TODAY IN HISTORY: PRESIDENT LINCOLN PROCLAIMS DAY OF HUMILIATION, FASTING AND PRAYER
Did you know that President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national day of Fasting and Prayer in 1863?
We so need that today but do we have leaders courageous enough to do so!
Here is Proclamation 97 of March 30, 1863. A Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed.
Proclamation 97—Appointing a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer
March 30, 1863
By the President of the United States of America
A 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 of 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;
Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State .
Joan's Rome 