-house . . . the members of the assembly 
     and others awaited the coming of the governor. At about 
     eleven o'clock, his excellency entered the state-house, and 
     shortly after took his place at the head of a procession, 
     which was made to a . . . church. . . . The procession was . 
     . . composed of . . . the governor, together with the 
     lieutenant-governor, assistants, high-sheriffs, members of 
     the . . . house of assembly, and, unless with accidental 
     exceptions, all the clergy of the state. . . . The pulpit 
     . . . was filled by three, if not four clergymen. . . .  
     [O]ne opened the service with a prayer, another delivered 
     a sermon; and third made a concluding prayer, and a fourth 
     pronounced a benediction. . . . The sermon, as will be 
     supposed, touched upon matters of government. When all was 
     finished, the procession returned to the statehouse.''\2\
       Let me here interject a description from a similar 
     procession witnessed by Dr. Benjamin rush, a singer of the 
     Declaration. He commented:
       ``The Clergy formed a very agreeable part of the 
     procession. They manifested by their attendance their sense 
     of the connection between religion and good government. . . . 
      The Rabbi of the Jews locked in the arms of two minister of 
     the gospel was a most delightful sight. There could not have 
     been a more happy emblem.''\3\
       Returning to the first description, the procession returned 
     to the statehouse to a special banquet, and then:
       ``This done, the lieutenant-governor administered the oath 
     to the governor-elect, who, being sworn, proceeded to 
     administer their respective oaths to the lieutenant-governor 
     and the rest; and here terminated the affairs of the election 
     day.''\4\
       Only relatively recently in our history has this type of 
     election day activities been abandoned. Why did election 
     sermons so long form a part of election activities? Because 
     we were a republic (recall from Article 4, Section 4 of the 
     U.S. Constitution that each state must ``maintain a 
     republican form of government''); and in a republic, both the 
     people and their rulers must be co-laborers; a republic will 
     not survive unless both the elected and the electorate live 
     up to their responsibilities. Consequently, election sermons 
     offered instruction from God's word to both groups: to the 
     elected officials and to the electorate.
       Under this new administration, what should be expected from 
     both the elected and the electorate? Many famous voices of 
     experience from America's past--as well as the Sacred 
     Scriptures themselves--offer answers to this question.


                    the responsibilities of leaders

       1. The first responsibility of leaders is that they should 
     rule in the fear of God. An excellent discussion of this 
     responsibility is given by Founding Father Noah Webster. 
     Webster served as a soldier during the American Revolution 
     and as a legislator in two states after the Revolution; he 
     was the first Founding Father to call for a Constitutional 
     Convention; and he was personally responsible for Article 1, 
     Section 8, of the Constitution. As an educator, he helped 
     establish Amherst College, and he became one of the most 
     prolific textbook writers of any of the Founding Fathers. He 
     published his first school text in 1782 and continued 
     authoring them for the next sixty years, including numerous 
     texts on history, civics, and government. This text from 
     1823\5\ contained the qualifications for elected officials 
     that Webster had often set forth in other works; Webster told 
     students:
       ``[T]he Scriptures teach. . . . that rulers should be men 
     ``who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, 
     men of truth, hating covetousness.''\6\
       These qualifications for rulers which Webster set forth 
     were taken directly from Exodus 18:21, but why were these 
     qualifications important? He continued:
       ``[I]t is to the neglect of this rule . . . that we must 
     ascribe the multiplied frauds, the breaches of trust, 
     peculations and embezzlements of public property, which . . . 
     disgrace a republic government.''\7\
       As James Madison explained, duty to God was seen as the 
     basis of duty to society:
       ``Before any man can be considered as a member of civil 
     society, he must be considered as a subject of the Governor 
     of the Universe.''\8\
       Duty to God was the first duty of a ruler; and even though 
     the Scriptures required it, Abigail Adams, wife of President 
     John Adams, explained from a pragmatic view why it was 
     essential for rulers to fear God. She said:
       ``[H]e who neglects his duty to his Maker, may well be 
     expected to be deficient and insincere in his duty towards 
     the public.''\9\
       The first responsibility of a leader is to rule in the fear 
     of God.
