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 Summary: This broadside publicized President Lincoln’s call for a national day of religious observance and penitence during the third year of the Civil War, in Massachusetts.
[Abraham Lincoln]. John Andrew, Broadside, as Governor of Massachusetts. Boston, [ca. April, 1863]. Printing Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation, as President. Washington, March 30, 1863. 1 p. 19 x 27”. Inventory # 21897 SOLD Partial Transcript:
[Andrew:] “WHEREAS, The President of the United States of America did by his Proclamation, Dated at Washington on the 30th day of March, last, ‘designate and set apart THURSDAY, the thirtieth day of April, 1863, as a day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer;’ requesting the solemn and religious observance of that day on the part of all the people of the United States, by abstaining from secular pursuits and by acts of devotion and of public worship; … I do, therefore direct that this Proclamation … be published and promulgated to the people of Massachusetts … And I especially invoke the attention of all ministers of the gospel, as well as of all the good people of Massachusetts, in order that the day thus devoted as a National Sabbath to the special services and duties of penitence, prayer and the worship of God, may be duly observed throughout our Commonwealth … God save the Commonwealth of Massachusetts…” [Lincoln:] "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 … 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? … It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves …, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness … 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…” Historical Background:
The tradition of marking days of prayer and fasting, as well as days of thanksgiving, goes back to the Colonial and Revolutionary periods. It is well-known that President Lincoln went on to issue a proclamation for a national day of thanksgiving – beginning our national holiday of Thanksgiving – on October 3, 1863. That proclamation established the precedent for celebrating Thanksgiving on the final Thursday in November (FDR changed this to the fourth Thursday in November to avoid the possibility of Thanksgiving falling too close to Christmas). It is thought that Lincoln established the November date to correlate with the anchoring of the Mayflower off Cape Cod on November 21, 1620. Lincoln’s personal religious beliefs remain a matter of debate among historians. George C. Rable notes that Lincoln has been described “as everything from a lifelong skeptic to an orthodox Christian, though the best scholars have admitted that the core of his religious beliefs will always remain something of a mystery.” A statement made in the fall of 1862, at a low point in the war effort, distills Lincoln’s thinking: “The will of God prevails…in the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.” References:
Rable, George C. “Lincoln’s Civil Religion.” History Now, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of
American History. http://www.historynow.org/12_2005/historian4.html
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