The Portland daily press., 1877-10-30
NATIONAL THANKSGIVING.
A Rroclnmation by the Rreaidenf

Proclamation by the President
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29.-The following was
issued this afternoon by the President of the
United States:
A PROCLAMATION.
The completed circle of summer and inter,
seed time and harvest has brought us to the ac-
customed season at which religious people
celebrates with praise and thanksgiving the
enduring mercy of Almighty God. This de-
vOut and public confession of the constant de-
pendence of man upon the Divine Father for
all the good gifts of life and health, and peace
and happiness, SO early in our history made
the habit of our people. finds in the survey of
the past year new grounds for its joyful and
grateful manifestations. In all blessings which
depend upon the benignant seasons this has in
deed been memorable year. Over the wide
territory of our country with all its diversity of
soil and climate. and products, the North has
yielded bountiful return to the labor of the
husbandman. The health of the people has
been blighted by no pestilence or widespread
diseases, no great disasters of shipwreck upon
our coast or to our commerce on the sea have
brought loss and hardships to merchants or ma
riners, and clouded the happiness of the COM
munity with sympathetic sorrow. In all that
concerns our strength and peace and greatness
as nation, in all that touches the permanence
aud security of our government and the benefi-
cent institutions on which it rests, in all that
affects the character and dispositions of our
people tests or our capacity to enjoy and uphold
the equal and free condition of society now per.
manent and universal throughout the land, the
experience of the past year is csnspicuously
marked by the protecting providence of God
and is full of promise and hope for the coming
generations.
Under 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 frailties if in any degree that per
feet concord and happiness, peace and Justice
which such great mercies should diffuse through
the hearts and lives of our people do not alto
gether and always and every where prevail Let
us with one spirit and one voice lift up praise
and thansgiving to God for His manifold good
ness to our land, His manifest care for the ma
ton.
Now, therefore, I, Rutherford B. Hayes,
President of the United States, Go appoint
Thursday, the 10Th day of November next, as
day of national thanksgiving and prayer, and
l earnestly recommend that in withdrawing
themselves from secular cares and labor the
people OF the United States do meet together
on that day in their respective places of woi-
ship, there to give thanks and praise to Al
mighty God for his mercies and to devoutly be-
seech their continuance.
In witness whereof L have hereunto set nv
hand and caused the seal of the United States
to be affixed
Done at the city of Washington, this 10Th day
of October, in the year of our Lord one thou
sand eight hundred and seventy seven, and of
the independence of the United States the
one hundred and second.
(Signed) RIB. HAYES
By the President
WILLIAM NJ. EvARTs, Secretary of State.