Categories: Proclamations

Samuel Adams

Proclamation – Fasting Humiliation and Prayer – 1795, Massachusetts

Samuel Adams (1722-1803); Samuel Adams was a leader in the opposition to the acts by British Parliament which precipitated the American Revolution; he formed Boston’s Committee of Correspondence in 1772; was a member of the Continental Congress (1774-81) where he signed the Declaration of Independence (1776); he helped draft the Articles of Confederation (1777); was a delegate to the Massachusetts constitutional convention (1779-80); served as president of the Massachusetts senate (1781); was a member of the state convention to ratify the Federal Constitution (1788); Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts (1789-94); and Governor of Massachusetts (1794- 97). He is justly titled both the “Firebrand of the Revolution” and “The Father of the American Revolution” for his important leadership in the cause of American independence.

The following is the text of a proclamation for a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer issued by Samuel Adams as Governor of Massachusetts. This proclamation was issued on February 28, 1795, declaring April 2, 1795 the day of fasting for the state of Massachusetts.

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Commonwealth of Massachusetts

By the Governor

A Proclamation

For a Day of PUBLIC FASTING, HUMILIATION and PRAYER

THE supreme Ruler of the Universe, having been pleased, in the course of his Providence, to establish the Independence of the United States of America, and to cause them to assume their rank, among the nations of the Earth, and bless them with Liberty, Peace and Plenty; we ought to be led by Religious feelings of Gratitude; and to walk before Him, in all Humility, according to his most Holy Law.-But, as the depravity of our Hearts has, in so many instances drawn us aside from the path of duty, so that we have frequently offended our Divine and Merciful Benefactor; it is therefore highly incumbent on us, according to the ancient and laudable practice of our pious Ancestors, to open the year by a public and solemn Fast.-That with true repentance and contrition of Heart, we may unitedly implore the forgiveness of our Sins, through the merits of Jesus Christ, and humbly supplicate our Heavenly Father, to grant us the aids of his Grace, for the amendment of our Hearts and Lives, and vouchsafe his smiles upon our temporal concerns:

I HAVE therefore thought fit to appoint, and with the advice and consent of the Council, I do hereby appoint Thursday, the Second Day of April next, to be observed as a Day of Public Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer throughout this Commonwealth:-Calling upon the Ministers of the Gospel, of every Denomination, with their respective Congregations, to assemble on that Day, and devoutly implore the Divine forgiveness of our Sins, -To pray that the Light of the Gospel, and the rights of Conscience, may be continued to the people of United America; and that his Holy Word may be improved by them, so that the name of God may be exalted, and their own Liberty and Happiness secured.-That he would be graciously pleased to bless our Federal Government; that by a wise administration, it may be a sure guide and safe protection in national concerns, for the people who have established, and who support it-That He would continue to us the invaluable Blessings of Civil Liberty; guarding us against intestine commotions; and enabling the United States, in the exercise of such Governmental powers, as are devolved upon them, so that the honor and dignity of our Nation, upon the Sea and the Land, may be supported, and Peace with the other Powers of the World, upon safe and honorable terms, may be maintained.

That he would direct the administration of our Federal and State Governments, so that the lives, liberties and property of all the Citizens, and the just rights of the People, as Men and Citizens, may be forever acknowledged, and at all times defended, by Constitutions, founded upon equal rights; and by good and wholesome Laws, wisely and judiciously administered and duly executed.

That he would enable Legislators and Magistrates of this Commonwealth, to discharge the important duties incumbent on them, that the People may have good reason to feel themselves happy and safe, and lead quiet and peaceable lives in all Godliness and Honesty.

That he would incline the Natives of the Wilderness, to listen to reasonable offers of Peace, that tranquility and security may be established on the Frontiers Of our Country;-That he would graciously regard the Lives and Health of the People of this and our sister States, and preserve them from contagious and wasting diseases: To crown the ensuing Year with Plenty and Prosperity, by his blessing on our Husbandry, our Fisheries, our Commerce, and all the labor of our Hands-to affect our minds with a sense of our entire dependence upon Him, and of his great goodness towards us, that when we may present ourselves before Him, at the close of the Year, with our thank-offerings, our Hearts may by his grace, be prepared to do it in a manner acceptable to Him.

