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ries > Lincoln's Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day by Abraham Lincoln |
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Lincoln's Proclamation Appointing a National
Fast Day
Washington, D. C.
March 30, 1863
Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter married
President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March
2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer
and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March
30.
By the President of the United States of America.
Abraham Lincoln
A Proclamation.
hereas,
the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just
Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution,
requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and
humiliation.
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence
upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble
sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon;
and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by
all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected
to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful
calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted
upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation
as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven.
We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown
in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten
God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied
and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness
of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and
virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient
to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the
God that made us!
It 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, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the
30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And
I 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 the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy
condition of unity and 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 thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three,
and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.
--By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Also Read:
The Conversion of Abraham
Lincoln ---New Window
and
The
Plot to Murder Mr. Lincoln ---New Window
and
Lincoln's
Thanksgiving Proclamation ---New Window
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