The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1863-04-16
National Prayer and Humiliation.


bf u s STATES OF AMERcA.l - sa-E
WHERrAs, the Senate of the United States, de-
voutly recognizing the supreme authority and Just
government of Almighty God in all the affairs Of
men and of nations, has. by resolution, requested
the President to designate and set apart day for
National prayer and humiliation and,
WHEREAS, 1t is the duty of nations a. we'll as Of
men, to own their dependence upon the overruling
power of God to confess their sins and transgres-
sions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope
that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and
pardon, and to recognize the sublime truths an
nounced in the Holy Scripture and proven by all
history, that those nations only are blessed whose
God is the Lord; ,f,if vu. er.4fe
And, inasmuch as we know that, by His divine
law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to
punshments and chastissments in this world,
may not justly fear that the awful calamity of
civil war, which now desoates the land may be
but punishment inflicted upon us for our pre-
sumptuous SINS to the needful end of our national
reformation a whole Peoplef We have been
the recipients of the choicest bountes of Heaven.
We have been preserved, these many years, in
peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers,
wealth, and power other nation has ever
grown. But We have forgotten God. We have
forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in
peace, and multiplied and enriched and strength
ened us; and we have only imagined, in the de
cetfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings
were produced by some superior wisdom and vir-
tue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroksn sue
cess, we have become too selfsufcient to feel the
necessity Of redeeming and preserving grace, too
proud to pray to the God that made US !
1t behooves US, then, to humble ourselves before
the offended Power, to confess our national sins,
and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now. therefore, in compliance with the request.
and fully concurring in the views of the Senate,
do by this my proclamation designate and set
apart Thursday, the aOth day of April, 1868, as a
day of national humiliation, 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 places of public
worship and their respective homes, in keeping the
day 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 humby in the hope, authorized by Divine
teachings that the united cry of the nation will be
heard on high, and answered with blessings, no
less than the pardon 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 herennte set my hand,
and caused the seal of the United States to be af-
| fixed ,.-..--.
Done in the city of Washington, this sOth day
of March, in the year of our Lord, one Thousand
eight hundred and sixty three, and of the indepen
dence of the United States the eighty seventh
] II. S. ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By the President:
| WILLIAM II. SEWARD Secretary of State