Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1863-04-04

I n AAAsoSAAAAIluAs
WHEREAS, The Senate of the United
States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme
Authority and just Government Of AL
mighty God, in al the affairs Of men and
OF nations, has, by a resolution requested
the President to designate and set apart O
day for National prayer and humiliation;
And whereas, is the duty Of nations
as well as of men, to own their dependence
upon the overruling power of God, to con-
fess their sins and transgressioBs, in hum.
bic Sorrow, yet with assured hope that
genuine repentance viii lead to mercy and
pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth,
announced in the Holy Scriptures and
proven by all history, that those nations
only are blessed whose God is The Lord
And, inasmuch as we know that by His
Divine law, nations, like individuals, are
subjected to punishments and chastise-
ments in this world, may we not justly fear
that the awful calamity Of civil war, which
now desolates the land, may be buta pun
ishment inflicted upon US for cur presump-
tuOus sins, to the needful end of our ne
tional reformation as a whole people2 We
have been the recipients Of the ckoicest
bounties Of Heaven. We have been pre-
served, these many years, in peace and
prosperity. We have grown IN numbers,
wealth and power as no other nation has
ever. grown. But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand which
preserved rs IN peace, and multiplied and
enriched and strengthened us; and we have
vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of
cur hearts, that all these blessings were
produced by some superior wisdom and
virtue Of our own. intoxicated with u1-
broken success, we have become too self
sufficient to feel the necessity ofredeeming
and preserving grace, too proud to pray to
The the God that made US
Itbehooves us, then, 10 humble ourselves
before the offended Power, 10 confess our
national sins, and to pray for clemency
and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the
request, and fully c0ncurring in the views
Of the Senate, | do, by this my proclamation,
designate and set apart Thursday, the 90th
day Of April, 1865 as day Of national hu-
initiation, fasting and prayer. And do
hereby request all the people to abstain
On that day from their ordinary secular
pursuits, and to unite, at their several
lAaINo VI HAbAAD WOAEt-Ap anu AAAHAA AC-
speetive homes, in keeping the day holy to
the Lord, and devoted TO the humble dis
charge Of the religious duties proper to the
solemn occasion
All this being done, in sincerity and
truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope
authorized by the Divine teachings, that
the united cry Of the nation viii Be heard
on high, and answered with blessings, no
less than the pardon Of cur national sins,
and the restoration of our now divided and
suffering country to its former happy con
ditiOn Of unity and peace.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set
my hand, and cause the seal Of the United
States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington on this
thirtieth day Of March, in the year
of our Lord enc thousand eight hun
I. s. dred and sixty-threc, and the indie
pendence Of the United States the
eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
BY the President;
WM SEWARD, Secretary Of State.