If the public homage of a people can ever be worthy the favorable regard
of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it is addressed, it must be
that in which those who join in it are guided only by their free choice,
by the impulse of their hearts and the dictates of their consciences;
and such a spectacle must be interesting to all Christian nations as
proving that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man, freed
from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed connection with the
powers of this world which corrupts religion into an instrument or an
usurper of the policy of the state, and making no appeal but to reason,
to the heart, and to the conscience, can spread its benign influence
everywhere and can attract to the divine altar those freewill offerings
of humble supplication, thanksgiving, and praise which alone can be
acceptable to Him whom no hypocrisy can deceive and no forced sacrifices
propitiate.
Upon these principles and with these views the good people of the United
States are invited, in conformity with the resolution aforesaid, to
dedicate the day above named to the religious solemnities therein
recommended.
[SEAL.]
Given at Washington, this 23d day of July, A.D. 1813.
JAMES MADISON.
FIFTH ANNUAL MESSAGE.
WASHINGTON, _December 7, 1813_.
_Fellow Citizens of the Senate and of the House of Representatives_:
In meeting you at the present interesting conjuncture it would have been
highly satisfactory if I could have communicated a favorable result to
the mission charged with negotiations for restoring peace.
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