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Mr. Webster, of Massachusetts, said, "It has pleased Divine Providence to visit the two Houses of Congress, and especially this House, with repeated occasions for mourning and lamentation. Great as this calamity is, we mourn, but not as those without hope. We have seen one eminent man, and another eminent man, and at last a man in the most eminent station, fall away from the midst of us. But I doubt not there is a Power exercising over us that parental care that has marked our progress for so many years. I have confidence still that the place of the departed will be supplied, that the kind, beneficent favor of Almighty God will still be with us, and that we shall be borne along, and borne onward and upward, on the wings of his sustaining providence."

Mr. Cass, of Michigan, said, "He has been called by Providence from his high functions with his mission unfulfilled. Let us humbly hope that this afflictive dispensation of Providence may not be without its salutary influence upon the American people and their representatives."

Mr. Underwood, of Kentucky, said, "The providence of God has terminated his earthly career. He was removed by the Ruler of the universe. Whatever purposes of the Deity the future may unfold, the present is a day of mourning."

Mr. King, of Alabama, said,. "It depends essentially upon us, and the co-ordinate branch of the Government, to improve this afflictive dispensation of Almighty God to purposes at once salutary and beneficial to the great interests of the country." In the House of Representatives, similar sentiments were uttered.

Mr. Winthrop, of Massachusetts, said, "As we now behold the late President borne away by the hand of God from our sight, in the very hour of peril, we can hardly repress the exclamation which was addressed to the departing prophet of old, 'My father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof!' Let us hope that this event may teach us all how vain is our reliance upon any arm of flesh. Let us hope that it may impress us with a solemn sense of our national as well as individual dependence on a higher than human power. Let us remember, sir, that 'the Lord is King, be the people never so impatient; that he sitteth between the cherubim, be the earth never so unquiet.' Let us, in language which is now hallowed to us all as having been the closing and crowning senti

ment of his Inaugural Address, and in which he, 'being dead, yet speaketh,'

"Let us invoke a continuance of the same protecting care which has led us from small beginnings to the eminence which we this day occupy; and let us seek to deserve that continuance by prudence and moderation in our councils; by well-directed attempts to assuage the bitterness which, too often unavoidable, marks differences of opinion; by the promulgation and practice of just and liberal principles; and by an enlarged patriotism, which shall acknowledge no limits but those of our own widespread republic.'

Mr. Hilliard, of Alabama, said, "It is an interposition of Providence; and it comes to us in a trying hour. My trust in Providence is unshaken. Our country has been delivered, guided, and made glorious by a good Providence. It will be so still. I remember when the prophet referred to was surrounded by a hostile force, and all hope of escape seemed to be cut off, that a young man who was with him cried out in great fear; and the reply of the prophet was a prayer that the young man's eyes might be opened. He then saw that all within the hostile lines were 'chariots and horsemen of fire,' ready to succor and deliver the beleaguered city. So will it be with us. The very event which we deplore will be overruled for good; and HE that sitteth on high, mightier than the water-floods, will put forth his power and cause a great calm."

The following proclamation was issued by the President of the United States when the nation was imperilled by the opening scenes and acts of the great Southern rebellion :—

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES,-A RECOMMENDATION. Numerous appeals have been made to me by pious and patriotic associations and citizens, in view of the present distracted and dangerous condition of our country, to recommend that a day be set apart for humiliation, fasting, and prayer throughout the Union.

In compliance with their request and my own sense of duty, I designate Friday, the fourth day of January, 1861, for this purpose, and recommend that the people assemble on that day, according to their several forms of worship, to keep it as a solemn fast.

The union of the States is at the present moment threatened with alarming and immediate danger; panic and distress of a fearful character prevail throughout the land; our laboring population are without

employment, and consequently deprived of the means of earning their bread. Indeed, hope seems to have deserted the minds of men. All classes are in a state of confusion and dismay, and the wisest counsels of our best and purest men are disregarded.

In this hour of our calamity and peril, to whom shall we resort for relief but to the God of our fathers? His omnipotent arm only can save us from the awful effects of our own crimes and follies,-our own ingratitude and guilt towards our heavenly Father.

Let us, then, with deep contrition and penitent sorrow, unite in humbling ourselves before the Most High, in confessing our individual and national sins, and in acknowledging the justice of our punishment. Let us implore him to remove from our hearts that false pride of opinions which would impel us to persevere in wrong for the sake of consistency rather than yield a just submission to the unforeseen exigencies by which we are now surrounded. Let us, with deep reverence, beseech him to restore the friendship and good will which prevailed in former days among the people of the several States; and, above all, to save us from the horrors of civil war and "bloodguiltiness." Let our fervent prayers ascend to his throne, that he would not desert us in this hour of extreme peril, but remember us as he did our fathers in the darkest days of the Revolution, and preserve our Constitution and our Union, the work of their hands, for ages yet to come.

An Omnipotent Providence may overrule existing evils for permanent good. He can make the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he can restrain. Let me invoke every individual, in whatever sphere of life he may be placed, to feel a personal responsibility to God and his country for keeping that day holy, and by contributing all in his power to remove our actual and impending calamities. JAMES BUCHANAN. WASHINGTON, Dec. 14, 1860.

Several months after the civil war had commenced, and the Government had struggled unsuccessfully to subdue the rebellion in the Southern States, Congress passed the following resolution :

Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a joint committee of both Houses wait on the President of the United States, and request that he recommend a day of public humiliation, prayer, and fasting, to be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity, 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 restora tion of peace.

Approved, August 5, 1861.

The President, seven days afterwards, issued the following

PROCLAMATION.

By the President of the United States of America.

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 blessing on their arms, and a speedy restoration of peace;

And whereas it is fitting 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 eins 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 offences, and for a blessing upon their present and prospective action ;

And whereas when our 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 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 further punishment, though justly deserved, that our arms may be blessed and made effectual for the re-establishment of law, order, and peace throughout our country, and that 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 own country.

n testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the great seal of the United States to be affixed, this twelfth day of August, A.D. 1861, and of the independence of the United States of America the eighty-sixth.

By the President:

WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Sec'y of State.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

At the close of the session of Congress, the Senate of the United States, March 2, 1863, passed the following resolution:

Resolved, That, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, and sincerely believing that no people, however great in numbers and

resources, or however strong in the justice of their cause, can prosper without his favor, and at the same time deploring the national offences which have provoked his righteous judgment, yet encouraged, in this day of trouble, by the assurances of his word, to seek him for succor according to his appointed way, through Jesus Christ, the Senate of the United States do hereby request the President of the United States, by his proclamation, to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation, requesting all the people of the land to suspend their secular pursuits and unite in keeping the day in solemn communion with the Lord of Hosts, supplicating him to enlighten the councils and direct the policy of the rulers of the nation, and to support all our soldiers, sailors, and marines, and the whole people, in the firm discharge of duty, until the existing rebellion shall be overthrown and the blessings of peace restored to our bleeding country.

In pursuance of this resolution and request, the President issued the following

PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; And whereas it is the duty of nations, as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures, and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;

And insomuch as we know that, by his divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? 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 the 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. Now, therefore, in compliance with the request and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and

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