       2. The second responsibility of leaders is to rule in 
     integrity. An excellent definition of integrity is given by 
     Founding Father Benjamin Rush. Benjamin Rush was one of 
     America's most influential Founding Fathers, not only signing 
     the Declaration of Independence, but also serving in the 
     Presidential administrations of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, 
     and James Madison, Furthermore, he was recognized as one of 
     America's top educators, founding five universities, 
     authoring numerous textbooks, and being one of the first 
     Founding Fathers to call for free, national public schools. 
     Of integrity he said:
       ``I think I have observed that integrity in the conduct of 
     both the living and the dead takes a stronger hold of the 
     human heart than any other virtue. . . . By integrity I mean 
     . . . a strict coincidence between thoughts, words, and 
     actions.\10\
       Integrity is when what one thinks and says does not differ 
     from what one does; integrity, very simply, is the ability to 
     keep one's word--a valuable character trait as noted in 
     Psalms 15:
       ``Lord, who shall abide in Thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell 
     in Thy holy hill? . . . He that sweareth to his own hurt and 
     changeth not''--PSALMS 15:1, 4.
       ``Swearing to one's own hurt and changing not'' is merely 
     keeping one's word, no matter what the cost. Our country's 
     history is replete with numerous examples of leaders of 
     integrity--leaders who kept their word at all cost. A mere 
     cursory examination of those fifty-six who placed their hand 
     to the nation's birth certificate--the Declaration of 
     Independence--quickly reveals leaders of integrity--leaders 
     who kept their word at all costs.
       One excellent example is Robert Morris, one of only six men 
     who signed both the Declaration and the Constitution. At the 
     time he pledged `` his life, his fortune, and his sacred 
     honor'' in the Declaration, he was one of America's 
     wealthiest individuals. He was appointed the financier of the 
     American Revolution--and unenviable position, for it was his 
     task to secure financial backing for the Revolution.
       Consider: the American Revolution was simply a group of 
     individuals pledging themselves to overthrow the world's 
     greatest military, naval, and economic power. If we were to 
     try to replicate that feat today and get fifty-six here to 
     make such a pledge, what bank in its right mind would make a 
     loan to that group for that purpose? And so it was in the 
     American Revolution; it was not until three years into the 
     Revolution, after our victory at Saratoga, that loans began 
     to come. So how did they finance the Revolution during the 
     first three years?
       Much of the finances came from Robert Morris: he personally 
     gave over two million to the cause of the Revolution, and it 
     was not money off the top, it was most of what he had. He 
     gave so much that in his latter years, he did not have enough 
     left to meet his own obligations, thus causing him to even 
     spend time in debtors' prison. Morris was never repaid; 
     still, he had given his word--he had pledged ``his life, his 
     fortune, and his sacred honor''; and he kept his word.
       This, then, is integrity, and this is a responsibility of a 
     ruler: to guard carefully his word, but when once given, to 
     keep it even if it is to his own hurt.
       3. The third responsibility of leaders is to be statesmen 
     rather than politicians. Before going further, it is 
     important to define these two terms. Founding Father John 
     Adams has already done this. In his diary entry for February 
     9, 1772,\11\ Adams defined a politician as someone who would 
     compromise his principles in order to advance--whether with 
     his party, his constituents, or a powerful committee head, 
     etc. However, a statesman would not compromise principles, 
     regardless of what it might cost him. What made the 
     difference between the two?
       According to Adams, a statesman embraced the Biblical 
     conviction of the reality of future rewards and punishments. 
     That is, he realized that he must stand before God Almighty 
     and account to Him for his behavior while in office. The 
     awareness of this unescapable truth served as a restraint on 
     personal misbehavior--something especially important for an 
     office-holder; for although termed ``public officials,'' most 
     of their official activities actually occur in private.
