Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1863-04-16

. PROCLAMATION BY THE PRESIDENT,


Whereas, The Senate of the United
States, deyoutly recognizing the supreme
authority and Just government of Al
mighty God IN all the affairs of men and
Of nations, has, by resolution, requested
the President TO designate and set apart a
day for National prayer and humiliation,
and,
WheTedS, IL is the duty Of nations, as
well az Of men, To own their dependence
upon the overruiing power of God, to con
Tess their sins and transgressions, IN hum
BILE sorrow, yet with assured hope that
genuine repentance will lead TO mercy and
pardon, and 10 recognize the sublime truths
announced in the Holy Scriptures 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 chastise-
ments in this world, may we not Justly fear
that the awful calamity of civil war, which
now desolates the land, may be but a pun
ishment inflicted upon US for our presump-
tuous sins, 10 the needful end of our ma
tonal reformation as whole People ? We
have been the recipients of the choicest
bounues of Heaven. We have been pre-
served, 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 hane
which preserved US in peace, and multi
piled and enriched and strengthened US
and we have vainly imagined, in the de-
ceitfulness Of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior
wisdom and virtue Of our own. IntoXica-
ted with unbroken success, we have be-
come too self-sufhcIent to feel the necessi-
ty of redeeming and preserving grace, too
proud to pray to the God that made us!
1t behoovss us, then, TO humble our
selves before the offended Power, to con-
fess our national sins, and to pray for
clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the
request, and fully concurrng in the views
Of the Senate, do by this my proclama-
ton designate and set apart the Both day
of April, 1863, as a day of national hu-
initiation, fasting and prayer. And / dc
hereby request all the peoPie to abstain Or
thai. ,'ay ron their ordinary secular pur
SUITS, 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 religions duties proper to that sol
emn occasion.
All thi. being done IN sincerity and
truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope,
authorized by the Divine teachings, that
the united cry of the Nation will be hearC
on high, an answered with blessings, Ne
less than the pardon of our national sins
and restoration of our now divided anc
suffering country to its former happy con
dton of unity and peace.
In witness whereof have hereuato Sc
my hand and caused the sea! of the Uni
ted States to be affixed.
| Done at the City OF Washington, this thir
tieth day of March, in the year of on
Lord one thousand eight hundred ant
sixty three, and the independence of tn
United States the eighty seventh.
IL. S. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
William H. Seward, Sec. of State.