Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, has been pleased to vouchsafe to us
as a people another year of that national life which is an indispensable
condition of peace, security, and progress. That year has, moreover,
been crowned with many peculiar blessings.
The civil war that so recently closed among us has not been anywhere
reopened; foreign intervention has ceased to excite alarm or
apprehension; intrusive pestilence has been benignly mitigated; domestic
tranquillity has improved, sentiments of conciliation have largely
prevailed, and affections of loyalty and patriotism have been widely
renewed; our fields have yielded quite abundantly, our mining industry
has been richly rewarded, and we have been allowed to extend our
railroad system far into the interior recesses of the country, while
our commerce has resumed its customary activity in foreign seas.
These great national blessings demand a national acknowledgment.
Now, therefore, I, Andrew Johnson. President of the United States, do
hereby recommend that Thursday, the 29th day of November next, be set
apart and be observed everywhere in the several States and Territories
of the United States by the people thereof as a day of thanksgiving and
praise to Almighty God, with due remembrance that "in His temple doth
every man speak of His honor." I recommend also that on the same solemn
occasion they do humbly and devoutly implore Him to grant to our
national councils and to our whole people that divine wisdom which
alone can lead any nation into the ways of all good.
In offering these national thanksgivings, praises, and supplications we
have the divine assurance that "the Lord remaineth a king forever; them
that are meek shall He guide in judgment and such as are gentle shall He
learn His way; the Lord shall give strength to His people, and the Lord
shall give to His people the blessing of peace."
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 8th day of October, A.D. 1866, and
of the Independence of the United States the ninety-first.