GOD AND GOVERNMENT

Inauguration Day:

"It would be peculiarly improper to omit, in this first official act," the new president says, "my fervent supplication to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the council of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States...

No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency...

We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."

General George Washington
Taking the oath of office as the first President of the United States.
New York City, April 30, 1789

Eight years later, in his farewell address, in even stronger words, he warns:
"Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."

http://www.vlib.us/amdocs/texts/01wash1.htm