Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1863-04-13
Presidents Proclamation for n Day o.
humiliation and Prayer.

HUMILIATION ana
WHEREAS, The Senate of the United States,
devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and
just government of Almighty God, in all the
affairs of men and nations, has, by a resolution,
requested the President TO designate and set apart
a day for national PRAYER and humiliation;
Aud, whereas. 1t is the duty of nations, as well
as of men, to own their dependence upon the
overriding power Of God, to confess their sins and
transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with as
sured hope that genuine repentance will lead to
mercy aud pardon, and to recognize the sublime
truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and
proven by all history, that those nations only are
blessed whose God is the Lord;
And, inasmuch as we know that, by His divine
law, nations, like individuals, are subjected 70
punishments and chastisements in this world,
may we not Justly fear that the awful calamity of
civil war, which now desolates the land, may be
but a punishment inflicted upon us for our pre-
sumptuous sins, in the needful end of our national
reformation as a whole peoplef We have been
the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven.
We have been preserved, these many years, in
peace and prosperity.
We have grown in numbers, wealth and power
as no other nation has ever grown. But we have
forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious
hand which presel we'd us in peace, and multiplied
and enriched and strengthened US; and we have
vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts,
that all these blessings were produced by some
superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intox;-
Gated with unbroken success, we have become too
self sufficient to feel the necessity OF redeeming
and preserving grace. too proud 10 pray to the
God that made usi
1t behooves us. then, to humble ourselves be
fore the offended Power. to confess our National
sins. and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request,
and fully concurring in the views of the Senate,
/ do, by this, my proclamation. designate, and set
apart, Thursday. the Goth day of April, 1863. as
a day of National humiliation, fasting and PRAYER.
And | do hereby request all the people to abstain
on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits,
aud their respective homes, in keeping the day
holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble dis
charge of the religious duties proper to that sol
emn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity aud truth, let
us then rest humbly in the hope, authorized by
the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the
nation may be heard on high, and answered with
blessings. no less than the pardon of cur National
sins, and the restoration of our now divided and
suffering country to its former happy condition of
unity and peace.
In witness whereof, / have hereunto set my
hand, and caused the seal of the United States to
be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington. this thirtieth
day of March, in the year of our Lord one
r.. S thousand eight hundred and sixty three.
and of the Independence OF the United
States the eighty seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
VIM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State