Lincoln Recognizing God, Establishing Thanksgiving Day 1863

[Solo]

Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day

October 3, 1863

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years, with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony 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 third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

A. Lincoln

 

[reznwerks]

Lincoln

Here is more on the religious views of Lincoln:
From Mr Abbot who new Lincoln personally he observed:

"became acquainted with Mr. Lincoln in 1834, and I think I knew him well to the day of his death"
"With these men Mr. Lincoln was thrown; with them he lived, and with them he moved and almost had his being. They were skeptics all -- scoffers some. These scoffers were good men, and their scoffs were protests against theology -- loud protests against the follies of Christianity."

"It was here and among these people that Mr. Lincoln was thrown. About the year 1834 he chanced to come across Volney's Ruins and some of Paine's theological works. He at once seized hold of them, and assimilated them into his own being. Volney and Paine became a part of Lincoln from 1834 to the end of his life."

"In 1835 he wrote out a small work on Infidelity, and intended to have it published. This book was an attack upon the whole grounds of Christianity, and especially was it an attack upon the idea that Jesus was the Christ, ..."

"Mr. Lincoln moved to this city in 1837, and here became acquainted with various men of his own way of thinking. At that time they called themselves Freethinkers, or Freethinking men"


"When Mr. Lincoln was a candidate for our legislature, he was accused of being an Infidel and of having said that Jesus was an illegitimate child. He never denied his opinions nor flinched from his religious views. He was a true man, and yet it may be truthfully said that in 1837 his religion was low indeed. In his moments of gloom he would doubt, if he did not sometimes deny, God."


"Mr. Lincoln ran for Congress against the Rev. Peter Cartwright in the year 1846. In that contest he was accused of being an Infidel, if not an Atheist. He never denied the charge -- would not -- "would die first."

"At one moment of his life I know that he was an Atheist. I was preparing a speech on Kansas, and in it, like nearly all reformers, I invoked God. He made me wipe out that word and substitute the word Maker, affirming that said Maker was a principle of the universe. When he went to Washington he did the same to a friend there."

"He did not believe in the efficacy of prayer, although he used that conventional language. He said in Washington, "God has his own purposes." If God has his own purposes, then prayer will not change God's purposes. "

"I do think that anyone who knew Mr. Lincoln -- his history -- his philosophy -- his opinions -- and still asserts that he was a Christian, is an unbounded falsifier. I hate to speak thus plainly, but I cannot respect an untruthful man."


"If Mr. Lincoln changed his religious views, he owed it to me to warn me, as he above all other men caused me to become an unbeliever. He said nothing to me, intimated nothing to me, either directly or indirectly. He owed this debt to many young men whom he had led astray, if astray the Christian calls it. I know of two young men of promise, now dead and gone -- gone into endless misery, according to the evangelical creed -- caused by Lincoln's teachings. I know some of the living here, men in prominent positions of life, who were made unbelievers by him."


http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:59 ... eist&hl=en

 

[Rick W]

Re: Lincoln

Here is more on the religious views of Lincoln:
From Mr Abbot who new Lincoln personally he observed:

"I do think that anyone who knew Mr. Lincoln -- his history -- his philosophy -- his opinions -- and still asserts that he was a Christian, is an unbounded falsifier. I hate to speak thus plainly, but I cannot respect an untruthful man."

I believe he and others were deists, believing in God of the bible, but not necessarily christian as to following Christ. However, both recognize a higher authority than themselves or other men.

 

[Solo]

"It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible." - George Washington

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just." - Thomas Jefferson

"The reason that Christianity is the best friend of Government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart." - Thomas Jefferson

"The liberty, prosperity, and the happiness of our country will always be the object of my most fervent prayers to the Supreme Author of All Good." - James Monroe

"The highest story of the American Revolution is this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity." John Adams

"The Bible is the Rock on which this Republic rests." - Andrew Jackson

"We've staked the whole future of American civilization not on the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us . . . to Govern ourselves according to the commandments of God. The future and success of America is not in this Constitution, but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded." - James Madison

"It is no slight testimonial, both to the merit and worth of Christianity, that in all ages since its promulgation the great mass of those who have risen to eminence by their profound wisdom and integrity have recognized and reverenced Jesus of Nazareth as the Son of the living God." - John Quincy Adams

"A thorough knowledge of the Bible is worth more than a college education." - Theodore Roosevelt

"The study of the Bible is a post-graduate course in the richest library of human experience." - Herbert Hoover

"My great concern is not whether God is on our side, my great concern is to be on God's side." -
Abraham Lincoln

"I believe the Bible is the best gift God has ever given to man. All the good from the Savior (Jesus) of the world is communicated to us through this book." - Abraham Lincoln

