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PROCLAMATION
Prayer
and Thanksgiving
James
Madison, 1813
Whereas
the congress of the United States, by a joint resolution
of the two Houses, have signified a request that a day may
be recommended to be observed by the people of the United
States with religious solemnity as a day of public humiliation
and prayer; and
Whereas
in times of public calamity such as that of the war brought
on the United States by the injustice of a foreign government
it is specially becoming that the hearts of all should be
touched with the same and the eyes of all be turned to that
Almighty Power in whose hand are the welfare and the destiny
of nations:
I
do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to
all who shall be piously disposed to unite their hearts
and voices in addressing at one and the same time their
vows and adorations to the Great Parent and Sovereign of
the Universe that they assemble on the second Thursday of
September next in their respective religious congregations
to render Him thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed
on the people yielding all the necessaries and requisites
of human life, with ample means for convenient exchanges
with foreign counties; that He has blessed the labors employed
in its cultivation and improvement; that He is now blessing
the exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures
which will secure within ourselves supplies too important
to remain dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable
dispositions of other nations, and particularly that He
has blessed the United States with a political Constitution
founded on the will and authority of the whole people and
guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of his
person and his property, but of those sacred rights of conscience
so essential to his present happiness and so dear to his
future hopes; that with those expressions of devout thankfulness
be joined supplications to the same Almighty Power that
He would look down with compassion on our infirmities; that
He would pardon our manifold transgressions and awaken and
strengthen in all the wholesome purposes of repentance and
amendment; that in this season of trial and calamity He
would preside in a particular manner over our public councils
and inspire all citizens with a love of their country and
with those fraternal affections and that mutual confidence
which have so happy a tendency to make us safe at home and
respected abroad; and that as He was graciously pleased
heretofore to smile on our struggles against the attempts
of the Government of the Empire of which these States then
made a part to wrest from them the rights and privileges
to which they were entitled in common with every other part
and to raise them to the station of an independent and sovereign
people, so He would now be pleased in like manner to bestow
His blessing on our arms in resisting the hostile and persevering
efforts of the same power to degrade us on the ocean, the
common inheritance of all, from rights and immunities belonging
and essential to the American people as a coequal member
of the great community of independent nations; and that,
inspiring our enemies with moderation, with justice, and
with that spirit of reasonable accommodation which our country
has continued to manifest, we may be enabled to beat our
swords into plowshares and to enjoy in peace every man the
fruits of his honest industry and the rewards of his lawful
enterprise.
If
the public homage of a people can ever be worthy the favorable
regard of the Holy and Omniscient Being to whom it is addressed,
it must be that in which those who join in it are guided
only by their free choice, by the impulse of their hearts
and the dictates of their consciences; and such a spectacle
must be interesting to all Christian nations as proving
that religion, that gift of Heaven for the good of man,
freed from all coercive edicts, from that unhallowed connection
with the powers of this world which corrupts religion into
an instrument or an usurper of the policy of the state,
and making no appeal but to reason, to the heart, and to
the conscience, can spread its benign influence everywhere
and can attract to the divine altar those freewill offerings
of humble supplication, thanksgiving, and praise which alone
can be acceptable to Him whom no hypocrisy can deceive and
no forced sacrifices propitiate.
Upon
these principles and with these views the good people of
the United States are invited, in conformity with the resolution
aforesaid, to dedicate the day above named to the religious
solemnities therein recommended.
Given
at Washington, this 23d day of July, A. D. 1813.
[seal.] JAMES
MADISON
Source:
II A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents
517-18 (James D. Richardson ed., 1897).
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