"In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity." Thus began the Treaty of Paris which ended the Revolutionary War. The Treaty continued: "It having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of the most serene and most potent Prince George the Third...and of the United States of America, to forget all past misunderstandings and differences....Done at Paris, this THIRD DAY of SEPTEMBER, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three."
The Treaty was signed by Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, who later became the 2nd President, and John Jay, the first Chief Justice. On January 27, 1983, declaring a National Day of Prayer, President Ronald Reagan stated: "Prayer is the mainspring of the American spirit, a fundamental tenet of our people since before the Republic was founded. A year before the Declaration of Independence, in 1775, the Continental Congress proclaimed the first National Day of Prayer as the initial positive action they asked of every colonist." Reagan concluded: "Two hundred years ago in 1783, the Treaty of Paris officially ended the long, weary Revolutionary War during which a National Day of Prayer had been proclaimed every spring for eight years."