Selected Correspondance of Abraham Lincoln 1863 Proclamation For Thanksgiving
by Abraham Lincoln
JULY 15, 1863
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A Proclamation.
It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to the supplications and
prayers of an afflicted people, and to vouchsafe to the army and navy
of the United States victories on land and on the sea so signal and
so effective as to furnish reasonable grounds for augmented
confidence that the Union of these States will be maintained, their
Constitution preserved, and their peace and prosperity permanently
restored. But these victories have been accorded not without
sacrifices of life, limb, health, and liberty, incurred by brave,
loyal, and patriotic citizens. Domestic affliction in every part of
the country follows in the train of these fearful bereavements. It
is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the
Almighty Father, and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs
and in these sorrows.
Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, the 6th day
of August next, to be observed as a day for national thanksgiving,
praise, and prayer, and I invite the people of the United States to
assemble on that occasion in their customary places of worship, and,
in the forms approved by their own consciences, render the homage due
to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the
nation's behalf, and invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to
subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless
and cruel rebellion, to change the hearts of the insurgents, to guide
the counsels of the Government with wisdom adequate to so great a
national emergency, and to visit with tender care and consolation
throughout the length and breadth of our land all those who, through
the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and sieges have been,
brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and finally to lead the
whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission to the
Divine Will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal
peace.
In witness 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 fifteenth day of July, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of
the independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By, the President
WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.