The Portland daily press., 1863-04-06
Stock Market.
A Proclamation.

By THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Whereas the Senate of the United States,
devoutly recognizing the supreme authority
and just government of Almighty God, i'm all
the affairs OF men and nations, has, By reso-
luton, requested the President to designate
and set apart day for National prayer and
humiliation:
And whereas it 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, aud to recog-
nize the sublime truths announced in Holy
Scriptures and proven by all history, that those
nations only are blessed whose God is the
Lord:
And, insomuch as we know that, by His d.
vine law, nations like individuals, are subject
ed 10 punishments in this world, may we not
justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war,
which now desolates the land, may be but a
punishment inflicted upon us for our presump-
tuous sins, 10 the needfnl end of our national
reformation as whole people? We have been
the recipients of the choicest bounties of Hea-
ven. We have been preserved. these many
years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown
in numbers, wealth and power as no other ma
ton has ever grown. But we have forgotten
God. We have forgotten the gracious hand
which preserved us in peace, and multiplied
and enriched and strengthened us; and we
have yainly imagined, in the decetfulness of
our hearts, that all these blessings were pro-
duced by some superior wisdom aud virtue of
our own. Intoxicated with unbroken sue
cess, we have become too sef-sufficent TO feel
the necessity of redeeming and preserving
grace, too proud to pray to the God that
made us!
IL behooves us then, to humble ourselves
before the offended Power, to confess our ma
tional sins, and to pray for clemency and for
giveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the re-
quest. and fully concurrng in the views of the
Senate, do, by this my proclamation, desig-
nate and set apart Thursday, the Both day of
April, 1868, as a day of national humiliation,
fasting and prayer. And | do hereby request
all the people to abstain from their ordinary
and secular pursuits, and to unite, at their Sc
veral places of public worship and their re-
spective 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 Ia sincerity and truth,
etss then rest humbly in the hope, author
lied by the Divine teachings, that the united
cry Of the Nation will be heard on high, and
answered with blessings, no less than the par
don of our national sins, and restoration of our
now divided and suffering country to its for
mer happy condition Of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, l have hereunto set my
hand, and caused the seal of the United States
to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington this thir-
tieth day Of March, in the year of our
Lord one thousand eight hundred and
IL. S. sixty-three, and of the independence
of the United States the eighty-sev-
enth ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM ii. SEWARD, Secretary of State