By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the
blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which
are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which
they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature
that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is
habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has
sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their
aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been
maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has
prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that
theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of
the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of
peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plough, the
shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements,
and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have
yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily
increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the
siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness
of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years
with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while
dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently
and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole
American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of
the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are
sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of
November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father
who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to
Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble
penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers
in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and
fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds
of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine
purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the
United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence
of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State
~~
Dr Bob Griffin, www.grif.net
1 cross + 3 nails = 4 given