The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1863-04-14
The Presidents Proclamation of
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pRocLAMATIoN BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. AZ Aiif

A pRocLAMArroN BY THE PRESIDENT OF rHH
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. (. ai.
WAersas, The Senate Of the United States
deyoutly recognizing the supreme authority
and just government Of Almighty God 10 al
the affairs of men and Of nations, has, by q
resolution, requested the President TO desig.
nate and set apart a day for National prayer
and humiliation; and, sd I
a Whereas, 1t is the duty Of nations as well
as of men, to own their dependence upon the
overruling power Of God, to confess their sins
and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with
assured hope that genuine repentance will
lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize
the sublime truths announced in tho II, ly
Scriptures and proven by all history. that
those nations only are blessed whose God ia
the Lord; .,
|. And, inasmuch as We know that, by His
divine law, nations, like individuals, are sutj
ected 10 punishment and chasiizements in this
world, may we aot 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 tha
needfu end Of our national reformation as a
whole Peoplei We have been the recipients
of the choicest bounties Of Heaven. We
have been preserved these many years, in
peace and prosperity. We have grown in
numbers, wealth, and powers as no other ma.
tion has ever grown. But we have forgotted
God. We have forgotten the gracious hand
which preserved US in peace aad multiplied
and enriched and strengthened us and we
have vainly imagined ,in the decetfulness Of
our hearts, that all these blessings were pro-
duced by some superior wisdom and virtue Of
our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success
we have become too self sufficient to feel the
necessity Of redeening and preserving grace,
too proud to pray to the God that made us!
81 It behooves US, then, to humble ourselves
before the offered Power, TO confess orr ma.
tioual sins, and 10 pray for clsmercy and for.
Now therefore, 10 compnauce win
quest, and fully concurring in the views
Of the Senate, / do by this my prccla-
nation designate and set apart Thursday, the
Soth day of April, 1863, as day Of national
humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do
hereby request all the people to abstain on
that day from their ordinary secular pursuits,
and to unite, at their several places of public
worship and their respective homes, in keep.
ing the Gay holy to the Lord, and devoted to
the humble discharge Of the religious duties
proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth,
let US then rest humbly in the hope, author
lied by Divine teachings, that the united cry
of the nation will be heard on high, and an.
swered with blessings, no less than the par
don of our national sins, and the restoration
of our now divided and suffering country to
its former happy condition Of unity and peace.
In witness Whereof have hereun o set n y
hand, and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed.
- Done in the City of Washington this 3oth
day ef Marsh, in ihe yesr Of ear Lord, ono
thousand eight hundred aud sixty-three, and
Of the independence Of the United States the
eighty seventh.
,, r.. ST. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM II. SEWARD, Secretary of State.