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State of Maine

By the Governor of the State of Maine.

A Proclamation,

For a Day of Public Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer.

In commemoration of a custom established by our pious forefathers of New England, I hereby with advice of Council, appoint Thursday, the eighth day of April next, for Humiliation, Fasting and prayer.

When we reflect on the immeasurable distance between the Creator and the created, and our utter dependence on him, through his son Jesus Christ, for the hope of Salvation; or when we confine our reflections within the narrow limits of this life, and behold around us all things perishable and transitory, man himself, with the world he inhabits, subject alike to final dissolution, we shall find abundant reason for the religious observance of such a day.

Mindful of our manifold deviations from the path of moral and religious duty, it becomes us, on such an occasion, to bow with deep humility before Him whose ear is ever open to prayer and who looks, with divine complacency, on the humble and contrite in spirit.

May we be suitable reminded of every act of oppression, cruelty or injustice that may tend to tarnish our character as a free people; and that within the bosom of our own country man is yet the slave of his fellow man. It becomes therefore, the people of this State, as a member of this great Republic, to unite in prayer, that God, in his infinite mercy, may bless the means already commenced for the gradual extinction of slavery.

May we remember in our petitions, the poor and the destitute, the sick and the afflicted, the widow and the orphan; and may our charities, our kindness, our sympathies and our protection, be extended to them all.

May God bless the means of diffusing useful knowledge throughout this our favored land, from the Infant school to the highest Seminary of learning. May He graciously smile on the seed time and harvest of the Husbandman, and prosper our Commerce our Fisheries and our manufacturers. May He who marketh the wrath of man to praise him “suppress the violence of party animosity: and make peace and happiness prevail throughout our borders, that we may become that happy people