That He would be graciously pleased to establish the French Republic, and prosper others who are contending for the Rights of Men, and dispose all Nations to favor the same principles , and return to Peace and Friendship.

That He would in his great Mercy, remember the unhappy state of our Fellow-Citizens and others, who are groaning under bondage, in a foreign Land. That He would soften the Hearts of those who have led them captive, inclining that People to show them favor during their Captivity, and in His own due time open a door for their relief: -And finally, that He would over-rule all the confusions that are in the Earth, of the speedy establishment of the Redeemer’s Kingdom, which consisteth in Righteousness and Peace.

And I do recommend to the People of this Commonwealth, to abstain from all unnecessary Labor and Recreation on the said Day.

GIVEN at the Council-Chamber, in Boston, this Twenty-eighth Day of February, in the Year of our Lord, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-five, and in the Nineteenth Year of the Independence of the United States of America.

SAMUEL ADAMS

Attest: John Avery, jun. Secretary

GOD save the COMMONWEALTH of MASSACHUSETTS!

Proclamation – Fasting Humiliation and Prayer – 1793, Massachusetts

This is the text of a Proclamation for a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer issued by John Hancock, Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The proclamation was issued on March 4, 1793, declaring April 11, 1793 as a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer.

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Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

BY HIS EXCELLENCY

 

John Hancock, Esquire,

GOVERNOR of the COMMONWEALTH of MASSACHUSETTS.

 

A PROCLAMATION

For a Day of Public FASTING, HUMILIATION, AND PRAYER.

WHEREAS it hath been the Practice of the People inhabiting the Territory of this Commonwealth, from their first Settlement, at this Season of the Year, unitedly to acknowledge their entire Dependence on the SUPREME BEING, and to humble themselves under a Sense of their utter unworthiness of his Favors, by Reason of their Transgression; and whereas the Practice appears to have a Tendency to cultivate the Fear of God, and a due Regard to HIS LAWS:

I HAVE THEREFORE THOUGHT FIT, by, and with the Advice of the COUNCIL, to appoint, and I hereby do appoint, THURSDAY, the Eleventh Day of April next, to be observed throughout this Commonwealth, as Day of solemn FASTING, HUMILIATION and PRAYER:— Calling upon Ministers, and People of every Denomination, to assemble on that Day, in their respective Congregations; that with true contrition of Heart we may confess our Sins; resolve to forsake them, and implore the Divine forgiveness, through the Merits and Mediation of JESUS CHRIST, our SAVIOUR— Humbly supplicate the Supreme Ruler of the Universe to prosper the Administration of the Federal Government, and that of this Commonwealth, and the other States in the Union; enduing them with Firmness, Wisdom, Unanimity and Public Spirit; and leading them in their respective public Councils, to such Determinations as shall be adapted to Promote the great end of Government:— The Welfare and Happiness of the People:— To restore and maintain Peace in our Borders: Continue Health among us, and give us Wisdom to improve HIS Blessings, for HIS Glory, and our own Good:— To smile upon our Agriculture, and mercifully prevent the diminishing the Fruits of the Earth, by devouring Insects, unseasonable Weather, or other Judgments; that so our Land may abundantly yield its Increase:— That HE would protect and prosper our Navigation, Trade, Fishery, and all the Works of our Hands:— To confirm and continue our invaluable Religious and Civil Liberties:— To prosper the University, and other Seminaries and Means of Education:— To cause Industry, Frugality, and all Moral and Christian Virtues to prevail among us:— To bless the Allies of the United Sates, and particularly to afford his Almighty Aid to the French Nation, and still Guide them into such Measures, as shall tend effectually to establish a Government founded upon Reason, Justice, and the Welfare of the People.— And finally to over-rule all the Commotions in the World, to the spreading the true Religion of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, in its Purity and Power, among all the People of the Earth.

And I do earnestly recommend that all unnecessary Labour and Recreation may be suspended on the said Day.

GIVEN at the COUNCIL-CHAMBER, in Boston, the Fourth Day of MARCH, in the Year of our LORD, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety-Three, and in the Seventeenth Year of the Independence of the United States of America!

JOHN HANCOCK.

By His Excellency’s Command,

with the Advice and Consent of the COUNCIL,

JOHN AVERY, jun. Secretary.

GOD save the Commonwealth of MASSACHUSETTS!

