If We Have Wisdom

SATB chorus (with divisi) | 4’

If We Have Wisdom sets excerpts of a letter written by President George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island in 1790. It is a response to a letter written by Moses Seixas, Warden of the synagogue, expressing the wishes of the Jewish community to be treated as full and equal citizens and permitted to practice their faith freely in the United States. Washington unequivocally affirms these rights through his letter, a year prior to the ratification of the Bill of Rights which would enshrine them into law. His message of tolerance and inclusion is as potent and powerful in our own time as it ever was. This warm setting of Mr. Washington's letter reflects the beauty and all-embracing sentiment of his words.

Text
Excerpt from "Letter of George Washington to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island" (1790)

If we have wisdom, we cannot fail to become a great and happy people. All alike possess liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.

It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it was the indulgence of one class of people. For happily these United States, which give to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance require only that they who live under its protection demean themselves as good citizens.

And may the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid.

And may the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness on our paths, and make us all useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.

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The Esoterics