ed confidence that the Union of
these States will be maintained, their Constitution preserved, and their
peace and prosperity permanently restored. But these victories have
been accorded not without sacrifices of life, limb, health, and liberty,
incurred by brave, loyal, and patriotic citizens. Domestic affliction
in every part of the country follows in the train of these fearful
bereavements. It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence
of the Almighty Father, and the power of His hand equally in these
triumphs and in these sorrows.

Now, therefore, be it known that I do set apart Thursday, the 6th day of
August next, to be observed as a day for national thanksgiving, praise,
and prayer, and I invite the people of the United States to assemble on
that occasion in their customary places of worship, and, in the forms
approved by their own consciences, render the homage due to the Divine
Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf, and
invoke the influence of His Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has
produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion, to change
the hearts of the insurgents, to guide the counsels of the Government with
wisdom adequate to so great a national emergency, and to visit with tender
care and consolation throughout the length and breadth of our land all
those who, through the vicissitudes of marches, voyages, battles, and
sieges have been, brought to suffer in mind, body, or estate, and finally
to lead the whole nation through the paths of repentance and submission
to the Divine Will back to the perfect enjoyment of union and fraternal
peace.

In witness 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 fifteenth day of July, in the year
of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the
independence of the United States of America the eighty-eighth.

A. LINCOLN.

By, the President WILLIAM H. SEWARD,
Secretary of State.

TELEGRAM TO L. SWETT.

[Cipher.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY, July 15, 1863.

HON. L SWETT, San Francisco, Cal.:

Many persons are telegraphing me from California, begging me for the peace
of the State to suspend the military enforcement of the writ of possession
in the Almaden case, while you are the single one who urges the contrary.
You know I would like to oblige you, but it seems to me my duty in thi