       So was John Adams a politician or a statesman? Was he 
     willing to compromise principles; or was he willing to stand 
     firm, even if it cost him? Adams was definitely a statesman--
     he refused to compromise his principles. As he explained:
       ``Such compliances [compromises] . . . of my honor, my 
     conscience, my friends, my country, my God, as the Scriptures 
     inform us must be punished with nothing less than Hell fire, 
     eternal torment. And this [eternal punishment] is so unequal 
     a price to pay for the honors and emoluments [profits] . . . 
     of a [state] minister or Governor, that I cannot prevail upon 
     myself to think of it [compromise]. The duration of future 
     punishment terrifies me.''\12\
       Because he understood that he would answer to God, John 
     Adams guarded his private behavior and carefully weighed his 
     public policy decisions. And this is the third responsibility 
     of a leader: to be a statesman, refusing to compromise 
     principles for political expediency.
       4. The fourth responsibility of a leader is to recognize 
     the principle of collective accountability to God. As John 
     Adams just pointed out, the belief in individual 
     accountability to God was important--it was so important that 
     it frequently appeared in state constitutions. Notice, for 
     example, the Pennsylvania constitution--authored by Benjamin 
     Rush and James Wilson, Benjamin Rush has already been 
     mentioned, but what of James Wilson? James Wilson was a 
     signer of both the Declaration and the Constitution, and he 
     was the second-most active member of the Constitutional 
     Convention, speaking 168 times on the floor of the 
     Convention. He was appointed by President George Washington 
     as an original Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, and 
     Wilson--who understood so well what was Constitutional and 
     what not--authored the following provision:
       ``And each member [of the legislature] before he takes his 
     seat, shall make and subscribe the following declaration, 
     viz.: `I do believe in one God, the creator and governor of 
     the universe, the rewarder of the good and the punisher of 
     the wicked.'''\13\
       The Tennessee constitution, authored by signer of the 
     Constitution William Blount, contained an almost identical 
     provision:
       ``No person who denies the being of God, or a future state 
     of rewards and punishments, shall hold any office in the 
     civil department of this State.''\14\
       The same requirement was found in numerous other state 
     constitutions authored by our Founding Fathers. They grasped 
     the important consequences on human behavior arising from an 
     understanding of personal accountability to God.
       However, they also fully understood the concept of 
     collective accountability to God--that is, a state or a 
     nation being accountable to God; for as surely as God holds 
     individuals accountable for what they do, He also holds 
     nations and states accountable. However, there is a 
     difference between individual and collective accountability--
     a difference explained by Virginia's own George Mason--the 
     father of the Bill of Rights--in his speech on August 27, 
     1787, at the Constitutional Convention. He reminded the 
     delegates the difference between individual and collective 
     accountability:
       ``As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next 
     world, so they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of 
     causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by 
     national calamities.''\15\
       Collective accountability to God--whether it be His rewards 
     for the right or His punishments for the wrong--is 
     administered to states and nations in the present. Thomas 
     Jefferson understood this truth, and he--in words now 
     inscribed inside his memorial in Washington--explained:
       ``And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when 
     we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the 
     minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of 
     God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? 
     Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is 
     just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.''\16\
       Thomas Jefferson--like most of the Founding Fathers--
     understood the important role that religion played in the 
     life of a nation and in the function of civil government. 
     Interestingly, Jefferson's words in three of the four panels 
     which adorn the inside of the Jefferson Memorial contain 
     overt and clear acknowledgments of God. Many today mistakenly 
     celebrate his famous Statute on Religious Liberty\17\ as 
     though he intended a freedom from religion; he did not. His 
     statute simply disestablished a single denomination from 
     ruling the state and placed all denominations on an equal 
     footing under the law--as had already happened in the states 
     surrounding Virginia.
       Convincing evidence of Jefferson's strong belief in the 
     vital connection between religious principles and civil 
     society is supplied not only by his own letters and writings 
     but also by the records of the historical society of 
     Washington, D.C. According to the Columbian Historical 
     Society, Thomas Jefferson--while President--authoried the 
     original plan of education for Washington, D.C.'s public 
     schools, and in that plan he placed the Sacred Scriptures as 
     a primary reading text for Washington, D.C.'s public 
     schools!\18\
       However, returning to the present, it is an important 
     responsibility for our leaders to understand--as Jefferson so 
     well understood--the truth of collective accountability to 
     God and thus to take stands by which God can honor and bless 
     the entire state. Hereby is the meaning of the Scripture 
     fulfilled which declares:
       ``When the righteous rule, the people rejoice; when the 
     wicked rule, the people groan.''--PROVERBS 29:2
       So, then, the fourth responsibility of leaders is to 
     recognize--for the sake of the state and its citizens--the 
     ramifications of collective accountability to God.
