On this account particularly he deserves applause and encouragement. On September 12, 1782, the full Congress approved that Bible which soon began rolling off the presses. Printed in the front of that Bible the first English-language Bible ever printed in America was the Congressional endorsement: Whereupon, Resolved, That the United States in Congress assembled recommend this edition of the Bible to the inhabitants of the United States. Of this event, one early historian observed: Who, in view of this fact, will call in question the assertion that this is a Bible nation? Who will charge the government with indifference to religion when the first Congress of the States assumed all the rights and performed all the duties of a Bible Society long before such an institution had an existence in the world!
A year after this Bible, and almost two years after the British had laid down their arms at Yorktown, there still was no treaty, and thus no official guarantee that the hostilities would not resume. Yet, since there had been no further fighting, and the prospect of a lasting peace appeared to be growing, George Washington began to anticipate his return to private life.
In contemplation of this, on June 3, 1783, he explained: Before I retire from public life, I shall with the greatest freedom give my sentiments to the States on several political subjects. Consequently, five days later on June 8, Washington issued a circular letter to the Governors of all the States in which he told them: 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 most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility, and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, without an humble imitation of whose example in these things, we can never hope to be a happy nation.
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