Whereas it has pleased Almighty God during the year which is now coming
to an end to relieve our beloved country from the fearful scourge of
civil war and to permit us to secure the blessings of peace, unity, and
harmony, with a great enlargement of civil liberty; and
Whereas our Heavenly Father has also during the year graciously averted
from us the calamities of foreign war, pestilence, and famine, while our
granaries are full of the fruits of an abundant season; and
Whereas righteousness exalteth a nation, while sin is a reproach to any
people:
Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Johnson, President of the
United States, do hereby recommend to the people thereof that they do
set apart and observe the first Thursday of December next as a day of
national thanksgiving to the Creator of the Universe for these great
deliverances and blessings.
And I do further recommend that on that occasion the whole people make
confession of our national sins against His infinite goodness, and with
one heart and one mind implore the divine guidance in the ways of
national virtue and holiness.
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 28th day of October, A.D. 1865, and
of the Independence of the United States of America the ninetieth.