It has pleased Almighty God to vouchsafe signal victories to the land
and naval forces engaged in suppressing an internal rebellion, and at
the same time to avert from our country the dangers of foreign
intervention and invasion.
It is therefore recommended to the people of the United States that at
their next weekly assemblages in their accustomed places of public
worship which shall occur after notice of this proclamation shall have
been received they especially acknowledge and render thanks to our
Heavenly Father for these inestimable blessings, that they then and
there implore spiritual consolation in behalf of all who have been
brought into affliction by the casualties and calamities of sedition and
civil war, and that they reverently invoke the divine guidance for our
national counsels, to the end that they may speedily result in the
restoration of peace, harmony, and unity throughout our borders and
hasten the establishment of fraternal relations among all the countries
of the earth.
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the United States to be affixed.
[SEAL.]
Done at the city of Washington, this 10th day of April, A.D. 1862, and
of the Independence of the United States the eighty sixth.