[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 52 (Friday, March 17, 1995)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 14351-14352]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-6795]





                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 52 / Friday, March 17, 1995 / 
Presidential Documents

____________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President  
[[Page 14351]] 


                Proclamation 6777 of March 14, 1995

                
National Day of Prayer, 1995

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Our Nation was built on the steadfast foundation of the 
                prayers of our ancestors. In times of blessing and 
                crisis, stability and change, thanksgiving and 
                repentance, appeals for Divine direction have helped 
                the citizens of the United States to remain faithful to 
                our long-standing commitment to life, liberty, and 
                justice for all.

                This reliance on spiritual assistance has especially 
                characterized times of national transition and 
                uncertainty. As our country was ravaged by the Civil 
                War, Abraham Lincoln remarked, ``I have been driven 
                many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction 
                that I had nowhere else to go.'' And with him, millions 
                of slaves cried out to the Almighty for an end to their 
                suffering.

                 Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said this about the 
                spiritual songs sung on the plantations: ``Every tone 
                was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God 
                for deliverance from chains.'' Since that time, we have 
                witnessed tremendous improvements in relations between 
                people of all races and backgrounds. Indeed, long ago, 
                through the work of prayer and common effort, and with 
                the inspiration of the Creator, we began to turn the 
                tide in this Nation from divisiveness and recrimination 
                toward reconciliation and healing.

                 Let us not forget those painful lessons of our past, 
                but continue to seek the guidance of God in all the 
                affairs of our Nation. We must not become complacent, 
                but rather press onward for the protection of the 
                vulnerable and the downtrodden. In the words of 
                President Lincoln, ``it behooves us then to humble 
                ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our 
                national sins and pray for clemency and forgiveness'' 
                for any injustice we perceive in our midst. May we, the 
                people of this country, set a steady course, dedicated 
                to respect for one another and for individual freedom.

                 The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, has called on our 
                citizens to reaffirm annually our dependence on 
                Almighty God by recognizing a ``National Day of 
                Prayer.''

                 NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of 
                the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 4, 
                1995, as a National Day of Prayer. I call upon every 
                citizen of this great Nation to gather together on that 
                day to pray, each in his or her own manner, for God's 
                continued guidance and blessing. [[Page 14352]] 

                 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord 
                nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the 
                Independence of the United States of America the two 
                hundred and nineteenth.

                    (Presidential Sig.)<Clinton1>><Clinton2>

[FR Doc. 95-6795
Filed 3-15-95; 2:02 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P