Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving 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 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 defence, 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. President Abraham Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation ~ David Harrison Levi Beverly Hills, California 90210 USA All Rights Reserved Copyright 2005