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God in the Inaugural Addresses

InauGural Addresses Of the PresiDents


    For more than 25 years, my wife and I have researched, written,  and performed presentations on 35 of our Presidential couples.  These we do for various groups across the country, including numerous Presidential  Libraries.  Thus we have read a good bit about our Presidents.

    In 2003 when the California court said they believed  that “under God” in our Pledge of Allegiance was “unconstitutional”, all the radio talk shows had guests and calls from listeners debating whether  God was an integral part of our nation.  Anyone who has read the works and letters of our Founding Fathers certainly realizes that they all believed  that God had a hand in the establishment of this nation.  So I knew that this idea was there at the start of our country, I wondered how that  concept of God (the Almighty, Divine Providence, etc.) playing a  role in our nation had progressed as our nation developed.  I decided to look at the one expression of national thought that had been consistent since the day George Washington took the oath of office in 1789--the Inaugural Addresses of our Presidents.

    What I discovered sort of surprised me. There have been 39 different men who have delivered our 58 inaugural addresses and ALL of them, at least in one of their addresses, mentioned God (in one literary form or another) and our reliance on Him. In fact, I could only find three addresses that lacked this thought.

    I have created an inaugural address using one excerpt from each of the  39 Presidents weaving together their mentions of God, in various forms, to create one coherent 13 minute address.
FOR A MOVIE VERSION ON YOUTUBE.COM CLICK HERE     

I hope you will enjoy it.

William Parker Wills