Pres. Lincoln's Thanksgiving
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| Thu, 11-27-2003 - 6:48pm |
Proclamation of 1863:
President Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863
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 unequalled 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 had
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 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.
Abraham Lincoln
Rhonda
Time invested in improving ourselves cuts down on time disapproving of others.
