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A Proclamation
The year that is drawing toward 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 can not 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 theater of military conflict, while that theater 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 plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax 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 battlefield, 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 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
Carol and Doug,
ReplyDeleteThe year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.
When I recently read those words, my response, I confess, was mildly cynical. While it is possible some farmer has, in fact, had fruitful fields, the maelstrom that has been 2016 has been anything but full of “healthful skies”. At first pass, I am relieved that the year is moving further and further from my rear-view mirror.
But as I read further, I was struck by the following statement.
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 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.
And that was enough to give me pause, and why I desire to extend to each of you, on behalf of DonorsTrust, our heartful hope for a blessed Thanksgiving.
It was Abraham Lincoln who penned those words asking the country to set aside the fourth Thursday of November for a Day of Thanksgiving. Suffice it to say, you think 2016 has been tumultuous? Try writing that in 1863, in the midst of a literal Civil War. The President issued his declaration only a few months removed from the carnage that still surrounded the small town of Gettysburg.
Yet, he highlighted a hopeful and truthful observation – we are an industrious and resilient people. Despite the frustrations of politics, economic uncertainties, and turbulent social discourse, our “plough” and “shuttle” and “axe” continue to work towards peace and prosperity.
I do not know what 2017 will bring us. There are reasons for optimism and caution. But at DonorsTrust we know our family includes you, a most determined, charitable, and generous group of citizen patriots who see what is possible when we embrace the principles of limited government, free enterprise and personal responsibility.
And I am thankful for that, and what is possible. May this coming year be, in Lincoln’s words, “…the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union”.