The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1863-04-09
NATIONAL PAST DAV.
Proclamation by the President

WHEREAS. The Senate of the United States,
devoutIy recognizing the supreme authority
and lust government of Almighty God IN all
the affairs of men and nations, has, by a reso-
luton, requested the President to designate
and set apart a day for national prayer "I'
humiliation; and,
WHEREAS, 1t is the duty Of nations as Wen
as of men, to own their dependence upon Inc
overruling power of God, to confess Inelr Silio
and trans9ressions. in humble sorrow, yet with
aesurnd hone that genuine repentance VIII Iead
~ n,arcv and pardon. and to recognize the
srhIime truth. announced in the holy Scrip
tnres and proven by all history, that those ma
tions only are blessed whose God is the Lord +;
And insomuch as we know that, by His dl-
vine law. nations, like individuals, are subjec-
ted TO punnishments and Establishments III this
world, may we not Justly fear that the awful
calamity of civil war, which now des lates the
land NAV be but a punishment inflicted upon
us for our ~presumptuous sins, to the needtul
end of our national reformation as a whole
people? W. have been the recipients OF the
choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been
preserved, these many years, in peace and
prosperity. We have grown i'll numbers,
wealth and power, as no other nation has cv-
or grown. But we have forgotten God. We
have forgotten the gracious hand which pre-.
served us in peace, and multiplied, and enrich,
ed, and strengthened us; and we have valnly
imagined, in the deceitfulness Of our hearts
that all these blessings were produced by some
superior wisdom and virtue of our own. In
toXicated with unbroken success, we have be
come too self-sufticient to feel the necessity 0
redeeming and preserving grace, too proud t.
pray to the God that made us.
1t behOoves us, then, to humble ourselves
before the offended Power, to confess our ma
tional sins, and to pray for cIemency and for
giveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the re
quest, and fully concurring in the views OF TIN
Senate, l do, by this my proclamation, deslg
mate and set apart Thursday, the Both day 0
April, 1868, as a day of national humiliation
fasting, and prayer. And do hereby reques
all the people to abstain on that day from
their ordinary secular pursuits and to unite a
their several places of public worship ant
their respective homes, i'll keeping the day no
w to the Lord, and devoted to the humbl
discharge of the religious duties proper to tina
solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth
let us then rest humbiy i'll the hope author
lied by the Divine teachings, that the unite
cry Of the nation will be heard on high, an
answered with blessings, no less than pardo
Of our national sins, and restoration Of gu
now divided and suffering country to its fu
mer happy condition Of unity and peace.
In the witness thet eof, l have hereunto set N
hand, and caused the seal of the United States
be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this thirtiei
day Of March, in the year of our lord, one thous
and eight hundred and sixty~three, and of the Il
dependence of the United States the eighty-se'
enth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President
WILLIAM Il. SEWARD, Secretary of State.