LINCOLN'S THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION
The year that is drawing toward 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 can not 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 unequaled
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 theater of
military conflict, while that theater 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 defense
have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has
enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well as the
iron and coal as of our 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 battlefield, 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 one 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 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 imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds
of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the
divine purpose, 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 3d
day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States
the eighty-eighth.
During the last election season, both the Kerry and Bush campaigns
received heavy criticism from groups like Ralph Neas' People for the
American Way and Barry Lynn's Americans United for the Separation of
Church and State for using religion too heavily in their fight for the
White House. Supposedly, such electioneering blurs the line separating
Church and State.
Last year Judge Moore lost his job over a monument of the Ten
Commandments placed in the Alabama Supreme Court building.
Since November 2, we have seen the Left ridiculing religious voters
whose fear of God should, apparently, have nothing to do with how they
vote for federal officeholders.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the Pledge of Allegiance
unconstitutional because it contains "under God."
Nativity scenes have been banned from courthouse lawns, and the word
"Christmas" dropped from our vocabulary.
Examples of ACLU-type attempts to get God out of government are many,
including their most recent suit to prevent the U.S. Military from
being involved with the Boy Scouts.
Interestingly, tomorrow, Thursday, November 25, the federal government
-- which has been told by many liberals to separate itself completely
from the Almighty -- officially will be thanking God. Such is the
reason for our Thanksgiving national holiday.
Here is what President Lincoln said on October 3, 1863, when he
proclaimed the last Thursday of November to be Thanksgiving -- a
national holiday on which Americans are encouraged to offer
"thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in
the heavens."
What would Lincoln have to say to those attempting to remove God from
the public square?
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