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.
-- George Washington, in his first Inaugural Address
