Proclamation 5936—National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving, 1989

On this Bicentennial of the Presidency of the United States of America, it is fitting to recall our first President, George Washington, who believed in our country's divine destiny. He said, "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."

As we celebrate this American Bicentennial Presidential Inaugural, we celebrate America's brotherhood -- our common ideals, our common kinship, our national unity. We celebrate America as "one nation under God."

As I assume the office of President, I am humbled before God and seek his counsel and favor on our land, and join with our first President who said, ". . . it would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the universe. . . that his benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States, a government instituted by themselves for these essential purposes."

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim January 22, 1989, a National Day of Prayer and Thanksgiving and call upon the citizens of our great Nation to gather together on this day in homes and places of worship to pray in thanksgiving for our blessings of peace, freedom, prosperity, and Independence. Let all Americans kneel humbly before our Heavenly Father in search of his counsel and for his divine guidance and wisdom upon the leaders of the United States of America.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of January, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirteenth.

GEORGE BUSH