We cannot imagine anyone challenging the recitation of these proclamations on Constitutional grounds.
They are, after all, proclamations by the President of the United States.
At a time like this, we can all use some encouragement by a giant of the spirit like President Lincoln.
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 farther punishment, though most justly deserved; that our army may be blessed and be made effectual for the reestablishment of law, order, and peace, throughout the wide extent of our country; and 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.
Download the Word document
The Year that is drawing toward it's close, has been filled with the
blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties,
which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source
from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary
a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart
which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty
God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which
has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and provoke their aggression,
peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained,
the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere
except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been
greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful
industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, the
shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements,
and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have
yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily
increased, not withstanding the waste that has been made in the camp,
the siege and the battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness
of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance
of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these
great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who,
while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered
mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly,
reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice
by the whole American People.
I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United
States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in
foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November
next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who
dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering
up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances
and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national
perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those
who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable
civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore
the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation
and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes
to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and Union.
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 third day of October, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty three, and of the Independence
of the United States the eighty eighth.
By the President Abraham Lincoln William H. Seward, Secretary of State
Download the Word document