The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1863-04-23
National Prayer and Humiliation.

PROCLAMATION By THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED
! ,:.sss STATES OF AMERICA.
WHEREAS, the Senate of the United States, de-
voutly recognizing the supreme authority and just
government of Almighty God p,all the affairs of
men and of nations, has. by aresoution, requested
the President to designate and set apart day for
National prayer and humiliation and.
WHEREAS, 1t is the duty of nations as we'll as of
men, to own their dependence upon the overriding
power Of God to confess their sins and transgres-
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;
And, inasmuch, as we know that, by His divine
law nations, like individuals, are subjected to
punishments and chastisements in this world,
may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of
civil war. which desolates the land, may be
but punishment inflicted upon us for our pre-
sumptuous sins, to the needfu end of our national
reformation as whole People? 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 power as no other nation has ever
grown. But we have forgotten God. We have
forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in
peace, aud multiplied and enriched and strength
ened US and we have only imagined, in the de
cettulness Of our hearts, that all these blessings
were produced by some superior wisdom and vir.
tue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken sue
cess we have become too self-suicient to feel the
necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, toe
proud to pray to the God that made us
1t behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before
the offended Power, to confess 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 sci
apart Thursday, the sOth day of April, 1868, as
day of national humiliation. fasting, and prayer
Aud 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
ascharSe of the religions duties proper to that
solemn occasion.
All this being dene, in sincerity and TRUTH let us
then rest humbly in the hope authorized by Divine
teachings that the united cry of the nation will be
heard on high, and answered with blessings, nc
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 hereunto set my hand
and caused the seal of the United States to be af
fixed.
Done in the city of Washington, this Both da!
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
IL. s. ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.