Did you know that the White House was never dedicated?

I didn't know that.

I had it in my head that there was a whole dedication

when John Adams was president.

He's the second president of our country,

for those of you who were outsiders to all of this.

And I had it in my head that there was a whole big event

and that Adams issued this prayer at this event

that I, I guess, completely imagined,

where he talked about honest people ruling in this building in the future. But that didn't happen. There was no dedication at all.

John Adams moved in apparently. I just learned this. Just look this up. On November 1st,

1800, the building was not finished. They'd been working on it for eight years.

George Washington himself had picked the location and set the cornerstone.

And now eight years later, it's time for the presidency to move in there, even though, I guess it was a little bit behind a schedule.

So it was a pretty uneventful thing.

Adams just moved into the parts of the house that were done. And then the next day, November 2nd, 1800, this is the quote that I guess I was picturing. Adams wrote a letter to his wife, Abigail, and he said the following. It's a prayer. I pray heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house, and all that shall

hereafter inhabit it. May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.

Now, we could, of course, have a debate about the degree to which God has answered that prayer. But what is interesting

for the purposes of our conversation is that that was a pretty uneventful dedication,

if you can even call it that. And there's no indication of a supernatural answer to Adam's prayer.

There's no indication that the fire and cloud of the presence of the Lord

filled the White House as he finished writing that letter

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