Daily national Republican., 1863-03-31
A NATIONAL FAST.
OFF CIAL.
By The Preridsnt Of ts United States Of A,nsriea.
. A PROCLAMATION.


WHEREAS the Senate Of the United States,
dsvoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority
and Just Government Of Almighty God, in all
the affairs Of men and nations, has, by reso-
luton, requested the President to designate and
set apart day for National prayer and humil-
iaton:
And whereas II is the duty Of nations, as well
as OF men, to own their dependence upon the
overruling power Of God, to confess their Gins
and trAnSgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with
assured hope that genuine repentance will lead
to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the
sublime truth, announced In the Holy Scrip
lures and proven by ali history, that those
nations only are blessed whose God is the
Lord:
And, lnsomuch as we know that, by His di
vine law, nations, like individuals, are rssubjected
topunishments 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 punishment inflicted upon us for our
presumptuous sins, TO the needful end Of our
national reformation as whole Peoplel We
have been the recipients Of the choicest boun-
ties Of Heaven. We have been preserved, these
many years, in peace and prosperity. wehavG
grown in numbers, wealth, and power as nc
other nation has ever grown. But We hav,
forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious
hand which preserved US In peace, and multi,
piled and enriched and strengthened us; and
We have vainly imagined, in the dsceitfulness
of our hearts, that all these blessings were pro-
ducsd by some superior wisdom and virtue OF
our own. Intoxicated with unbrokeu success,
We have become too Self-SufHcieut to feel the
necessity of redeoming and preserving grace
TOO proud to pray to the God that made us!
1t bshoOyss US, then, to humble ourselves be
fore the offended Power, to confess our nationa
sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness
Now, therefore, in compliance with the re
fuN9k1 AAAI III Ailt NlNhb VI
Senate, do, by this my proclamation, desig
nate and set apart Thursday, the 3Oth day o
april, 1868, as day of national humiliation
fasting, and prayer. Aud do hereby reques
all the Peoplet to abstain on that day from thei
ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at thei
several places of public worship and their rei
Pectiye homes, in keeping the day holy to tn
Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge q
the religions duties proper to that salemp occa
sion.
All this being done, In sincerity and truth
let US then rest humbly In the hope, authorize
by the Divine teachings, that the united cry o
the Nation win be heard on high, and answers
with bleSsings, no less than the pardon of ou
national sins, and restoration of our nov
divided and suffering country to Its forme
happy condition of unity and peace,
In witness whereof, have hereunto set m
hand and caused the seal of the United State
to be naized.
Done at the city Of Washington this thil
teth day Of March, in the year of ou
H.. 81 Lord one thousand eight hundred an
nXtythres, and Of the Independence q
the United States the elRhty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President
WILLIAM II. SEWARD,
Rprrptary o. gt,,,