"If it is God's will that I must die at the hand of an assassin, I must be resigned. I must do my duty as I see it, and leave the rest with God." - Abraham Lincoln

"The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for anybody except the state." - Harry S. Truman

"America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scriptures." - Woodrow Wilson

"We should live our lives as though Christ was coming this afternoon." - Jimmy Carter

"I have lived, sir, a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth -- God Governs in the Affairs of Men, And if a Sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, Is it possible that an empire can rise without His aid?" - Benjamin Franklin

"The religion which has introduced civil liberty is the religion of Christ and His Apostles... This is genuine Christianity and to this we owe our free constitutions of government." - Noah Webster

"Except the Lord build the house, They labor in vain who build it." "I firmly believe this." - Benjamin Franklin, 1787, Constitutional Convention

"Of all systems of morality, ancient or modern, which have come under my observation, none appear to be so pure as that of Jesus." - Thomas Jefferson, To William Canby, 1813

"I hold the precepts of Jesus as delivered by Himself, to be the most pure, benevolent and sublime which have ever been preached to man..." - President Thomas Jefferson

"Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers. And it is the duty as well as the privilege and interest, of a Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." - First Chief Justice of Supreme Court John Jay

"The Bible is the Rock on which this Republic rests." - President Andrew Jackson

"If there is anything in my thoughts or style to commend, the credit is due to my parents for instilling in me an early love of the Scriptures. If we abide by the principles taught in the Bible, our country will go on prospering and to prosper; but if we and our posterity neglect its instructions and authority, no man can tell how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us and bury all our glory in profound obscurity." - Daniel Webster

"It is extremely important to our nation , in a political as well as religious view , that all possible authority and influence should be given to the scriptures , for these furnish the best principles of civil liberty , and the most effectual support of republican government. The principles of all genuine liberty , and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by it's authority.The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be accessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer...." - Noah Webster

"Intelligence, patriotism, Christianity, and a firm reliance, are still competent to adjust, in the best way, all our present difficulty" - Abraham Lincoln

"The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next." - Abraham Lincoln

"The only assurance of our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion." - Abraham Lincoln

"Our laws and institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teaching of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that is should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian . . . this is a Christian nation." - US Supreme Court, 1892

"America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of Holy Scriptures. Ladies and gentlemen, I have a very simple thing to ask of you. I as of every man and woman in this audience that from this night on they will realize that part of the destiny of America lies in their daily perusal of this great book of revelations. That if they would see America free and pure they will make their own spirits free and pure by this baptism of the Holy Scripture." - Woodrow Wilson, 1911, pre-Presidential campaign speech

"The secret of my success? It is simple. It is found in the Bible, 'In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths." - George Washington Carver

"The fundamental basis of this nation's law was given to Moses on the Mount. The fundamental basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teaching we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don't think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don't have the proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a totalitarian government which does not believe in the right for anybody except the state." - President Harry S. Truman

"History fails to record a single precedent in which nations subject to moral decay have not passed into political and economic decline. There has been either a spiritual awakening to overcome the moral lapse, or a progressive deterioration to ultimate national disaster" - General Douglas MacArthur

 

[Rick W]

Very nicely done Solo. :smt023

Thank you for the quotes. :wink:

 

[reznwerks]

is it

Is it really necessary to go back and repost the voluminous quotes that are made that disregard any reference to a Christian beginning and in fact many founding fathers and other influential people not only had a disregard for Christianity but a strong disdain for it as well? The Monrow Doctrine plainly stated this country was not founded in any sense on the Christian religion. How could someone so close to the beginning have gotten it so wrong? I have posted just some of what Lincoln said , Jefferson was so disgusted by Christianity he rewrote the bible to suit his views. Washington was never witnessed to recieve communion and was a devout Mason which only acknowledges a supreme being. If in fact (it is not) there was so much intent for Christianity to be in our government then WHY did they PURPOSELY leave ANY reference to the bible and Jesus out of any founding documents? HMMMM????

 

[Loren Michael]

Re: is it

Is it really necessary to go back and repost the voluminous quotes that are made that disregard any reference to a Christian beginning and in fact many founding fathers and other influential people not only had a disregard for Christianity but a strong disdain for it as well? The Monrow Doctrine plainly stated this country was not founded in any sense on the Christian religion. How could someone so close to the beginning have gotten it so wrong? I have posted just some of what Lincoln said , Jefferson was so disgusted by Christianity he rewrote the bible to suit his views. Washington was never witnessed to recieve communion and was a devout Mason which only acknowledges a supreme being. If in fact (it is not) there was so much intent for Christianity to be in our government then WHY did they PURPOSELY leave ANY reference to the bible and Jesus out of any founding documents? HMMMM????

i asked the same thing in another thread.

