By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The
year that is drawing towards its 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 of 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 unequalled
magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to
invite and to provoke their 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 theatre
of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by
the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of
wealth and of 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 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 ascriptions justly due to Him for such
singular deliverances 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, tranquillity 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
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State
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