Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 13.djvu/772

 744 APPENDIX. Ruler of the world, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer us to be destroyed by the hostility or connivance of other nations. or by obstinate adhesion to our own counsels, which may be in conflict with His eternal purposes, and to implore Him to enlighten the mind of the nation to know and do His will, humbly believing that it is in accordance with His will that our place should be maintained as a united people among the family of nations; to implore Him to grant to our armed defenders and the masses of the people that courage, power of ie sistance, and endurance necessary to secure that result; to imp ore Him in His infinite goodness to soften the hearts, enlighten the minds, and quicken the consciences of those in rebellion, that they may lay down their arms and speedily return to their allegiance to the United States, that they may not be utterly destroyed, that the effusion of blood may be stayed, and that unity and fraternity may be restored, and peace established throughout all our borders : " Day ofnational Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, corhumilistioujmd dially concurring with the congress of the United States in the penitential and P¤5’°' *’·PP°m*~"d· pious sentiments expressed in the aforesaid resolution, and heartily approving of the devotional design and purpose thereof, do hereby appoint the first Thursday of August next to be observed by the people of the United States as a day of nationa humiliation and prayer. I do hereby further invite and request the heads of the executive departments of this government, together with all legislators, all judges and magistrates, and all other persons exercising authority in the land, whether civil, military, or naval, and all soldiers, seamen, and marines in the national service, and all the other loyal and law-abiding people of the United States, to assemble in their preferred places of public worship on that day, and there and then to render to the Almighty and hderciful Ruler of the universe such homages and such confessions, and to oder to Him such supplications as the congress of the United States have, in their aforesaid resolution, so solemnly, so earnestly, and so reverently recommended. 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 seventh day of July, in the year of [L. s.] our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By the President: WILLIAM H. Snwnnn, Secretary of State. No. 18. Jul}' 8. 1865 BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A PROCLAMATION. Pmimbls- Wnnnnas, at the late session, congress passed a bill to ·* guarantee to certain states, whose governments have been usurped or overthrown, a republican form of government," a copy of which is hereunto annexed ; And whereas the said bill was presented to the President of the United States for his approval less than one hour before the sine die adjournment of said session, and was not signed by him; And whereas the said bill contains, among other things, a plan for restorin the states in rebellion to their proper practical relation in the Union, which plan expresses the sense of congress upon that subject, and which plan it is now thought at to lay before the people for their consideration : Dy,y,,,,,,_;°,, 0; Now, therefore, I, ABRAHAM LINCOLN, President of the United States, do opinionasto the proclaim, declare, and make known,'that, while I am (as I was in December Q M1 of ¤‘¢S¤>F¤· ast, when by proclamation I propounded a plan for restoration) unprepared by gm g£$§;““°’ a formal approval of this bill, to be inflexibly committed to any single plan of Nrestoration ; and, while 1 am also un repared to declare that the free state con— ; stitutions and governments already adopted and installed in Arkansas and Louis- Q iana shall be set aside and held for nought, thereby repellin and discouraging i the loyal citizens who have set up the same as to further eiibrt, or to declare a i constitutional competency in congress to abolish slavery in states, but am at tho i