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It is estimated that in recent years, more than two
million people temporarily suspend their normal routines each year to
gather at locations throughout our nation to humbly seek God’s guidance
for our country and its leaders. The National Day of
Prayer is a vital part of our heritage, stemming from the faith of many
of our founding fathers. The Continental Congress first called for the
various colonies to pray for wisdom in 1775 during a critical time in
the formation of our nation. This tradition has continued throughout our
history, including President Lincoln's proclamation of a day of
"humiliation, fasting, and prayer" in 1863. In 1952, a joint resolution
by Congress, signed by President Truman, declared an annual, national
day of prayer became “official” in1952 when a joint resolution by
Congress was signed by President Harry Truman. The law was amended
during the Reagan administration in 1988 to permanently set the day as
the first Thursday of May. The president has signed a proclamation each
year since 1975, encouraging all Americans to pray on this day. Many
state and territorial governors also sign similar proclamations.
The following is the proclamation signed by President Abraham Lincoln in
1863. |
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By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly
recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of
Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has,
by a resolution, requested the President to designate and
set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation.
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to
own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to
confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet
with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy
and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in
the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those
nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations
like individuals are subjected to punishments and
chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the
awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land,
may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our
presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national
reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients
of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved,
these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in
numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever
grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the
gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied
and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly
imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these
blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue
of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too
self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and
preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended
Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for
clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully
concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my
proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th.
day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation,
fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People
to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular
pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public
worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy
to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the
religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then
rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings,
that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and
answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our
national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and
suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity
and peace.
In witness 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 thirtieth day of March,
in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and
sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States
the eighty seventh.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State
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