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 the navy of the
United States, on the land and on the sea, so signal and so effective victories 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 preserved; but these victories have been accorded not without sacrifice of life, limb, and liberty, incurred by brave, patriotic, and loyal 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 these sorrows.
Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, the sixth 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 from approved by their own conscience, 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 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.
By the
President,
