nds, for ages yet to come.
An omnipotent Providence may overrule existing evils for permanent good.
He can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath
He can restrain. Let me invoke every individual, in whatever sphere of
life he may be placed, to feel a personal responsibility to God and his
country for keeping this day holy and for contributing all in his power
to remove our actual and impending calamities.
JAMES BUCHANAN.
EXECUTIVE ORDERS.
[From Sparks's Washington, Vol. X, pp. 11-12.]
NEW YORK, _June 8, 1789_.
SIR:[177] Although in the present unsettled state of the Executive
Departments under the Government of the Union I do not conceive it
expedient to call upon you for information officially, yet I have
supposed that some informal communications from the Office of Foreign
Affairs might neither be improper nor unprofitable. Finding myself at
this moment less occupied with the duties of my office than I shall
probably be at almost any time hereafter, I am desirous of employing
myself in obtaining an acquaintance with the real situation of the
several great Departments at the period of my acceding to the
administration of the General Government. For this purpose I wish to
receive in writing such a clear account of the Department at the head of
which you have been for some years past as may be sufficient (without
overburthening or confusing the mind, which has very many objects to
claim its attention at the same instant) to impress me with a full,
precise, and distinct general idea of the affairs of the United States
so far as they are comprehended in or connected with that Department.
As I am now at leisure to inspect such papers and documents as may be
necessary to be acted upon hereafter or as may be calculated to give me
an insight into the business and duties of that Department, I have
thought fit to address this notification to you accordingly.
I am, etc.,
GO. WASHINGTON.
[Footnote 177: Addressed to the Secretary of Foreign Af