       While these have been some of the responsibilities of 
     leaders in a republic, what are the responsibilities of the 
     citizens?


                    the responsibilities of citizens

       1. A citizen's first responsibility is to pray for his or 
     her leaders--a fact made clear by Scriptures in both the Old 
     and New Testaments:
       ``I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, 
     prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for . . 
     . all that are in authority . . . . For this is good and 
     acceptable in the sight of God our Savior.''--I TIMOTHY 2:1-3
       And when the prophet Samuel was discussing civil government 
     with the people, they asked for his prayers. Samuel 
     responded:
       ``Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against 
     the Lord in creasing to pray for you.''--I SAMUEL 12:23
       For citizens to faithfully pray for their government and 
     its leaders is a clear and succinct directive of God; and in 
     an historical sense, prayer and government have always gone 
     together well in America. For example, in 1774, leaders like 
     Richard Henry Lee, George Washington, Patrick Henry (among 
     others)--seeing that separation from the mother country would 
     become necessary--determined to convene a national congress 
     for the purpose of preparing the states to act together 
     collectively as a unified nation rather than as thirteen 
     separate, disjointed states. The Congressional Record shows 
     that the first act of that Congress was to call for prayer, 
     and so profound was that time of prayer--and so numerous and 
     strong were the letters written by many of the delegates 
     after that prayer--that in 1844 a painting was done to 
     recapture that event, and you will see many whom you will 
     recognize. John Adams wrote Abigail a beautiful letter 
     describing that prayer:
       ``[The Rev. Mr. Duche] . . .  read several prayers . . .  
     and read . . .  the thirty-fifth Psalm. You must remember, 
     this was the next morning after we heard the horrible rumor 
     of the cannonade of Boston. I never saw a greater effect upon 
     an audience. It seemed as if heaven had ordained that Psalm 
     to be read on that morning. After this, Mr. Duche . . .  
     struck out into an extemporary prayer which filled the bosom 
     of every man present. I must confess, I never heard a better 
     prayer . . . . It had an excellent effect upon every body 
     here. I must beg you to read that [the thirty-fifth] 
     Psalm.''\19\
       The Congress next--as remained a regular practice 
     throughout the Revolution--called the people to prayer for 
     their leaders and their government. John Adams explained to 
     Abigail:
       ``We have appointed a Continental fast. Millions will be 
     upon their knees at once before their great Creator, 
     imploring His forgiveness and blessings; His smiles on 
     American councils and arms.''\20\
       So important were the prayers for the leaders and the 
     country that even Benjamin Franklin--considered one of the 
     least religious of the Founding Fathers--commented on its 
     importance during his famous speech of Thursday, June 28, 
     1787, which he delivered at the Constitutional Convention. 
     Franklin stated:
       ``In the beginning of the Contest with Great Britain, when 
     we were sensible of danger we had daily prayer in this room 
     for Divine protection. Our prayers, Sir, were heard, and they 
     were graciously answered. All of us who were engaged in the 
     struggle must have observed frequent instances of a 
     superintending providence in our favor. . . . And have we now 
     forgotten that powerful Friend? or do we imagine we no longer 
     need his assistance? I have lived, Sir, a long time, and the 
     longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this 
     truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a 
     sparrow cannot fall to the ground without his notice, is it 
     probable that an empire can rise without his aid? We have 
     been assured, Sir, in the sacred writings, that ``except the 
     Lord build the House, they labor in vain that build it.'' I 
     firmly believe this; and I also believe that without his 
     concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no 
     better than the builders of Babel.''\21\
       Prayer for our leaders is important. The Scriptures command 
     it, and historically our leaders have sought and cherished 
     it. Our leaders still need what John Adams described:
       ``Millions . . . upon their knees at once before their 
     great Creator, imploring His forgiveness and blessings; His 
     smiles on American councils and arms.''\22\
       The first responsibility of citizens is to pray for their 
     leaders.
