A
Proclamation.
The Year that is drawing to a close, has been filled with
the blessings 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 so extraordinary a
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 a civil war of unequaled magnitude and
severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to
invite and to provoke the aggression, 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 theater of military
conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted
by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields
of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not
arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has
enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines,
as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have
yielded even more abundantly than heretofore.
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the
waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the
battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the
consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is
permitted to expect continuance 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 for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be
solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with
one heart and one voice by the whole American People.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of
the United States, and also those who are at sea and
those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart
and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day
of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who
dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the
ascription's justly due to Him for such singular
deliverance's and blessings, they do also, with humble
penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience,
commend to His tender care all those who have become
widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable
civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and
fervently implore the interposition 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, I 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, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
|