Proclamation for a Day for National Prayer and Humiliation

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.

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 set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.

In witness 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 thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

The Myth of Abe Lincoln – Celebrate George Washington

By Gerald Christian (“Jerry”) Nordskog

Abraham Lincoln is often cited as “one of our greatest presidents” and that he still speaks today.  Hardly.

Granted, Old Abe was a great speechmaker, and could apparently captivate an audience with his rhetoric, yet much of what he said and wrote he failed to demonstrate in his actions. For instance did Lincoln truly believe in limiting the roles government should play? A worthy goal certainly, but Lincoln expanded the federal government and consolidated its control more than any other president (except perhaps FDR and GWB, and possibly our present national executive, who is often compared to Lincoln). Lincoln set the pace for the 20th century changing the face of government from our federalist roots as established by our Founders.

The notion that there was no room for an entitlement mentality is fabricated.  Lincoln advocated and fought hard to provide special interest pork barrel money to his political backers, particularly the railroad industry, bleeding substantial money from the taxpayers.  While there were successful ‘private’ railroads built, Lincoln excessively spent public funds, setting a trend that has continued.   He is known as ‘The Great Centralizer’, consolidating power in the hands of the executive branch with grand schemes of socialization through legal plunder.

As to contention that Lincoln did not seek revenge, what do you call his inhumane attacks against the Southerners, that maimed and murdered not only soldiers fighting for their freedom but on civilians (old men, the sick, women and children), in violation of 1860s newly established international rules of just war.  Instead, pillaging, plundering, burning private property, homes, possessions and crops in his war he called a “rebellion” were common.  Lincoln conveyed ‘the thanks of the Nation’ to General Sheridan for razing the Shenandoah Valley, and encouraged General Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’.  This trend led to Grant’s later massacre of the plains Indians.

I concur how unpopular a president he was then, prior to martyrdom and revisionist historians changing his image.  He and his war were controversial, thus he used power-grabbing schemes, including imprisoning over a hundred newspaper editors or owners.  Likewise he jailed political enemies who questioned the war against fellow Americans and the tactics he promulgated.  Lincoln did all in his power to stifle opposition, ignoring freedom of speech.

He arbitrarily suspended Habeas Corpus constitutional provisions. Chief Justice Roger B. Taney issued a judicial opinion, ignored by Lincoln, stating the president had no lawful power to do so.  Taney argued the Constitution was drawn up shortly after a war was fought against the King of England, that the founders would never have given an American president “more regal and absolute power” over the personal liberties of the citizens than any king of England.

Lincoln actually opposed the abolition movement.  “Abraham Lincoln was not an abolitionist” said David Donald in “Lincoln Reconsidered.”  Rather Lincoln proposed sending negroes (he said were an inferior race) back to Africa. “The Emancipation Proclamation did not free a single slave” stated Thomas J. Dilorenzo in “The Real Lincoln”.  It was political gimmickry to gain tactical advantage in the highly unpopular unconstitutional war. Yet he chose not to require Northern and Border States to free the slaves, passing a law requiring returning all slaves who fled on the underground railway. It was merely a ploy. His reputation of ‘The Great Emancipator’ is a myth. 

A dozen nations of the world had ‘peacefully’ eliminated slavery the first half of the 19th century. Lincoln could have averted the War Between the States without the carnage as the Confederacy solicited compromises to avoid a war, and settle the issues of mercantilism, high tariffs against the South, and the right of secession originally granted the states, but Lincoln chose war on Americans.

The dozen-year Reconstruction plan implemented by Lincoln Republicans in Congress was a punitive action against the Southern states, and did not allow for white male Southerners to hold public office, except as hand-picked by the union government backed by military intervention. Democracy was stifled.

Abe Lincoln’s actual record is fraught with breaches of civil liberties, defiance of the Constitution, a consolidation of executive power (by military force), establishing a massive powerful central government usurping Constitutional rights of the citizens, deceptive and tyrannical. Presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison established a different federalist system, a democratic Republic with checks and balances.

On President’s Day, I am not honoring the ‘real’ Lincoln, rather, our courageous, virtuous, beloved, heroic, Christian “Father of Our Country”, General/President George Washington, “First in War, First in Peace, and First in the Hearts of his Countrymen”.

 E.g. Thomas J. DiLorenzo, “The Great Centralizer: Abraham Lincoln and the War Between the States,” (http://www.independent.org/pdf/tir/tir_03_2_dilorenzo.pdf, Fall 1998).
  “When Lincoln Made Free Speech Illegal,” http://www.issues-views.com/index.php/sect/21000/article/21089, 2009.

Happy Birthday on PRESIDENTS DAY to WASHINGTON and LINCOLN

Dear Friends, we honor past presidents of the U.S.A. - all of them but particularly George Washington, the Father of the Country (my favorite, my hero), and also Abraham Lincoln (although he certainly was the first of the big-government interventionist presidents).  I have some furthering comments and quotations from these astute gentlemen of past years, our former Presidents, at the end, but initially, please enjoy.

George Washington: "You do well to wish to learn our arts and ways of life, and above all the religion of Jesus Christ.'' (to the Delaware Indian Chiefs on Aug 12, 1779)

"It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God,. to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits , and humbly to implore his protection and favor… beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether inpublic or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed” (Thanks giving Proclamation, October 3, 1789)

Abraham Lincoln: "In regard to this Great Book (The Bible), I have but to say, it is the best gift God has given to man. All the good the Savior gave to the world was communicated through this book. But for it, we would not know right from wrong." (Lincoln farewell at Springfield, II, February 11, 1861)

The following is from “Apostle of Liberty: The World-Changing Leadership of George Washington” by Stephen McDowell in the Leaders In Action book series. McDowell is a friend and co-founder of The Providence Foundation (see “links” page). This book is available by contacting them, or Nordskog Publishing. Highly recommended!

“George Washington is one of the most significant men in all of history. When it comes to the advancement of liberty, he may well be the most significant. His contemporaries acknowledged God’s hand in his selection as commander of the Continental army and later as president, believing that, without him, America would not have prevailed in the Revolution or prospered as a new nation founded in liberty.

“He provided the leadership to hold the troops together during the Revolutionary War, and once the war was won, he rebuffed an attempt to make him king of the United States, thereby preventing a monarchy or military rule.

“Apostle of Liberty: The World-Changing Leadership of George Washington is a biography of the great man, but in truth it is more than a mere biography. It also looks at his unique qualities as a leader and how those qualities marked him as a leader among leaders. In doing so, it reveals a man whose greatness did not stem from oratorical skills, superior knowledge, or brilliant military tactics, but rather from virtue.

“He understood his duty and his proper role, and he pursued them with invincible resolution. Largely, this was due to his belief that God in His providence had chose him to lead the new nation — founded on civil, religious, and economic liberty — and that the experiment that had begun under his leadership as president of the Constitutional Convention and was successful under his leadership in battle would also prosper under his leadership and change the world if given the opportunity to succeed.”

Following are further excerpts from President Abraham Lincoln’s March 30, 1863 Proclamation during the dark days of the Civil War (un-civil that is) in which he declared national days of fasting and prayer. Lincoln was following a practice that had been followed throughout the American experiment by its Founding Fathers, and he is to be commended for his coming to faith in Christ, as he admitted, at the time of his famous Gettysburg Address:

“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.

“...We have been 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.

“...It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”