Printed at BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, at the State Press, by THOMAS ADAMS, PRINTER to the HONORABLE THE GENERAL COURT-1793.

Proclamation – Fasting Humiliation and Prayer – 1789, Connecticut

This is the text of a Proclamation for a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer issued by Samuel Huntington, Esquire (signer of the Declaration of Independence), while he was serving as Governor of Connecticut. The proclamation was issued on March 28, 1789, declaring April 22, 1789 as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer.

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BY HIS EXCELLENCY

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON, ESQUIRE

Governor and Commander in Chief of the State of CONNECTICUT

A PROCLAMATION.

Considering the indispensable duty of a people, to acknowledge the overruling hand of divine providence, and their constant dependence upon the supreme being, for all the favor and blessings they may enjoy, or hope to receive; and that notwithstanding the many mercies and signal instances of divine favor conferred upon the inhabitants of this land, yet the prevalence of vice and wickedness give us just reason to fear the divine displeasure and chastisement for our many offenses, unless prevented by speedy repentance and reformation.

I have therefore thought fit by and with the advice of council, to appoint, and do, hereby appoint WEDNESDAY the Twenty-Second Day of April next, to be observed as a Day of FASTING, HUMILIATION, and PRAYER, throughout this state; earnestly exhorting ministers and people of all denominations to assemble for divine worship; that we may with becoming humility, and united hearts, confess and bewail our manifold sins and transgressions, and by repentance and reformation obtain pardon and forgiveness of all our offenses, through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our only savior. Also, to offer up fervent supplications to almighty God the father of mercies, that he may bless the United States of America, gives wisdom and integrity to our national council, direct their proceedings at this important crisis, in such manner as shall best promote the union, prosperity and happiness of the nation: – That it may graciously pleas him to smile upon and bless the people of this state, inspire our civil rulers with wisdom and integrity becoming their station: bless his sacred ambassadors, and cause pure and undefiled religion to flourish, grant us health and plenty; prosper us in all our lawful employments, and crown the year with his goodness; succeed the means of education, extend the peaceful influence of the redeemer’s kingdom, and dispose all nations to live as brethren in peace and amity, and fill the world with the knowledge and glory of God.

And all servile labor is forbidden on said day.

Given at Norwich, the 28th day of March, in the thirteenth year of the independence of the United States of America,

Annoque Domini 1789.

SAMUEL HUNTINGTON

By His Excellency’s Command,

George Wyllys, Sec’ry

Proclamation – Fasting Humiliation and Prayer – 1777, Massachusetts Bay

This is the text of a Proclamation for a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer issued by Massachusetts-Bay as printed in The Boston Gazette and Country Journal on August 18, 1777. The proclamation was issued on August 12, 1777, declaring August 28, 1777 as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer.

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State of Massachusetts-Bay

A PROCLAMATION

For a Day of public Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer

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It having pleased the wise and holy Governor of the World to manifest his Displeasure against the heinous and provoking Sins of the People of this Land, by the terrible Judgment of a War, which is now become so general as to demand our most serious Attention; and as He hath permitted the Enemy to make dangerous Inroads upon our defenseless Frontiers, by which Means the Savages have begun the dreadful Work of indiscriminate Murder among our distressed Brethren; and as HE is now holding the rod of his visible Displeasure over our oppressed and endangered Country;— it becomes a People professing a Belief in a superintending, universal Providence, with true and unfeigned Repentance, to make Him their Refuge, who governs and wisely directs all human Affairs:

