November 2003 The Megaphone Page 2
Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation
The
year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of
fruitful seeds 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 so extraordinary a nature they cannot fail to penetrate and
soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the watchful providence
of Almighty God.
In
the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has
sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and provoke their aggression, peace
has been
maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed
everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has
been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the
Needful
diversions of wealth and strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the
national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship, the ax
has enlarged the borders of our settlements and the mines, as well as the iron
and coal as of our 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 battlefield, and 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 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 fit proper that they should be solemnly, reverent and gratefully, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole America people, I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and those 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 while offering up the ascriptions justly due Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, and command His ender care of all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or suffers in the lamentable civil strife in which we unavoidably engaged and fervently implore the imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.
Submitted
by . . .
Bob
Hinshaw '40
*From
the WARSAW, IN,
TIMES
"Remember
When"
10
years ago
Robert Hinshaw of Warsaw
was given an award
by the Indiana Pharmacists Association for
50 years in the profession of Pharmacy. Hinshaw
received his B.S. degree in Pharmacy from
the
Submitted
(humbly & proudly) by . . .
Bob
Hinshaw '40
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