       2. The second responsibility of citizens is to watch 
     closely their government--to examine it, to be vigilant over 
     it, and to be jealous for it. Benjamin Rush stated it this 
     way:
       ``[E]very citizen of a republic. . . Must watch for the 
     State as if its liberties depended upon his vigilance 
     alone.''\23\
       John Adams, too, challenged us to be active and alert. He 
     explained:
       ``We electors have an important constitutional power placed 
     in our hands: we have a check upon two branches of the 
     legislature. . . . It becomes necessary to every [citizen] 
     then, to be in some degree a statesman: and to examine and 
     judge for himself . . . the . . . political principles and 
     measures.''\24\
       We ourselves must be statesmen. It is wrong to relax, or to 
     go to sleep, now that our election season is over. Founding 
     Father John Dickinson--a signer of the Constitution--warned 
     us why we needed to stay alert. As he explained:
       ``Political slavery--servitude--is ever preceded by 
     sleep.''\25\
       It is the second responsibility of citizens to be statesmen 
     and to be watchful and vigilant over their state government.
       3. The third responsibility of citizens is to be involved 
     with their government. This is partly because this is a 
     government of ``we the people,'' but there are other 
     considerations as well. Benjamin Rush presented one such 
     consideration in his 1798 policy paper entitled ``On the Mode 
     of Education Proper in a Republic.''\26\ Recall that Benjamin 
     Rush was one of America's top educators and is considered the 
     father of public schools under the Constitution. He saw three 
     primary purposes for public education: first, to teach youth 
     to love God; second, to teach youth to love their country; 
     and third, to teach youth to love their family.
       In today's world, this might seem like an unorthodox order: 
     to love God first, country second, and family third. Today, 
     we would probably place family above country, but Benjamin 
     Rush had a strong reason to place country above family. He 
     understood that if we lost our country, we would lose our 
     families--that unless we watched over government and stayed 
     involved in it that government itself could become an enemy 
     of the family. How correct he was; and today, much of that 
     which undermines the family is often supported, subsidized, 
     or paid for by the government itself.
       Reverend Matthias Burnet--in his 1803 election sermon 
     delivered before Governor Jonathan Trumbull and the 
     Connecticut legislature--gave an excellent challenge on why 
     citizens should be involved. He said:
       ``Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving 
     up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your 
     fathers delivered to you.''\27\
       For the sake of our children and families, it is the 
     responsibility of citizens to stay actively involved in their 
     government.
       4. The final responsibility of a citizen is to be a firm 
     friend to liberty. What does it mean to ``be a friend to 
     liberty''? Founding Father John Witherspoon answered that 
     question. Witherspoon was a signer of the Declaration and 
     served on over 100 different committees in congress. 
     Furthermore, he was the President of Princeton University and 
     is rightly considered the educational father of many Founding 
     Fathers, personally training 87 of them--including James 
     Madison. Witherspoon explained:
       ``[H]e is the best friend to American liberty who is most 
     sincere and active in promoting true and undefiled religion, 
     and who sets himself with the greatest firmness to bear down 
     profanity and immorality of every kind.''\28\
       According to John Witherspoon, if you are a friend to 
     liberty, you will promote religion and bear down on profanity 
     and immorality. Why? Because if a citizen understands our 
     form of government, he knows that if the people are profane 
     and immoral, then the government will be profane and immoral; 
     and history proves that profane and immoral governments do 
     not endure. Founding Father Elias Boudinot, President of the 
     Congress, warned us about the effect of the loss of morality. 
     He explained:
       ``If the moral character of a people once degenerate, their 
     political character must follow.''\29\
       Morality is important: if we lose our morals, we will lose 
     our government; and according to George Washington, morality 
     cannot be maintained apart from religion. In his famous 
     ``Farewell Address; of September 17, 1796, he warned:
       ``and let us with caution indulge the supposition that 
     morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be 
     conceded to the influence of refined education on minds . . . 
     reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national 
     morality can prevail in exclusion of religious 
     principle.''\30\
       Religion and morality not only are vital foundations for 
     our government, they are the only stable foundations for it. 
