Washington: U.S. ‘Could Never Hope to Be Happy Nation’ Unless Citizens Imitated Christ
Editor’s Note: As he prepared to resign his command in 1783, the greatest of U.S. veterans warned that the United States could “never hope be a happy Nation” unless its citizens imitated Christ.
Gen. George Washington sent a “Circular Letter of Farewell to the Army” to several state governors, including Governor Harrison of his native Virginia. He requested that “these sentiments [be] communicated to [the] Legislature at their next meeting, and that they may be considered as the Legacy of One, who has ardently wished, on all occasions, to be useful to his Country, and who, even in the shade of Retirement, will not fail to implore the divine benediction upon it.”
The entirety of George Washington’s manuscript can be found at the Library of Congress.
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I now make it my earnest prayer, that God would have you, and the State over which you preside, in his holy protection, that he would incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination and obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for…
