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Geo. Washington endorses Gov. SmithTo the members of the New Church at Baltimore.
Gentlemen,
It has ever been my pride to merit the approbation of my fellow Citizens by a faithful & honest discharge of the duties annexed to those Stations in which they have been pleased to place me; and the dearest rewards of my Services have been those testimonies of esteem & confidence with which they have honored me. But to the manifest interposition of an over-ruling Providence, & to the patriotic exertions of United America are to be ascribed those events which have given us a respectable rank among the nations of the Earth.—We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth & reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstion, and that every person may here worship God according to the dictates of his own heart. In this enlightened Age & in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man’s religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, (nor deprive him of the right of attaining & holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States.)
Your Prayers for my present & future felicity are received with gratitude; and I sincerely wish, Gentlemen, that you may in your Social & individual capacities taste those blessings which a gracious God bestows upon the Righteous.
G. Washington