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si^perstition are resting darkly upon other lands ; but the sun of enlight- 

 enment and religion is beaming brilliantly upon ours. The shackles of 

 civil bondage are binding the nations of the East, and they bow in their 

 captivity to the despot's iron rule ; but no fetters of oppression bind the 

 free of this favored land. Civil discord has reared its hydra head, and 

 rent asunder the bond that united other States, but ours is unharmed, 

 and no enemy appears that has power to sever it. The pestilence with 

 fearful step has trodden other shores, and desolation fierce and fell has 

 marked its direhil way ; but the rude form of the rovager has not reached 

 our favored clime, and the trail of his burning footstep is not found upon 

 our soil. The famine has marred the beauty of a sister land, and the 

 shrill cry of the suffering still rises from the soil that is made desolate by 

 its terrible tread ; but our barns are yet full of the harvest's yield. We 

 have enough and to spare. While the oppressed can find a home of hap- 

 piness in our wide domain of liberty, we have bread for the starving, and 

 our ships arc bearing it to the sufferers beyond the seas. Truly the Lord 

 has been good to us. He has remembered us in mercy; he has rewarded 

 us beyond our deservinss. 



" And now, O Lord God of nations, that hast so highly favored and so 

 greatly prospered the people of this land, hear thou in heaven, thy dwell- 

 ing place, the cry and the prayer of thy servants when they pray before 

 thee, that thy fatherly care and protection may be continued over us; that 

 thy power may still be our prosperity, thine arm the girdle of our strength, 

 thy hand the security of our blessing. 



^' Let thy mercy cover our sins; for we must acknowledge that, like lost 

 sheep, we have erred and strayed from thy righteous ways. We have de- 

 parted from the path of thy holy commandments, and we have done evil 

 in thy sight. Give us true repentance for our many and grievous ofiences. 

 Overrule the rebellion of our hearts, and the disobedience of our lives, by 

 the interposition of thy abounding mercy, and let not our guilt be vi.'^ited 

 in merited vengeance upon us. 



^' May we never, either in word or deed, deny the Lord, nor neglect his 

 sacred worship. But may his blessed name, his doctrine and worship, be 

 so inwoven with our institutions of freedom, that the names of American 

 and Christian may ever be one and inseparable. As a nation, as well as 

 individuals, may we spurn the creeds of infidelity, and in the acknowl- 

 edgment of the Divine authority supplicate the overruling providence of 

 God, remembering always that it is He that maketh us to differ from oth- 

 ers, and that crowneth us with mercy and loving kindness. 



'' Grant us wisdom, and purity, and integrity of purpose, that we may 

 preserve unhurt the inheritance of freedom that our departed sires have be- 

 queathed us. May it be nothing impaired, nothing dimmed, but strength- 

 ened and brightened by our having used it and enjoyed its blessings. And 

 may we deliver it to the succeeding generation as spotless as we received 

 it; as beautiful, as rich a treasure, as it came to us, drenched in the blood 

 and crowned with the victorious bays of two fierce ensanguined wars. 



" Li the day of battle thou hast been our defence, and our enemies have 

 not triumphed over us. In the face of our foes thou hast ' redeemed us 

 from the swoid,' (Job, v. 20,) and no weapon formed against us has pros^- 

 pered. So be it ever, when the hand of dishonor shall assail us, or the rod 

 of the oppressor be uplifted to our hurt. 



^' In peace may we possess our territory. Do thou make the shout and 



