Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1863-11-26
4 National Thanksgiving
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
OF AMERICA.
A PROCLAMATION.

The year drawing towards its close
has been filled with the blessings OF
fruitful fields and healthful skies To
these bounties, which are SO constantly
enjoyed that we are prone to forget the
source from which they come, others
have been added, which are of so extra
ordinary a nature that they cannot fail
to penetrate and soften even the heart
which is habitually insensible to the ever
watchful providence of Almighty God
In the midst of civil war of unequal
ed magnitude and severity, which has
sometimes seemed to foreign States to
invite and provoke aggression, peace
has been preserved with all nations; Or
der has been maintained, the laws have
been respected and obeyed, and harmo-
ny has prevailed elsewhere, except in
the theatre of military conflict; while
that theatre has been greatly contracted
by advancing armies and navies of the
Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and
strength from the fields of peaceful in
dustry to the national defence have not
arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the
ship. The axe has enlarged the bor-
ders of our settlements, and the mines,
as well of iron and coal as of the pre-
cious metals, have yielded even more
abundantly than heretofore Population
has steadily increased, Notwithstanding
the waste that has been made in camp,
the siege, and the battlefield; and the
country, rejoicing in the consciousness
of augmented strength and vigor is per-
mitted to expect continuance of years,
with large increase of freedom a
No human counsel hath devised, nor
hath any mortal hand worked 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, reverentially,
and gratefully acknowledged as with one
heart and voice by the whole American
people.
l do therefore invite my fellow-citizens,
in every part of the United States, and
those who are at sea, and those who are so
journing in foreign lands. t, set apart and
ODoCi fC tLC lhob InuEoudl VI NOFCnDcT
next, as a day of Thanksgiving and
Praise to our benifcent Father who
dwelleth in the Heavens.
EsAnd | recommend to them that, while
offering up the Inscriptions justly due to
Him for such singular deliverance and
blessings, they do also, with humble pen
itence for our national perverseness 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 fervently i'm.
plore the interposition of the Almighty
Hand to heal the wounds of the nation
and restore it as soon as may be consis-
tent with the Divine purpose to the full
enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquil
ty and union
In testimony whereof, I have set my
hand and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington thi:
third day of October, in the
year of our Lord one thousand
{ L. s. eight hundred and sixty-three
and of the Independence of the
United States the eighty.eighth
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM. a. SEWARD,
Secretary of State