WE have therefore thought fit, with the Advice of the Council and at the Desire of the House of Representatives, to appoint, and we do hereby appoint THURSDAY the 28th Day of August current, to be observed throughout this State, as a Day of FASTING, HUMILIATION, and PRAYER; hereby calling upon the several religious Assemblies, of every Denomination, devoutly to attend of the Duties of the said Day; with humble Penitence confessing their manifold Sins, and aggravated Transgressions; imploring through JESUS CHRIST our Lord, the pardoning Mercy of Almighty God, and the gracious Removal of the divine Displeasure from us; with grateful Hearts acknowledging his unmerited Goodness, and the many Mercies which, while his Judgments are abroad in the Earth, he bestows upon an ungrateful and ill deserving People; and devoutly supplicating those important Blessings which we, in this Day of general Calamity, stand in such eminent Need of: —Particularly; that GOD would direct the Counsels of this, and of all the UNITED AMERICAN STATES; and in a special Manner the GRAND CONGRESS OF AMERICA; that he would succeed and prosper our Naval and Military Operations; preserve the Lives and Health of our Officers and Soldiers, animate them with invincible Courage and Resolution, and lead them on to decisive Victory; and that the COMMANDER IN CHIEF, amidst all his weighty Cares, may be under the singular Direction and Protection of HIM, who giveth Wisdom to the wise, and Understanding to the prudent; —that the Inhabitants of these States may be spirited to make, with united Efforts, a vigorous and successful Defense of their Liberties, civil and religious;—that the determined and enraged Enemy, may not be able to execute their cruel and destructive Plan, but meet with Disappointment and a total Defeat;—and that instead of the Sound of the Trumpet and the Alarm of War, we may soon hear the voice of established and undisturbed Peace;—that the Earth, now teeming with hopeful Plenty, may yield to Man and Beast a full and rich Supply; -that Profanity, and Vice of every Species, may, with universal Consent, be banished from among us;—that Selfishness and Oppression may give Place to Benevolence and public virtue;—that the interesting Truths of the Gospel of GOD our Saviour, may, through the sanctifying Influences of the holy Spirit, have due Effect upon the Hearts and Lives of Persons of every Age; and we be that happy People, whose GOD is the LORD.

And all servile Labour and Recreation are hereby forbidden on the said Day.

GIVEN at the Council Chamber in BOSTON, this twelfth Day of August, in the Year of our LORD, One Thousand seven Hundred and Seventy-seven.

By their Honor’s command,

JOHN AVERY, Dep’y Secr’y

GOD Save the United States of America!

Proclamation – Thanksgiving Day – 1989

This is the text of a Proclamation for a National Day of Thanksgiving. The proclamation was issued on November 17, 1989, declaring November 23, 1989 as a day of thanksgiving to be observed by the nation.

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Thanksgiving Day, 1989

By the President of the United States

A Proclamation

On Thanksgiving Day, we Americans pause as a Nation to give thanks for the freedom and prosperity with which we have been blessed by our Creator. Like the pilgrims who first settled in this land, we offer praise to God for His goodness and generosity and rededicate ourselves to lives of service and virtue in His sight.

This annual observance of Thanksgiving was a cherished American tradition even before our first President, George Washington, issued the first Presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in 1789. In his first Inaugural Address, President Washington observed that “No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States.” He noted that the American people – blessed with victory in their fight for Independence and with an abundance of crops in their fields – owed God “some return of pious gratitude.” Later, in a confidential note to his close advisor, James Madison, he asked “should the sense of the Senate be taken on … a day of Thanksgiving?” George Washington thus led the way to a Joint Resolution of Congress requesting the President to set aside “a day of public Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal Favors of Almighty God.”

Through the eloquent words of President Washington’s initial Thanksgiving proclamation – the first under the Constitution – we are reminded of our dependence upon our Heavenly Father and of the debt of gratitude we owe to Him. “It is the Duty of all Nations,” wrote Washington, “to acknowledge the Providence of almighty God, to obey his Will, to be grateful for his Benefits, and humbly to implore His Protection and Favor.”

President Washington asked that on Thanksgiving Day the people of the United States:

unite in rendering unto [God] our sincere and humble Thanks for his kind Care and Protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation; for … the great degree of Tranquility, Union and Plenty which we have since enjoyed; for … the civil and religious Liberty with which we are blessed, and … for all the great and various Favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

Two hundred years later, we continue to offer thanks to the Almighty – not only for the material prosperity that our Nation enjoys, but also for the blessings of peace and freedom. Our Nation has no greater treasures than these.

As we pause to acknowledge the kindnesses God has shown to us – and, indeed, His gift of life itself – we do so in a spirit of humility as well as gratitude. When the United States was still a fledgling democracy, President Washington asked the American people to unite in prayer to the “great Lord and ruler of Nations,” in order to:

beseech him to pardon our national and other Transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private Stations, to perform our several and relative Duties properly and punctually; to render our national Government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a Government of wise, just and constitutional Laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations … and to bless them with good Government, peace and Concord.

