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PROCLAMATION
Fasting,
Prayer, and Thanksgiving
John
Adams, March 23, 1798
President
John Adams (acting on his own initiative) issued this
proclamation of fasting, prayer and thanksgiving. As
a staunch federalist, he along with many others felt
that the godless and socially radical ideas of the French
Revolution might have a demoralizing and disastrous
influence on the new Republic. These concerns are prevalent
throughout this proclamation. This proclamation proved
to be a serious cause of contention among federalists,
who disagreed with the French influence and felt that
Americans should humbly pray for the removal of such
threatened dangers, and anti-federalists, who favored
France and would not have recognized a day of prayer
in most cases.
RJ&L
Religious Institutions Group
As
the safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially
depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God,
and the national acknowledgment of this truth is not only
an indispensable duty which the people owe to Him, but a
duty whose natural influence is favorable to the promotion
of that morality and piety without which social happiness
can not exist nor the blessings of a free government be
enjoyed; and as this duty, at all times incumbent, is so
especially in seasons of difficulty or of danger, when existing
or threatening calamities, the just judgments of God against
prevalent iniquity, are a loud call to repentance and reformation;
and as the United States of America are at present placed
in a hazardous and afflictive situation by the unfriendly
disposition, conduct, and demands of a foreign power, evinced
by repeated refusals to receive our messengers of reconciliation
and peace, by depredations on our commerce, and the infliction
of injuries on very many of our fellow-citizens while engaged
in their lawful business on the seas--under these considerations
it has appeared to me that the duty of imploring the mercy
and benediction of Heaven on our country demands at this
time a special attention from its inhabitants.
I
have therefore thought fit to recommend, and I do hereby
recommend, that Wednesday, the 9th day of May next, be observed
throughout the United States as a day of solemn humiliation,
fasting, and prayer; that the citizens of these States,
abstaining on that day from their customary worldly occupations,
offer their devout addresses to the Father of Mercies agreeably
to those forms or methods which they have severally adopted
as the most suitable and becoming; that all religious congregations
do, with the deepest humility, acknowledge before God the
manifold sins and transgressions with which we are justly
chargeable as individuals and as a nation, beseeching Him
at the same time, of His infinite grace, through the Redeemer
of the World, freely to remit all our offenses, and to incline
us by His Holy Spirit to that sincere repentance and reformation
which may afford us reason to hope for his inestimable favor
and heavenly benediction; that it be made the subject of
particular and earnest supplication that our country may
be protected from all the dangers which threaten it; that
our civil and religious privileges may be preserved inviolate
and perpetuated to the latest generations; that our public
councils and magistrates may be especially enlightened and
directed at this critical period; that the American people
may be united in those bonds of amity and mutual confidence
and inspired with that vigor and fortitude by which they
have in times past been so highly distinguished and by which
they have obtained such invaluable advantages; that the
health of the inhabitants of our land may be preserved,
and their agriculture, commerce, fisheries, arts, and manufactures
be blessed and prospered; that the principles of genuine
piety and sound morality may influence the minds and govern
the lives of every description of our citizens, and that
the blessings of peace, freedom, and pure religion may be
speedily extended to all the nations of the earth.
And
Finally, I recommend that on the said day the duties of
humiliation and prayer be accompanied by fervent thanksgiving
to the Bestower of Every Good Gift, not only for His having
hitherto protected and preserved the people of these United
States in the independent enjoyment of their religious and
civil freedom, but also for having prospered them in a wonderful
progress of population, and for conferring on them many
and great favors conducive to the happiness and prosperity
of a nation.
Given
under my hand and the seal of the United States of America,
at Philadelphia, this 23d day of march, A. D. 1798, and
of the Independence of the said States the twenty-second.
[seal.]
JOHN
ADAMS
Source:
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
Vol. I, 258-60 (James D. Richardson ed., 1897)
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