Thomas Jefferson's Independence Day Prayer

From The Library of Congress, we find an image of a printed prayer from The Thomas Jefferson Collection for use during a 4th of July celebration.

The Thomas Jefferson Papers Series 1. General Correspondence. 1651-1827

"A Prayer,
To be used after the declaration of our independence is read, on the fourth of July.

"Gracious and Almighty Former of the Heavens, the Earth, the Sea, and all that in them is, whose piercing eye strikes through the darkest shades of humas affairs. We, thy human beings, desire to implore thee for thy mercy's sake, to keep the United States of America free from the stupidity, power and tyranny of kinds.

"Keep, we beseech thee, our Presidents, Senitors [sic], Judges and Rulers, free from the temptations of designing men; make them beings fearing thee and hating covetousness. Give them and us such things out of they immensity, as thou seest our frail bodies stand in need of. Pity the poor, the needy, the widow, and the orphan.

"The sun, the moon, the stars, and earth, and the seas, proclaim to us the majesty of thy power, thy beneficience, and thy glory.

"And O our Father that art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven; forgive us our trespasses, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory. Amen, and Amen."

Transcribed from this image: Jefferson July 4 Prayer