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October 3, 1863
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 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 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, 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
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State |