[thenightwriterblog] The Night Writer: Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

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Posted by The Night Writer:
Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation
http://thenightwriterblog.powerblogs.com/posts/1195511129.shtml


     Washington, D.C.
     October 3, 1863
     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 unequaled 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 consiousness 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 Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
     By the President: Abraham Lincoln