Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1863-10-05
national Thanksgiving Day.

! By the President of the United States OF
America.-A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close
| has been filled with the blessing of fruitful
fields and healthful skies. TO these bounties,
which are SO constantly enjoyed that we are
| prone to forget the source from which they
come. Others have been added, which are
| Of so extraordinary nature that they cannot
| fail to penetrate and soften even the heart
which is habitually insensible to the ever
watchful providence of Almighty God. In
| the midst OF Il civil war of uuequalled magni-
tude and severitY, which has sometimes
seemed to invite and provoke the aggressions
of foreign states, peace has been preserved
| with all nations, order has been maintained,
! the laws have been respected and obeyed, and
| harmony has prevailed everywhere except in
the theatre of military conflict, while that
theatre has been greatly cOntractedby the adj
vancing armies and navieS of the Union.
The needful diversion of wealth and
strength from the fields Of peaceful industry
| to the national defence have not arrested the
| plough the shuttle, or the ship. The axe has
enlarged the borders of our settlement, and
the MEANS as well OF iron and coal as ef-the
| precious metals, have yielded even more
abundantly than heretofore. Population has
steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste
that has been made by the camp, the siege,
and the battlefield, and the country, relOic
ing in consciousness of augmented strength
anu rlgOr, is permitted to expect a cOntlnu-
ance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised, nor hath any
mortal hand worked out these great things.
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High
God, who, while dealing with us in anger tor
our sins, has, nevertheless, remembered
mercy.
1t has seemed to me fit and proper that they
should be sOlemnly, reverently and gratefully
acknowledged, as with one heart and voice,
by the whole American people. | do there
fore invite my fellow citizens, in every part
OF the United States, and also those who are
at sea and those who are adjourning in foreign
lands, to set apart and observe the LAST
THURSDAY OF NOVEMBER NEXT as day Of
thanksgiving and prayer to our Bemefcent
Father, who dwelleth in the heavens and |
recommend to them, while offering up the as
criptionS justly due to him for such singular
deliverances and blessings, they do, also, with
humble pentence for our national perverse-
ness and dsobedience, commend to his tender
care all those who have become widows, or
phans, mourners, or sufferers, in the lament
able civil strife in which we are unavoidably
engaged, and fervently implore the interposi-
ton of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds
of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may
be consistent with the divine purposes, to the
full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility,
and union.
In testimony whereof 1 have hereunto set
my hand and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed. Done at the city of
Washington this third day of October. i'll the
year OF our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and siXtythree, and of the independence of
the United States the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the presidents:
WIN. II. SEWARD, Secretary of State.