Whereas, by my direction, the Acting Secretary of State, in a notice to
the public of the 17th, requested the various religious denominations
to assemble on the 19th instant, on the occasion of the obsequies of
Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States, and to observe the
same with appropriate ceremonies; but
Whereas our country has become one great house of mourning, where the
head of the family has been taken away, and believing that a special
period should be assigned for again humbling ourselves before Almighty
God, in order that the bereavement may be sanctified to the nation:
Now, therefore, in order to mitigate that grief on earth which can
only be assuaged by communion with the Father in heaven, and in
compliance with the wishes of Senators and Representatives in Congress,
communicated to me by resolutions adopted at the National Capitol,
I, Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, do hereby appoint
Thursday, the 25th day of May next, to be observed, wherever in the
United States the flag of the country may be respected, as a day of
humiliation and mourning, and I recommend my fellow citizens then to
assemble in their respective places of worship, there to unite in solemn
service to Almighty God in memory of the good man who has been removed,
so that all shall be occupied at the same time in contemplation of his
virtues and in sorrow for his sudden and violent end.
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, the 25th day of April, A.D. 1865, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the eighty-ninth.