April, 1863. The year the Civil War reached its height. The bloodiest conflict ever fought in American history even up to today was ravaging the nation, and though the North had more men, munitions, and supplies, they were losing. Badly.
The Confederates had struck first at Fort Sumter and just kept right on going. The Union itself, though much larger, was split in two by the Mississippi River, which, thanks to the city of Vicksburg, was controlled by the South. Ulysses S. Grant had made five separate attempts to take the southern stronghold, but all had ended in failure.
Meanwhile, General Robert E. Lee was fast-approaching northern territory, with plans to sweep in and beat the Union forces so badly that President Lincoln would be forced to sue for peace. With momentum and strategy on the southern general’s side, it looked like he was more than capable of accomplishing his goals. The Confederate States of America would win, the nation would be forever divided, and hundreds of thousands of slaves would remain in chains.
Then, something happened. It didn’t happen on the battlefield, or anywhere near the front lines. It wasn’t a heroic charge, a brilliant strategy, or an act of brave defiance. Rather, it was an act of submission and a declaration of defeat. It was Proclamation #97, and it could have been written today:
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and
Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;
And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this my proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness 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 30th day of March, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
By the President:
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
And so it was done. By request of the U.S. Senate, Abraham Lincoln called the nation to a day of humiliation, fasting, and prayer; to humble themselves before GOD, confess their sin of pride and godlessness which allowed the nation to fall so far from grace, and call on the Almighty for salvation.
The day designated was to be the 30th of April. On that day, America appealed to Heaven.
It was all the LORD needed. The very next day, on May 1st, the Battle of Port Gibson was fought. It was a victory and the first of five fought by General Grant that would lead to the Union’s finally taking Vicksburg on Independence Day, 1863.
The fall of Vicksburg was coupled with the Battle of Gettysburg, which needs no introduction. After a whole third of the forces involved had been decimated, General Lee was disastrously defeated, never again to mount a major campaign against the North. From Gettysburg onward, the South was on the defensive. The tide had turned. It turned first at Port Gibson, the day after the United States humbled itself before GOD.
This year marks the 170th anniversary of the Battle of Port Gibson, Vicksburg, and Gettysburg. Once again, America has fallen away from the paths of the LORD. We have deluded ourselves into thinking that our strength comes from our military, our wealth, our constitution, and our “American exceptionalism.” Just as with ancient Israel, we put our faith in other things, material things, things that cannot save us, and have now forsaken us.
America is exceptional, unique, and prosperous, not because of man-made structures and institutions, but because of the bountiful blessings and protections from on high. This nation was founded by men and women who feared GOD, who put their trust in Him and overcame tremendous odds in pursuit of His ways. We face the same odds in America today. But instead of the might and tyranny of the British Empire, our enemies are our own educational institutions, the mainstream media, weak-willed legislators, and the administrative state with its many agencies and globalist allies.
But what are all these compared to the might of Heaven?
GOD is just waiting and deeply yearns for us to humble ourselves and seek His face, and then, how quickly he will subdue our enemies and turn his hand against our foes. (Psalm 13-14).
The freedom and liberty we enjoy in America – and that is now being attacked from every side – won’t be restored by sheer force of will, determination, or tenacity. Americans can’t fix the border, can’t drain the swamp, can’t restore elections, and can’t even call the Convention of States on our own. But if we do as our ancestors did, as the Bible instructs us to do, we can accomplish all of this, and so much more.
