THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1863)
IT IS THE DUTY OF NATIONS AS WELL AS OF MEN
TO OWN THEIR DEPENDENCE UPON THE OVERRULING POWER OF GOD...AND TO RECOGNIZE THE
SUBLIME TRUTH, ANNOUNCED IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES AND PROVEN BY ALL HISTORY, THAT
THOSE NATIONS ARE BLESSED WHOSE GOD IS THE LORD.
We know that by his divine law, nations, like
individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May
we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the
land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the
needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
WE HAVE BEEN THE RECIPIENTS OF THE CHOICEST
BOUNTIES OF HEAVEN; WE HAVE BEEN PRESERVED THESE MANY YEARS IN PEACE AND
PROSPERITY; WE HAVE GROWN IN NUMBERS, WEALTH AND POWER AS NO OTHER NATION HAS
EVER GROWN.
BUT WE HAVE FORGOTTEN GOD. WE HAVE FORGOTTEN
THE GRACIOUS HAND WHICH PRESERVED US IN PEACE AND MULTIPLIED AND ENRICHED AND
STRENGTHENED US, AND WE HAVE VAINLY IMAGINED, IN THE DECEITFULNESS OF OUR
HEARTS, THAT ALL THESE BLESSINGS WERE PRODUCED BY SOME SUPERIOR WISDOM AND
VIRTUE OF OUR OWN. INTOXICATED WITH UNBROKEN SUCCESS, WE HAVE BECOME TOO
SELF-SUFFICIENT TO FEEL THE NECESSITY OF REDEEMING AND PRESERVING GRACE, TOO
PROUD TO PRAY TO THE GOD THAT MADE US.
IT HAS SEEMED TO ME FIT AND PROPER THAT GOD
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 as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent
Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
ŠKC06-07
