_Washington, November 15, 1862_.
The President, Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, desires and
enjoins the orderly observance of the Sabbath by the officers and men in
the military and naval service. The importance for man and beast of the
prescribed weekly rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and
sailors, a becoming deference to the best sentiment of a Christian
people, and a due regard for the divine will demand that Sunday labor in
the Army and Navy be reduced to the measure of strict necessity.
The discipline and character of the national forces should not suffer
nor the cause they defend be imperiled by the profanation of the day or
name of the Most High. "At this time of public distress," adopting the
words of Washington in 1776, "men may find enough to do in the service
of God and their country without abandoning themselves to vice and
immorality." The first general order issued by the Father of his Country
after the Declaration of Independence indicates the spirit in which our
institutions were founded and should ever be defended:
_The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor
to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest
rights and liberties of his country_.