Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1863-10-05
The VERY LATEST
T ELE @ r. a PHI.
Thanksgiving Day.
A Proclamation by the President Of
the United States of America.

N AIVCA1lIISttOH W tHV IftSlUtHb vi
the United States Of America.
The year that is drawing towards its
| close has been filled with blessings,
fruitful fields and healthful skies.
For these bounties that we have en-
joyed, we are prone to forget the source
whence 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 habit
ually insensible to the ever-wathful Prov
idence of Almighty God.
In the midst of cruel war of unex-
ampled magnitude and severity, which
has sometimes seemed to invite and pro-
woke 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 theater of military conflict,
while that theater has been greatly con-
tracted by the advancing armies and ma
vies of the Union. The needful diver.
sions of wealth and strength from the
fields of peaceful industry to the nation
al defense has not arrested the pillow, the
shuttle or the ships.
The axe has enlarged the borders of
our settlements. The mine. as well of
iron and coal as of the precious metals,
have yielded even more abundantly than
heretofore Population has steadily in
creased, Notwithstanding the waste the
rebellion has made in the camp, the
siege and the battlefield, and the coun-
try rejoicing, in the consciousness of
augmented strength and vigor, is per-
mitted to expect continuance of years,
with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor
hath any martial hand worked out, these
great things. a
They are the gracious gifts of the
Most High God, who while dealing with
US in anger for our sins, hath neverthe-
less remembered mercy.
1t has seemed to me fit and proper that
they should be solemnly, reverently and
gratefully acknowledged as with one
heart and voice by the whole American
people.
/ do therefore invite my fellow-citizens
in every part of the United States, and
also at sea, and those who are soiourn-
ing in foreign lands, to set apart and
observe the last Thursday of November
as day of thanksgiving and prayer to
our Beneficent Father who dweIleth in
the Heavens, and / recommend to
them that while offering up the as
criptions justly due Him for such singu-
lar deliverances and blessings; they do
also, with humble penitence, for our ma
tional perverseness7 and disobedience,
commend to his tender care all those
who have become widows, orphans aid
sufferers in this lamentable civil strife in
which we are unavoidably engaged, and
fervently implore the Intervention Of the
Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the
nation, aud restore it as soon as may be
consistent with the divine purposes to
the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquility and unison
In EsTIMoNY WHEREOF, l herennto
set my hand and cause the seal of the
United States to be affixed. Done at the
City of Washington, this (the 3D. day of
October, in the year of our Lord, eigh-
teen hundred and sixty, and of the In
dependence of the United States the
eightyeighth.
By the President
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
w. H SEWARD. Sec'E of State