We do not have a civil war today, but
we have a divided nation.
In my research on presidential orders
and proclamations, I came across this remarkable message from President Abraham
Lincoln. He did not expressly order the national fast day to coincide with the
Jewish Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). But I checked the calendar for 1861. Sure
enough, that day was Yom Kippur in 1861.
Proclamation 85—Proclaiming
a Day of National Humiliation, Prayer, and Fasting
August 12, 1861
By the President of the
United States of America
A Proclamation
Whereas a joint committee
of both Houses of Congress has waited on the President of the United States and
requested him to “recommend a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting to
be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnities and
the offering of fervent supplications to Almighty God for the safety and
welfare of these States, His blessings on their arms, and a speedy restoration
of peace;” and
Whereas it is fit and
becoming in all people at all times to acknowledge and revere the supreme
government of God, to bow in humble submission to His chastisements, to confess
and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and to pray with all fervency and
contrition for the pardon of their past offenses and for a blessing upon their
present and prospective action; and
Whereas when our own
beloved country, once, by the blessing of God, united, prosperous, and happy,
is now afflicted with faction and civil war, it is peculiarly fit for us to
recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful
remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals to humble
ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy— to pray that we may be spared
further punishment, though most justly deserved; that our arms may be blessed
and made effectual for the reestablishment of law, order, and peace throughout
the wide extent of our country; and that the inestimable boon of civil and
religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors and
sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence:
Therefore I, Abraham
Lincoln, President of the United States, do appoint the last Thursday in
September next as a day of humiliation, prayer, and fasting for all the people
of the nation. And I do earnestly recommend to all the people, and especially
to all ministers and teachers of religion of all denominations and to all heads
of families, to observe and keep that day according to their several creeds and
modes of worship in all humility and with all religious solemnity, to the end
that the united prayer of the nation may ascend to the Throne of Grace and
bring down plentiful blessings upon our country.
In testimony whereof I have
hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed,
this 12th day of August, A.D. 1861, and of the Independence of the United
States of America the eighty-sixth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
Photo Credit: Zazzie.
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