Date: October 3, 1863
By: Abraham Lincoln
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 invite and provoke
the aggression of foreign states, 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.
The needful diversion of wealth and strength from the fields of
peaceful industry to the national defense has not arrested the plough,
the shuttle, or the ship. The axe has enlarged the borders of our
settlements, and the mines, as well as 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 a 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 reverently,
solemnly, 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 prayer 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 divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquility, and union.
In testimony where of, I have here unto set my hand, and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington,
this third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States
the eighty-eighth.
