“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 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.”
Abraham Lincoln, Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer, April 30, 1863
Lincoln’s 1863 Thanksgiving Proclamation also carried the theme of “humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience”
Yeah, I debated as to which one to post this week. I just happen to like this one better. Thanks for stopping by.
Hi all, not to enter the fray, but unashamedly say I have a 1915 copy of all of Lincoln’s speeches and papers for sale on ebay.
If anyone’s interested it closes in an hour – 11.30pm EST 05Dec06 (item number 290055217072) and – my reason for posting – currently at an unbelievable price of $97. Which, sadly, I will sell it at if no-one else is interested.
Thanks, and apologies for interrupting.