ve the general commerce of the United
States under all the pressure the enemy can impose, thus subjecting
the whole to British regulation in subserviency to British monopoly,
I recommend to the consideration of Congress the expediency of an
immediate and effectual prohibition of exports limited to a convenient
day in their next session, and removable in the meantime in the event
of a cessation of the blockade of our ports.

JAMES MADISON.

PROCLAMATION.

[From Niles's Weekly Register, vol. 4, p. 345.]

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the Congress of the United States, by a joint resolution of the
two Houses, have signified a request that a day may be recommended to be
observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity as
a day of public humiliation and prayer; and

Whereas in times of public calamity such as that of the war brought on
the United States by the injustice of a foreign government it is
especially becoming that the hearts of all should be touched with the
same and the eyes of all be turned to that Almighty Power in whose hand
are the welfare and the destiny of nations:

I do therefore issue this my proclamation, recommending to all who shall
be piously disposed to unite their hearts and voices in addressing at
one and the same time their vows and adorations to the Great Parent and
Sovereign of the Universe that they assemble on the second Thursday of
September next in their respective religious congregations to render Him
thanks for the many blessings He has bestowed on the people of the
United States; that He has blessed them with a land capable of yielding
all the necessaries and requisites of human life, with ample means for
convenient exchanges with foreign countries; that He has blessed the
labors employed in its cultivation and improvement; that He is now
blessing the exertions to extend and establish the arts and manufactures
which will secure within ourselves supplies too important to remain
dependent on the precarious policy or the peaceable dispositions of
other nations, and particularly that He has blessed the United States
with a political Constitution founded on the will and authority of the
whole people and guaranteeing to each individual security, not only of
his person and his property, but of those sacred rights of conscience so
essential to his present happiness and so dear to his future hopes; that
with those expressions of devout thankfulness be joined supplic