A Proclamation by the Governor of Michigan.
WHEREAS, A Proclamation by Andrew Johnson, President of the United States, has been issued, appointing Thursday, the first day of June next, "as a day of humiliation and mourning, wherever in the United States the flag of the country may be respected;" And Whereas, It is recommended in said Proclamation that the People on that day "assemble in their respective places of worship, there to unite in solemn service to Almighty God," in consequence of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, late President of the United States; And Whereas, By this dire calamity "our country has become one great house of mourning," and sorrow and anguish fill every loyal heart; And Whereas, The unprecedented atrocity of the terrible crime by which this bereavement has been caused, is but the culmination of a great national sin, which has been aggravated by a vain boast that ours was a land of civil and constitutional Liberty; of freedom from oppression; a land where the principle that "all men are created equal" was fundamental; whilst at the same time we have held—even by virtue of our organic law—millions of human beings in abject servitude and bondage; depriving them of all mental and moral culture; of all improvement and progress; thereby enslaving their minds as well as their bodies; Now Therefore, In accordance with said Proclamation of the President, and in view of the great national calamity which has called it forth; and in view also of our manifold sins, both as individuals and as a nation, as well as of our entire dependence upon Him who rueth the Universe and who is ever ready to grant mercy and pardon to all who are truly penitent, and with the hope that this great affliction may be more surely sanctified to us as a nation, I do hereby most earnestly enjoin upon the people of the State of Michigan, a strict and solemn observance of the day thus set apart as a season of national mourning and sorrow, of humiliation and prayer, and that they suspend all secular employments, and attend religious services in their respective places of worship. Let us devoutly supplicate Him that He will utterly subdue the spirit of Treason and Rebellion—of bloodshed and strife—in our land; that He will again restore to our distracted country the blessings of peace; that He will purge us, as individuals and as a nation, from all our iniquities; and that in this day of our affliction He will grant unto us his forgiving mercy, and His sustaining grace. And while we thus humble ourselves before Him, and seek His forgiveness and implore His blessing, let us tender unto him the homage of grateful and devout hearts, bearing ever in mind that He chastens only to correct, and that His severest afflictions are intended only for our good. { L. S. } Given under my hand and the Seal of the State, at the Capitol, in the City of Lansing, this 8th day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth. By His Excellency the Governor: JAMES B. PORTER,
Secretary of State.