President’s Day is an opportunity to reflect on more than just the role of the leader of our nation. Yes, this person should be an individual of strong character, strength, courage and fidelity to what is best for Americans.

However, America also has a long-standing history of that office being carried out by a person of faith. The American project was built on the belief that God is real and that He created us with a dignity that no ruler ought to violate.

The summer of 1783 saw much confusion and fear about the future of the country. The War of Independence had been won, but the states were still scrambling to decipher how they would interact with each other and with Congress.

Before Gen. George Washington resigned from his command, he wrote a letter to all the governors (it was intended for the entire American community as well). This letter is known as the Circular Letter to the States.

Washington begins, “I think it is a duty incumbent on me, to make this my last official communication, to congratulate you on the glorious events which Heaven has been pleased to produce in our favor.”

Here, and in other correspondences and speeches, Washington clearly holds that God had a hand in supplying the American project with the strength to be victorious. It was in the hands of Divine Providence that they defeated Great Britain because God favors those who are oppressed. It is that divine help that he concludes his letter with as well:

“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 incline the hearts of the Citizens to cultivate a spirit of subordination & obedience to Government, to entertain a brotherly affection and love for one another, for their fellow Citizens of the United States at large and particularly for their brethren who have served in the field.”

It is only through the lens of faith that any country can hope to frame the need to care for one’s fellow citizens.

The only reason to obey government rule and love our neighbor is because they are all made in God’s image and likeness. If God is not a part of the national discussion on moral action, then we can convince ourselves that it is those in power who decide what is right and wrong.

On April 30, 1789, Washington delivered his inaugural address and became the first president of the United States. His words remind us that our country was founded by and fought for by noble, courageous, and faithful men who were grounded in God’s providential care.

“It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official Act, my fervent supplications to that Almighty Being who rules over the Universe … and whose providential aids can supply every human defect.”

Washington knew that even as the American experiment was launched into existence, they were only able to arrive at this moment because of God’s hand. Without reference to the need for God and the importance of faith for our country, we risk becoming lost concerning who the human person is and what it means to live as a nation.

Washington was our first president but also the first in a long line of leaders of our country who spoke vocally about faith, prayer and the need for God.

John Quincy Adams, the sixth president, spoke of his daily commitment to prayer: “My custom is to read four or five chapters of the Bible every morning immediately after rising. It seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day. It is an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.”

In his remarks to the Baltimore Presbyterian Synod, Oct. 24, 1863, Abraham Lincoln said: “Nevertheless, amid the greatest difficulties of my administration, when I could not see any other resort, I would place my whole reliance on God, knowing that all would go well, and that He would decide for the right.”

Ulysses S. Grant had a deep reverence for the Bible and once said: “Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet-anchor of your liberties; write its precepts in your hearts, and practice them in your lives.”

In his remarks on the National Day of Prayer in 1982, President Ronald Reagan said: “Prayer has sustained our people in crisis, strengthened us in times of challenge, and guided us through our daily lives since the first settlers came to this continent.”

All these men, among many others and countless other quotes, reference the fact that God is real and they shine a light on the truth about the American project. We have succeeded and will continue to thrive only insofar as we keep God at the center of what it means to be human, so that we can govern in a way that respects the objective moral order. For our rights as human beings come from God, not the state.

Any president or leader of office would do well to reflect on their own faith. It will be the best recipe for the good of the people they lead.

We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

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