The Nashville daily union. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1862-1866, 1863-04-30
A PROCLAMATION
DY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STAT:

DY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
Whereas the Senate of the United
States devoutly recognizing the supreme
authority and just government of AL
mighty God, in all the affairs of men and
nations, has, by a resolution, required the
President TO designate and set apart a
day for National prayer and humiliation.
And whereas, il is the duty of nations,
as well as 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 mer-
cy and pardon, and to 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 punishment and chas-
tisements 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 presumptuous sins, to the
needful end of our national reformation
as a 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 nation has ever grown. But
we have forgotten God. We have forgot
ten the gracious hand which preserved
-. - aud uuItfnltad aud anr;ohaJ
and strengthened us; and We have vain
ly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our
hearts, that all these blessings were
produced by some superior wisdom and
virtue Of our own. Intoxicated with
unbroken success, we have become toe
self-suficient TO feel the necessity Of re-
deeming and preserving grace, too proud
to pray to the God that made usl
1t behooves 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 %concurring in the yiewi
of the Senate, / do, by this my procla.
nation, designate and set apart Thurs.
day, the 30th day of April, 1868, as
day Of national humiliation, fasting, anC
prayer. And | do hereby request all tn
people TO abstain from their ordinary
secular pursuits, and to unite at thei
several places of public worship ant
their respective homes in keeping the dal
holy to the Lord, and devoted to the hum
BILE discharge of the religious dutie
proper to that solemn occasion.
Al this being done in sincerity AM
truth, IL us then rest humbly in th
hope, authorized by Divine teaohing'
that the united cry Of the Nation will b
heard on high, and answered with bless
ings, no less than the pardon OF our ma
tional sins, and restoration of our nov
divided and suffering country to It's for
mer happy condition Of unity and peac'
In witness whereof, | have hereuni
set my hand, and caused the seal Of III
United States TO be affixed.
Done At the City of Washington tn.
thirtieth day Of March, ia the yea
[L.s. lof our Lord one thousand eigl
humid red and sixty-three, aud Of Il
independence OF the United Stat,
the eighty-seyenih.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President
WM n. SEWARD, Secretary Of Sta