George Washington: “It occasions a very serious annual expense to the United States”

It is with peculiar satisfaction I can say, that prompted by a high sense of duty in my attendance on public worship, I have been gratified by the liberal and interesting discourses delivered in your Churches.

To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.

Satisfied, therefore, that you have sincerely wished and endeavored to avert war, and exhausted to the last drop the cup of reconciliation, we can with pure hearts appeal to Heaven for the justice of our cause.

Do not let anyone claim tribute of American patriotism if they even attempt to remove religion from politics.