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By the Governor

of the

State of Maine

A Proclamation

The deductions of reason, not less than the precepts of religion, make it the duty of dependent and accountable beings to acknowledge with reverence the superintending Providence of Almighty God, to humble themselves before him under a solemn sense of their weakness and imperfection, and to implore his mercy and blessing with contrite hearts, without which their hopes are vain, and their labors fruitless:

I therefore, have thought fit, by and with the advice of Council, to appoint Thursday, the twelfth day of April next, to be observed by the good people of this State, as a day of Humiliation and Prayer; and the people of all religious denominations are requested to abstain from all labor and recreation inconsistent with the religious solemnities of the day, and to assemble in their respective places of public worship, and unitedly to supplicate the favor of their Supreme Ruler: that he would in mercy forgive them their sins and errors, and net requite them according to their merits, but according to his own parental kindness; that he would prosper the industry of the husbandman, and sauce the earth to yield a plentiful increase; that our fisheries may continue to be prosecuted with success; that a gainful trade may reward the enterprise of those who are engaged in mercantile pursuits; that he would bless our colleges, academies and schools, and make them instruments of diffusing useful learning and pure morality; that the ministers of religion may instil [instill] unto the minds of their people the love of order and peace, and teach them by their own example, that a difference in unessential speculative doctrines should make no difference in the bonds of christian charity; that he would bless the governments of this State and the United States; and that they may be administered with wisdom and moderation, and preserve the peace of the country and harmony of the Union.

And while we approach the throne of grace for a blessing on our country, may we not be forgetful of those favors by which we have been peculiarly distinguished: that peace and plenty have been within our borders; that under a gentle and steady administration of government, our rights are protected by the calm operation of equitable laws; that peace is preserved with foreign nations, and harmony among ourselves; and that under the blessing of Divine Providence we may look with confidence to a protracted period of uninterrupted prosperity and undisturbed repose.

Given at the Council Chamber, at Portland, the fifth