The year that is drawing towards its
close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and
healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that
we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been
added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to
penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to
the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil
war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to
foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been
preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have
been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except
in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly
contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful
diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful
industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the
shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our
settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious
metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population
has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in
the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in
the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to
expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who,
while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless
remembered mercy.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by
the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in
every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those
who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last
Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our
beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them
that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such
singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence
for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender
care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in
the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and
fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the
wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with
the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony,
tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal
of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington, this third day of October, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.
  
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