     As John Adams explained:
       ``We have no government armed with power capable of 
     contending with human passions unbridled by morality and 
     religion. . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral 
     and a religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the 
     government of any other.''\31\
       The Founders understood that the key to a self-governing 
     nation was self-governing individuals, and they further 
     understood that personal self-government was acquired from 
     the principles of morality and self-control taught by 
     religion. If individuals will not govern themselves, then 
     their government must adopt drastic measures to try to 
     control them. Speaker of the House Robert Winthrop--a 
     contemporary of John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster--
     explained this truth in these words:
       ``Men, in a word, must necessarily be controlled, either by 
     a power within them, or by a power without them; either by 
     the word of God, or by the strong arm of man; either by the 
     Bible, or by the bayonet.''\32\
       Benjamin Rush confirmed this. In his 1791 educational 
     policy paper on the use of the Bible in public schools, he 
     warned what would happen in America if we ever removed the 
     Scriptures from the classroom. He explained:
       ``In contemplating the political institutions of the United 
     States, [by removing the Bible from schools] I lament, that 
     we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes, and take 
     so little pains to prevent them.''\33\
       The promotion of religion and morality is the solitary 
     means of attaining the individual self-control necessary for 
     the successful operation of civil society. The fourth 
     responsibility of citizens is to be friends to liberty, that 
     is, to live under and to promote religion and morality.

                               conclusion

       In summary, what, then, can we conclude? That there are 
     God-given, God-established responsibilities both for the 
     elected and for the electorate, many of which center around 
     the simple principle God has set forth in I Samuel 2:30. He 
     declares:
       ``Them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me 
     shall be lightly esteemed.''--I SAMUEL 2:30
       Blessings, or cursings, depend upon our response to the 
     principles God has set forth. Abraham Lincoln's 1863 address 
     showed he understood this truth. Lincoln declared:
       [T]he sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and 
     proven by all history, [is] that those nations only are 
     blessed whose God is the Lord.''\34\
       Let our final thought in closing be the same warning which 
     was given to the people by President George Washington in his 
     first inaugural address. He reminded us:
       [T]he propitious [favorable] smiles of heaven can never be 
     expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of 
     order and right which Heaven itself has ordained.''\35\
       Governor Allen, may God bless you and the members of your 
     new administration; may He surround each of you with wise and 
     competent staff, aides, and counselors; may He make His 
     wisdom available to you in abundance as you face your new 
     expected challenges and the unexpected ones which will arise 
     during your tenure; and above all:
     ``The Lord bless thee, and keep thee;
     The Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto 
           thee;
     The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee 
           peace.''--NUMBERS 6:24-26
       God bless you all!


                               footnotes

     \1\ Edward Augustus Kendall, Esq., ``Travel Through the 
     Northern Parts of the United States, in the Years 1807 and 
     1808'' (New York: I. Riley, 1809).
     \2\ Ibid, Vol. I, pp 3-5.
     \3\ Benjamin Rush, ``Letters of Benjamin Rush,'' L.H. 
     Butterfield, editor (Princeton: The American Philosophical 
     Society, 1951), Vol. I, p. 474, Letter to Elias Boudinot, 
     July 9, 1788.
     \4\ Kendal, Vol. I, p. 6.
     \5\ Noah Webster, ``Letters To a Young Gentleman Commencing 
     His Education: To Which is Subjoined a Brief History of the 
     United States'' (New Haven: S. Converse, 1823).
     \6\ Ibid, p. 9.
     \7\ Ibid.
     \8\ James Madison, ``The Papers of James Madison'', Robert 
     Rutland, ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1973), 
     Vol. VIII, p. 299, June 20, 1785.
     \9\ Abigail Adams, ``Letters of Mrs. Adams, The Wife of John 
     Adams'' (Boston: Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1840), 
     Vol. 1, p. 76.
     \10\ Rush, ``Letters,'' Vol. II, p. 1103, September 4, 1811, 
     to John Adams.
     \11\ John Adams, ``The Works of John Adams, Second President 
     of the United States'' (Boston: Charles C. Little and James 
     Brown, 1851), Vol II, p. 293.
