Year: 1863

Lineoln's Fasting and Prayer Proclanation.


Lincoln has issued the following proclamation for
q day OF " National Prayer and Humiliation"


HAereGs the Senate of the United States de-
Voutly recognizing the supreme authority and just
government of Almighty God in all the affairs of
men ana OF nations has, BY resolution, requested
que % rreSiaent 10 designate and set apart day for
national prayer and humiliation and


Whereos, it is the duty Of nationa as we'll as Of
men, to own their dependence upon the overruling
power of God, to confess their sins and trangreS-
sions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hone that
genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon.
and to recognize the sublime truths announced in
the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history that
those ns:icDs only are blessed whose God is the
Lord;


And, inasmuch as we know that by His divine
law nations like individuals are subjected to pun
lshments and chastisementS in this world, may We
not justly fear that the awful Calamity o. civil war;
which now desolates the land, may be but punish.
ment inflicted upon US for our preSumptuous sins,
to the needful end Of our national reformation as
whole people? We have been the recipients of the
choicest Oountes of heaven we have been preserv-
60, these many years, in peace and prosperity; we
nave grown in numbers wealth, and power, as no
other nation has ever grown. But we have forgot
fen God We have forgotten the gracious hand which
preserved US IN peace, and multiplied, and enriched
and strengthened rs and we have vainly imagined,
m the deeeitf6lhess Of our hearts that all those
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom
and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken
success, we have become too selfsuficient to feel
the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace
too proud to'pray to the God that made as |!


1t behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before
the offended Power to confess our national SINS and
to pray for clemency and forgiveness


Now, therefore, in compliance with the request
and fully concurring in the views of the Senate. /
do by this my proclamation designate and set apart
Thursday the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of
national humili.tion, fasting and prayer. And
do hereby request all the people to abstain on that
day from their ordinary secular pursuits, 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 religious duties proper to that solemn occasion


All this 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 heard on high, and answered with blessings
no less than the pardon of our national sins, and
restoration of divided and suffering country to
its former happy condition of unity and peace.


In witness whereof have hereunto set my hand
and caused the seal of the United States to be af
fixed.


Done at the city Of Washington, this 18th day of
SI~SS March, in the year of our Lord one thou
900 20 sand eight hundred and sixty y-three, and
OF the independence of the United States the eighty
seventh. ABRAHAM LINCOLN.


By the President:


WIN. II. SEWARD, Sec. of State.