Today, we, too, pause on Thanksgiving with humble and contrite hearts, mindful of God’s mercy and forgiveness and of our continued need for His protection and guidance. On this day, we also remember that one gives praise to God not only through prayers of thanksgiving, but also through obedience to His commandments and service to others, especially those less fortunate than ourselves.

While some Presidents followed Washington’s precedent, and some State Governors did as well, President Lincoln – despite being faced with the dark specter of civil war – renewed the practice of proclaiming a national day of Thanksgiving. This venerable tradition has been sustained by every President since then, in times of strife as well as times of peace and prosperity.

Today, we continue to offer thanks and praise to our Creator, that “Great Author of every public and private good,” for the many blessings He has bestowed upon us. In so doing, we recall the timeless words of the 100th Psalm:

Serve the Lord with gladness: come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 23, 1989, as a National Day of Thanksgiving, and I call upon the American people to gather together in homes and places of worship on that day of thanks to affirm by their prayers and their gratitude the many blessings God has bestowed upon us and our Nation.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this seventeenth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourteenth.

GEORGE BUSH

Proclamation – Thanksgiving Day – 1909

 

This is the text of a Thanksgiving Day proclamation issued by President William Howard Taft on November 15, 1909.

[Thanksgiving- 1909.]

By the
President of the United States of America.

A
Proclamation.

proclamation-thanksgiving-day-1909-1The season of the year has returned when, in accordance with the reverent custom established by our forefathers, the people of the United States are wont [accustomed] to meet in their usual places of worship on a day of thanksgiving appointed by the Civil Magistrate to return thanks to God for the great mercies and benefits which they have enjoyed.

During this past year we have been highly blest. No great calamities of flood or tempest or epidemic sickness have befallen us. We have lived in quietness, undisturbed by wars or the rumors of wars. Peace and the plenty of bounteous crops and of great industrial production animate a cheerful and resolute people to all the renewed energies of beneficent industry and material and moral progress. It is altogether fitting that we should humbly and gratefully acknowledge the divine source of these blessings.

Therefore I appoint Thursday, the twenty-fifth day of November, as a day of general thanksgiving, and I call upon the people on that day, laying aside their usual vocations, to repair to their churches and unite in appropriate services of praise and thanks to Almighty God.

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 November, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and nine and of the independence of the United States the one hundred and thirty-fourth.

Wm H Taft

By the President:

P.C. Knox

Secretary of State.

Proclamation – Thanksgiving Day – 1899, New Hampshire

The following is the text of a Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise, issued by Frank West Rollins, the governor of New Hampshire. The proclamation was issued October 27, 1899 and was declaring November 30, 1899 the day of Thanksgiving.

 

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State of New Hampshire.
 

By His Excellency Frank West Rollins, Governor,
A Proclamation
For a day of public Thanksgiving and Praise.

I hereby appoint Thursday, the thirtieth day of November, as a day of joyful thanksgiving to Almighty God, our Heavenly Father.

Let a special effort be made call home our dear ones for the observance of the beautiful custom, and let family reunions be held around our hearthstones. Let the morning of this glad day be devoted to services of praise and thanksgiving for the bounteousness of the harvests and our general prosperity—and the after to deeds of brotherly kindness and loving charity, visiting the sick and needy, sending flowers and delicacies to the hospitals, and bringing the joyousness of the day to the inmates of our charitable and reformatory institutions. “Give back the upward looking and the light” to some sorrowing soul; “rebuild in it the music and the dream,” even if it be but for a day. Let the evening be devoted to the children, who always seem so much nearer to God than the older ones. Make merry in the good old ways. Roll back the burden of the years.
A day thus spent will not only be a loving service to God, but a blessing to others and a benediction to ourselves.

Given at the Council Chamber in Concord, this twenty-seventh day
of October, in the year of Lord one thousand eight hundred
and ninety nine, and of the Independence of the United States of
America the one hundred and twenty-fourth.

Frank West Rollins,
Governor.

By His Excellency the Governor,
with advice of the Council,
Edward N. Pearson,
Secretary of State.

Proclamation – Thanksgiving Day – 1887

The following is the text of the handwritten Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer issued by Grover Cleveland, President of the United States. The proclamation was issued October 25, 1887 and was declaring November 24, 1887 the day of Thanksgiving.


