The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1877-11-21
TIE NATIONAL THANKSGIVING DAY

s. ---f % .
Proclamation by the President of the United
States Firing Thursday. Nou. 20.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29.-The following WAS
issued this afternoon: ataF.AI r =
By the President Of the United States of america:
"A PROCLAMATION ava
The completed circle of summer and winter,
seed-time and harvest, has brought us to the
accustomed seasonal which q religious people
celebrates with praise and Thanksgiving the en-
during mercy Of Almighty God. This deYout
and public confession of the constant depend
ence of man upon the Divine Father for all good
gifts Of life and health and peace and happi.
ness, 30 early in our history made the habit Of
new grounds for its joyful and grateful mani
festation. In all blessings which depend upon
benignant seasons this has indeed been q mem
orable year. Over, the wide territory Of our
country, with all its diversity OF soil and climate
and products the earthhas yielded q bountiful
return to the labor Of the husbaudman. The
health Of the people has .been blighted by no
prevalent and widespread diseases. j.. No great
disasters Of shipwreck upon our coast, or to
our commerce on the seas have brought loss
and hardships to merchants and mariners, and
clouded the happiness Of the community with
sympathetic sorrow. In all that concerns our
strength and peace and greatness as a nation =;
in all that touches the permanence and security
tons on which it rests: in all that affects the
character and dispositions Of our people. and
tests our capacity TO enjoy and uphold tho
equal and free condition Of society, now per-
manent and universal Throughout the land, the
experience Of the last year is conspicuously
marked by the protecting providence Of God,
and is full Of promise and hope for the coming
generations. Under q sense Of these infinite
obligations to the Great Ruler Of times and
seasons and events, let us humbly ascribe it to
our own faults and f~railties, if, in any degree,
that perfect concord and happiness. peace and
justice, which such great mercies, should dif-
fuse through tho hearts and lives of our peo-
pie do not altogether and elways and every
where prevail. Let US, with one spirit and with
one voice, lift up praise and Thanksgiving to
God for his manifold goodness to our land and
his manifest care for our nation.
Now, therefore, /, Rutherford B. Hayes,
President Of the United States, do appoint
Thursday, the Goth day Of November next, as a
day Of national thanksgiving and prayer, an! I
earnestly recommend that, withdrawing them
selves from secular cares and labors, the people
of the United States do meet together on that
day in their respective places Of worship, there
to give thanks and praise to Almighty God for
His mercies, and to deyoutly beseech their con-
tinuance. iii
I. witness whereof I have hereunto set my
hand and caused the seal Of the United States
to be affixed. .Ja&r R.s. i
Done at the City Of Washington this twenty
ninth day Of October, In the year Of our
49, Lord one thousand eight hundred and
LIS seventy-seven, and Of the Independence
Of the United States the one hundred
and second R. B. HAYES.
By the President: .".'
WILLIAM NJ. EvARrs, Secretary Of State.