 

[Rick W]

Makes ya wonder why or how the early Americans could allow their country to be overrun by christians doesn't it rez? :smt012
Stupid Colonists. :smt013

 

[Solo]

Re: is it

Is it really necessary to go back and repost the voluminous quotes that are made that disregard any reference to a Christian beginning and in fact many founding fathers and other influential people not only had a disregard for Christianity but a strong disdain for it as well? The Monrow Doctrine plainly stated this country was not founded in any sense on the Christian religion. How could someone so close to the beginning have gotten it so wrong? I have posted just some of what Lincoln said , Jefferson was so disgusted by Christianity he rewrote the bible to suit his views. Washington was never witnessed to recieve communion and was a devout Mason which only acknowledges a supreme being. If in fact (it is not) there was so much intent for Christianity to be in our government then WHY did they PURPOSELY leave ANY reference to the bible and Jesus out of any founding documents? HMMMM????

Just ignore the fact that this country was founded upon Christian beliefs and doctrines, Rez. You can believe your god until the breath leaves your body; then you will have no doubts about my God.

 

[Rick W]

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

"...that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."


The people are to blame for letting the christians ruin their country. No other explanation for it. They blew it.
Stupid Colonists. :smt013

And whoever signed this stuff isn't innocent either. They really opened a can o' worms with ideas like that huh?

 

[Rick W]

Hey rez,
I got an idea.

How about we separate the people from christianity and get our country back?

 

[Loren Michael]

Makes ya wonder why or how the early Americans could allow their country to be overrun by christians doesn't it rez? :smt012
Stupid Colonists. :smt013

a secular government is not institutionally antireligious. it's institutionally nonreligious. there is a difference.

 

[Guest]

Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Virginia; June 26, 1788[/url]]That religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others.

Rhode Island Ratification[/url]]4th That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, and not by force or violence, and therefore all men, have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favoured, or established by law in preference to others.

 

[Solo]

Ratification of the Constitution by the State of Virginia; June 26, 1788[/url]]That religion or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence, and therefore all men have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favored or established by Law in preference to others.

[quote="Rhode Island Ratification":9a8e9]4th That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, and not by force or violence, and therefore all men, have an equal, natural and unalienable right to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, and that no particular religious sect or society ought to be favoured, or established by law in preference to others.

[/quote:9a8e9]

Looks like we are to glorify the creator and give Him the thanks and worship due him as creator. Any other god besides the one described as creator in the book called the Bible does not qualify. The God of the Bible is the God being spoken of by the founders of this country. Anyone who studies the history of the United States will come away knowing this truth. How do you read it?

 

[Lewis]

Solo good quotes from the founding Americans up there. But many still won't believe that this country was founded on Biblical principles. What a shame, what a waste of the soul.

 

[Vic C.]

I thought this was to be a historical view of Thanksgiving, so I will stick to that.

...In following years, many of the original colonists celebrated the autumn harvest with a feast of thanks. After the United States became an independent country, Congress recommended one yearly day of thanksgiving for the whole nation to celebrate. George Washington suggested the date November 26 as Thanksgiving Day. Then in 1863, at the end of a long and bloody civil war, Abraham Lincoln asked all Americans to set aside the last Thursday in November as a day of thanksgiving*....

And a little known tidbit on the Holiday, it seems that each and every President is obligated to proclaim which date the Holiday will fall.

The President's Yearly Proclamation

Thanksgiving falls on the fourth Thursday of November, a different date every year. The President must proclaim that date as the official celebration. Here is an excerpt from President George Bush's Thanksgiving proclamation of 1990:...

But then there was this...

*1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt set it one week earlier. He wanted to help business by lengthening the shopping period before christmas. Congress ruled that after 1941 the 4th Thursday in November would be a federal holiday proclaimed by the President each year.

(all quotes curtesy of http://www.usemb.se/Holidays/celebrate/thanksgi.html

Another post of useless trivia by me. :o

:

 

[reznwerks]

all

With all the posts purporting this country to be based on Christianity not one has shown anywhere that this country was founded on the bible God. So many Christians and not one mention of the bible or Jesus in the founding documents. Ever wonder why? I have shown repeatedly where this country was founded by Deists and Masons who acknowledged a supreme power but held Christianity in high disdain. The bible has no lock on morality and brings nothing new to the table in this regard. Most societies already had moral codes to live by and as I said many times before the bible mirrors Hammurabies Code which was written long before the bible and adhered too not the other way around.

 

[Vic C.]

:smt022

 

[Loren Michael]

:smt022

...?

 

[Rick W]

: