A Day Of Humiliation And Prayer

In 1812 the United States was ill-prepared for war, let alone war with the most powerful nation on the planet, and President Madison knew it.  But the country was sick and tired of being disrespected, thousands of its sailors impressed, and its trade restricted. The hawks in Congress, in spite of the Federalists’ attempts to stop them, would not be denied. Henry Clay was one of those war hawks.

Madison accepted Congress’s proposal and his words demonstrate how inaccurate those who would define the separation of Church and State as the total exclusion of God from governance, are.