Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1863-04-03
National Fast Day-The Presidents
Proclamation.
Bu the President Of The United States Of America
A PROCLAMATION.


PROCLAMATION.
WHEREAS, The Senate of the United States
deyoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority
and just Government of Almighty Godsi in al
the affairs Of men and of nations, has, by a res
olution, requested the President to designate
and set apart day for National prayer and hu
initiation:
And whereas IL is the duty of nations, as vel
as of men, to own their dependence upon the
oyerullnR power of God, to confess their sins
and transgressions, In humble sorrow, yet Will
assured hope that genuine repentance will lead
TO mercy aud pardon, and to recognize the sub.
lime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures
and proven BY all history, that those nations
only are blessed whose God II the Lord:
And, inasmuch as we know that, by His di.
vine law, nations, like indlviduals, are subject.
ed to punishments and cbastisements In this
world, may We not justly fear that the awful
calamity Of civil war, which now desolates the
land, may be but punishment inflicted upon
US for our presumptuous Gins, to the needful
end of our national reformation as q whole
people We have been the recipients of the
choicest bounties Of Heaven. We have been
preserved, these many years, 10 peace and pros
perity. We have grown In numbers, wealth
and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgot
ten the gracious hand which preserved us In
peace, and multiplied and enriched and strength
ened US; and we have vainly imagined, in the
decetfulness of our hearts, that all these blest-
ings we're produced by some superior wisdom
and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with rn-
broken success, we have become too self-suffi-
cient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God
that made rs! 4a
Il behooves us, then, to humble ourselves
before the offended Power, to confess our ma
tional sina, and to pray for clemenoy and for.
giveness. .gtp1 sos si'
Now, therefore, in compliance with the re-
quest, and fully concurripg In the views of the
Senate, do, by this my proclamation, desig-
nate and set apart Thursday, the 3Oth day Of
April, 1868, as day Of national humiliation,
fasting and prayer And DO hereby request
all the people TO abstain on that day from their
ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, ct their
several places of public worship and their re-
spective homes, In keeping the day holy to the
Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge Of
the religious duties proper to that solemn occa'
sion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth,
let us then rest humDly In the hope, authorized
by the Divine tea ch,Dgs, that the united CRY Of
the nation will be heard on high, and an
swered With blessings, no less than the pardon
of our 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 on this thir.
tieth day Of March, in the year of our
( Lord one thousand eight hundred and
IL. g. sixty-threo, and Of the independence
of the United States the eighty
seventh.
~ ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.