Of all the many biographical outlines I have done for my artistic works, I have found this
to be the most difficult.  I believe I heard once that more books have been written about
Abraham Lincoln than almost any other American political figure.  It’s very hard to pick
and choose what to include.  Most people are very familiar with the Legend of Abraham
Lincoln and it therefore does not bare repeating.

So instead, I submit what I consider to be one of Lincoln’s finest moments -- his
Thanksgiving day proclamation of 1863.  It is one of the few noble deeds of Lincoln’s
that has faded from memory, and with that being the case, it does b
ear repeating.  It
follows in part:


The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields 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 of so extraordinary a nature that
they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-
watchful providence of Almighty God..

…No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great 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 me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully
acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore
invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are 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 that while
offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do
also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His
tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable
civil strife in which we are 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 the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

In testimony 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 3d day of October, A.D. 1863, and of the Independence of
the United States the eighty-eighth.
  ABRAHAM LINCOLN
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Copyright 2010, Victoria Heilshorn
All rights reserved.

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8.5" X 11" Limited Edition Print
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Abraham Lincoln