The Proclamation Of Our Congress....1863

        We have been to the Gettysburg battlefield more times than I can remember and I've written about that time period in America's history quite a few times in these posts. In my short novel titled Isaac Crockett that you can read at www.isaaccrockett.blogspot.com I had a whole chapter where the title character visits the battlefield to reflect on the courage of the men on both sides of that battle and apply that to his own life. There is more than a few things I put in that novella that came from my own life. One of my favorite possessions is a battlefield artifact that I bought. It's a small plain metal cross with a broken loop that once attached it to a chain. It was picked up on Pickett's Charge in the early 1900s. I sometimes hold it in my hand and think about another believer in Christ who probably wore that as he ascended that hill.     

         The following is taken from Abrahamlincolnonline.org. In my original post was the entire Proclamation appointing a Day of National Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer but I'm condensing it here in order to highlight certain parts:

March 3, 1863.....introduced to the Senate by Senator James Harlan:

         "....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 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.......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 nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.....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...."

         We have a few today in our Congress who could sign on to a proclamation like this and a dung pile of them who would run the other way quick. The following is a limited timeline of the days preceding and following that Proclamation: 

December of 1862.............The Union army suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Fredericksburg.
March 2, 1863...................The U. S. Senate introduces a Resolution for a National Day of Prayer.
March 3, 1863...................The Senate adopts the Resolution.
March 30, 1863.................President Lincoln signs it.
April 30, 1863...................National Day of Prayer and Humiliation is observed.
April 30 to May 6, 1863...The Union suffers a crushing defeat at the Battle of Chancellorsville.
May 10, 1863....................Stonewall Jackson dies from injuries sustained at Chancellorsville.
July 1-3, 1863...................The Union army is victorious at Gettysburg, the tide of the war is turned.

         The above resolution was a legitimate plea for mercy from God and not a political ploy. The humility is obvious and should be humbling to us today if we would permit it. God will raise nations and He will cause them to fall....all according to His purposes. Whether it was Napoleon or Jackson, or America in past wars, or America today, God's will shall be done and all to his glory, and that 'will' may not be what we might expect. Another defeat for the Union began on the very day of prayer and humiliation. Many may have expected a victory. Stonewall Jackson accepted his fate as God's will, for that is all he would ever want! Even if we as a people would humble ourselves before God over our own "presumptuous sins' our immediate future may be bleak but we would know this for sure.... that His will shall be done, it shall be to His glory, and we will forever praise Him for that.