The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-10-06
A NATIONAL THANKSGIVING.
BY The President OF the United States.
A PROCLAMATION.

The year that is drawing towards its close has
been filed with the blessings Of fruitful fields and
heal,hful skies. To these bountes, which are so
const ntly enjoyed that We are prone TO forget
the source from which they come, Others have
been added, which are of so extraordinary ma
tuIe that they cannot fail 10 penetrate and soften
even the heart which is habtually lnsenslble 10
the ever watchful Providence OF Almighty God
In the midst OF civil war of unequaled magni-
tude and severity, which has sometimes seemed
to invite and provoke the aggression of foreign
states, 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 con-
tracted by the advancing armies and naves of
the Union. The needlul diversion of wealth and
strength from the fields of peaceful industry to
the National defense have not arrested the pillow,
the shuttle or the ship. The ak has enlarged
the borders of our settlements, and the mines,
as well of iron and coal as of the precious met
ais, have yielded even more abundant y than here
tofore.
Population has steadily increased, notwith-
standing the waste that has been made BY the
camp, the siege and the battlefield, and the
country, rejoicing in the consciousness of aug
mented strength and vlgor, is permitted to expect
continuance of years with large increase of free
dom.
No human council hath devised, not bath any
mortal worken 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. 1t has seemed
to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
reverentally and gratefully acknowledged, as with
one heart and voice, by the whole American peo-
pie.
do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every
part of the United States, and . lso those who are
at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign
lands, to set apart the LAST THURSDAY OF No
VENEER next, as day Of thanksgiving and pray
er to our beneficent Father, who dweIleth in the
Heavens, and | recommend too, that while offer
ing up the Inscriptions Justly due to Him for such
singular deliverances and blessings, they do also,
with humble penitence for our national perverse-
ness 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 fer
vently implore the interposltion of the Almighty
hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to
restore it, soon as may be consistent with Divine
purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmo-
ny, tranquility and union.
In testimony whereof, l have hereunto set my
hand and caused the seal of the United States tC
be affixed
Done at the City Of Washington. this third day
OF October, in the year of our Lord One Thou
sand Eight Hundred and Sixty Three, and oil
the Independence of the United States the
Eighty-Eghth
(SignedJ ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President: W. Ii. SEWARD, Sec. of State