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A Proclamation
By the President of the United States:

The goodness and the mercy of God, which have followed the American people during all the days of the past year claim our grateful recognition and humble acknowledgment. By His omnipotent power He has protected us from war and pestilence and from every national calamity; by His gracious favor the earth has yielded a generous return to the labor of the husbandman, and every path of honest toil has led to comfort and contentment; by His loving kindness the hearts of our people have been replenished with fraternal sentiment and patriotic endeavor, and by His Fatherly guidance we have been directed in the way of national prosperity.

To the end that we may with one accord testify our gratitude for all these blessings, I, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, do hereby designate and set apart Thursday, the twenty-fourth day of November next as a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by all the people of the land.

On the day let all secular work and employment be suspended; and let our people assemble in their accustomed places of worship and with prayer and songs of praise, give thanks to our Heavenly Father for all that He has done for us while we implore the forgiveness of our sins and a continuance of His mercy.

Let families and kindred be reunited on that day and let their hearts, filled with kindly cheer and affectionate reminiscence, be turned to the source of all their pleasures and to the Giver of all that makes the day bright and joyous.

And in the midst of our worship and enjoyments let us remember the poor, the needy, and the unfortunate; and by our gifts of charity and ready benevolence let us increase the number of those who with grateful hearts shall join in our Thanksgiving.

In witness whereof I have set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be hereunto affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-fifth day of October in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundred and twelfth.

Proclamation – Fasting Humiliation and Prayer – 1863

Following is the text of Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Proclamation for a Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer along with Massachusetts Governor John Andrew’s Fasting Proclamation. The proclamation was issued on March 30, 1863 and declared April 30, 1863 the national day of fasting.

BY HIS EXCELLENCY

ABRAHAM LINCOLN,

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA!

A PROCLAMATION

For a Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer.

Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation;

And whereas, it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truths announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;

And, inasmuch as 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 but 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 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 behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all people to abstain from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope, authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and 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 thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

By the President,
William H. Seward, Sec’y of State.

James Buchanan

Proclamation – Humiliation Fasting and Prayer – 1860

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By His Excellency

James Buchanan,

President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation

For a Day of
Humiliation, Fasting, & Prayer.

 

To the People of the United States.

A Recommendation.

Numerous appeals have been made to me by pious and patriotic associations and citizens, in view of the present distracted and dangerous condition of our country, to recommend that a day be set apart for Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer throughout the Union.
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In compliance with their request and my own sense of duty, I designate Friday, the 4th of January 1861, for this purpose, and recommend that the People assemble on that day, according to their several forms of worship, to keep it as a solemn Fast.

The Union of the States is at the present moment threatened with alarming and immediate danger; panic and distress of a fearful character prevails throughout the land; our laboring population are without employment, and consequently deprived of the mans of earning their bread. Indeed, hope seems to have deserted the minds of men. All classes are in a state of confusion and dismay, and the wisest counsels of our best and purest men are wholly disregarded.

In this the hour of our calamity and peril, to whom shall we resort for relief but to the God of our fathers? His omnipotent arm only can save us from the awful effects of our own crimes and follies — our own ingratitude and guilt towards our Heavenly Father.

Let us, then, with deep contrition and penitent sorrow, unite in humbling ourselves before the Most High, in confessing our individual and national sins, and in acknowledging the injustice of our punishment. Let us implore Him to remove from our hearts that false pride of opinion which would impel us to persevere in wrong for the sake of consistency, rather than yield a just submission to the unforeseen exigencies by which we are now surrounded. Let us with deep reverence beseech him to restore the friendship and good will which prevailed in former days among the people of the several States; and, above all, to save us from the horrors of civil war and “blood-guiltiness.” Let our fervent prayers ascend to His Throne that He would not desert us in this hour of extreme peril, but remember us as he did our fathers in the darkest days of the revolution; and preserve our Constitution and our Union, the work of their hands, for ages yet to come.

An Omnipotent Providence may overrule existing evils for permanent good. He can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath he can restrain. — Let me invoke every individual, in whatever sphere of like he may be placed, to feel a personal responsibility to God and his country for keeping this day holy, and for contributing all in his power to remove our actual and impending calamities.

James Buchanan.

Washington,
Dec. 14, 1860.