     \12\ Ibid, Vol. II, p. 294.
     \13\ ``The Constitutions of the Several Independent States of 
     America,'' Published by Order of Congress (Boston: Norman & 
     Bowen, 1785), p. 81.
     \14\ ``The Constitutions of the United States of America with 
     the Latest Amendments'' (Trenton: Moore & Lake, 1813), p. 
     342.
     \15\ James Madison, ``The Records of the Federal Convention 
     of 1787'', Max Farrand, ed. (New Haven: Yale University 
     Press, 1911), Vol. II, p. 370, August 27, 1787.
     \16\ Thomas Jefferson, ``Notes on the State of Virginia'' 
     (Philadelphia: Matthew Carey, 1794), Query XVIII, p. 237.
     \17\ Thomas Jefferson, ``The Writings of Thomas Jefferson,'' 
     Andrew A. Lipscomb, ed., (Washington, D.C., 1903), Vol. II, 
     pp. 300-303.
     \18\ J. O. Wilson, ``Records of the Columbia Historical 
     Society'' (Washington, D.C.: Columbia Historical Society, 
     1897), Vol. I, pp. 119-170, see especially pp. 122-127 from 
     the article ``Eighty Years of Public Schools of Washington--
     1805 to 1885,'' delivered before the society on May 4, 1896.
     \19\ John and Abigail Adams, ``Letters of John Adams, 
     Addressed To His Wife,'' Charles Francis Adams, ed. (Boston: 
     Charles C. Little and James Brown, 1841), Vol. I, pp. 23-24, 
     September 16, 1774.
     \20\ Ibid, Vol. I, p. 46, June 17, 1775.
     \21\ Madison, supra note 13, Vol. I, pp. 450-452, June 28, 
     1787.
     \22\ John and Abigail Adams, supra note 17, Vol. I, p. 46, 
     June 17, 1775.
     \23\ Benjamin Rush, ``Essays, Literary, Moral & 
     Philosophical'' (Philadelphia: Thomas and William Bradford, 
     1806), pp. 10-11.
     \24\ Adams, ``Works,'' supra note 9, Vol. 3, p. 437, August 
     29, 1763.
     \25\ John Dickinson, ``The Political Writings of John 
     Dickinson'' (Wilmington: Bonsal and Niles, 1801), Vol. I, p. 
     277, quoting from Baron de Montesquieu, ``Spirit of the 
     Laws'' (Philadelphia: Isaiah Thomas, 1802), Vol. I, p. 272.
     \26\ Rush, ``Essays,'' supra note 21, pp. 6-20.
     \27\ Matthias Burnet, ``An Election Sermon, Preached at 
     Hartford, on the Day of the Anniversary Election,'' May 12, 
     1803 (Hartford: Hudson & Goodwin, 1803), p. 27.
     \28\ John Witherspoon, ``The Works of the Rev. John 
     Witherspoon'' (Philadelphia: William W. Woodard, 1802), Vol. 
     III, p. 42.
     \29\ Elias Boudinot, ``An Oration, Delivered at Elizabeth-
     town, New-Jersey . . . on the Fourth of July'' 
     (Elizabethtown: Kollock, 1793), pp. 14-15.
     \30\ George Washington, ``Address of George Washington, 
     President of the United States, and Late Commander of Chief 
     of the American Army, to the People of the United States, 
     Preparatory to His Declination'' (Baltimore: George and Henry 
     S. Keatinge, 1796), p. 23, September 17, 1796.
     \31\ Adams, supra note 9, Vol. IX, p. 229, October 11, 1798.
     \32\ Robert Winthrop, ``Addresses and Speeches on Various 
     Occasions'' (Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1852), p. 172, from 
     his ``Either by the Bible or the Bayonet.''
     \33\ Rush, ``Essays,'' supra note 21, p. 112.
     \34\ James D. Richardson, ``A Compilation of the Messages and 
     Papers of the Presidents, 1789-1897'' (Published by Authority 
     of Congress, 1899), Vol. VI, p. 164, March 30, 1863.
     \35\ Ibid, Vol. I, pp. 52-53, April 30, 1789.