I used to keep a paragraph from this speech on my cubicle wall at work. There was no identification for it, and I sometimes wondered what people thought it was and what they thought of it. I doubt most of them knew where it came from or even why they should think about it now.
Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
It still works even today. And then there's this:
"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of
Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits,
and humbly to implore his protection and favors."
That's what George Washington said in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 3, 1789.
It's amazing the wisdom of past generations. Happy Thanksgiving!
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