The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

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THE LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND

the enemy who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly
Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their
camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas, with unusual health. He
has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while He has opened to us new sources of wealth, and has
crowned the labor of our workingmen in every department of industry
with abundant reward. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and
inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war, into which we have been brought by
our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to
afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from
all our dangers and affliction.
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do
hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next, as a
day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens, wherever they
may then be, as a day of thanksgiving and prayer to Almighty God, the
beneficent Creator and Ruler of the universe; and I do further recommend
to my fellow-citizens aforesaid, that on that occasion they do reverently
humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the great Disposer of events, for a return
of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the
land, which it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling-place for ourselves
and our posterity throughout all generations.
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 twentieth day of October,
in the year of Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four,
and of the independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
ABRADAm Lncooni.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
He also wrote the following letter of congratulation to
General Sheridan, which was read at the head of every
regiment in the command:
EXZCUTIVv MAN0ION, WASHINGTON, October 22.
To Major-General SHERIDAN:
With great pleasure I tender to you, and your brave army, the thanks
of the nation and my own personal admiration and gratitude for the
month's operations in the Shenandoah Valley, and especially for the splendid work of October 19. Your obedient servant,
ABRAHAM LrNCOLN.
These victories gave vigor and courage to the country.
The price of gold fell in the market, the credit of the