Proclamation by the President
To the people of the Confederate States:
The termination of the Provisional Government offers a fitting occasion again to present ourselves in humiliation, prayer and thanksgiving before that God who has safely conducted us through the first year of our National existence. We have been able to lay anew the foundations of free government and to repel the efforts of our enemies to destroy us. Law has everywhere reigned supreme, and throughout our widespread limits personal liberty and private right have been duly honoured. A tone of earnest piety has pervaded our people, and the hundred victories which we have obtained over our enemies have been justly ascribed to Him who ruleth the Universe. We had hoped that the year would have closed upon a scene of continued prosperity, but it has pleased the Supreme Disposer of events to order it otherwise. We are not permitted to furnish an exception to the rule in Divine government, which has prescribed affliction as the discipline of nations as well as of individuals. Our faith and perseverance must be tested, and the chastening which seemeth grievous will, if rightly received, bring forth its appropriate fruit. It is meet and right therefore that we should repair to the only Giver of all victory, and, humbling ourselves before Him, should pray that He may strengthen our confidence in His mighty power and righteous judgment; then may we surely trust in Him that He will perform His promise and encompass us as with a shield. In this trust and to the end, I, Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States, do hereby se apart Friday, the twenty-eighth day of February, instant, as a day of Fasting, Humiliation and Prayer; and I do publicly invite the Reverend Clergy, and people of the Confederate States, to appear at their respective places of worship, to humble themselves before Almighty God in prayer for His protection and favour to our beloved country, and that we may be saved from our enemies and from the hands of all that hat us.
Given under my hand and the Seal of the Confederate States, at Richmond, this twentieth day of February, A.D., 1862, by the President,
Signed,
Jefferson Davis
