Whereas the Senate and House of Representatives at their last session
adopted a concurrent resolution, which was approved on the 2d day of
July instant and which was in the words following, namely:
That the President of the United States be requested to appoint a day
for humiliation and prayer by the people of the United States; that he
request his constitutional advisers at the head of the Executive
Departments to unite with him as Chief Magistrate of the nation, at the
city of Washington, and the members of Congress, and all magistrates,
all civil, military, and naval officers, all soldiers, sailors, and
marines, with all loyal and law-abiding people, to convene at their
usual places of worship, or wherever they may be, to confess and to
repent of their manifold sins; to implore the compassion and forgiveness
of the Almighty, that, if consistent with His will, the existing
rebellion may be speedily suppressed and the supremacy of the
Constitution and laws of the United States may be established throughout
all the States; to implore Him, as the Supreme Ruler of the World, not
to destroy us as a people, nor suffer us to be destroyed by the
hostility or connivance of other nations or by obstinate adhesion to our
own counsels, which may be in conflict with His eternal purposes, and to
implore Him to enlighten the mind of the nation to know and do His will,
humbly believing that it is in accordance with His will that our place
should be maintained as a united people among the family of nations; to
implore Him to grant to our armed defenders and the masses of the people
that courage, power of resistance, and endurance necessary to secure
that result; to implore Him in His infinite goodness to soften the
hearts, enlighten the minds, and quicken the consciences of those in
rebellion, that they may lay down their arms and speedily return to
their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly
destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity and
fraternity may be restored and peace established throughout all our
borders:
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States,
cordially concurring with the Congress of the United States in the
penitential and pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid resolution
and heartily approving of the devotional design and purpose thereof, do
hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next to be observed by the
people of the United States as a day of national humiliation and prayer.
I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the Executive
Departments of this Government, together with all legislators, all
judges and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in
the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers, seamen,
and marines in the national service, and all the other loyal and
law-abiding people of the United States, to assemble in their preferred
places of public worship on that day, and there and then to render to
the almighty and merciful Ruler of the Universe such homages and such
confessions and to offer to Him such supplications as the Congress of
the United States have in their aforesaid resolution so solemnly, so
earnestly, and so reverently recommended.
In testimony 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 7th day of July, A.D. 1864, and of
the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth