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WRITINGS OF SAM HOUSTON, 1860
THE THANKSGIVING DAY PROCLAMATION, OCTOBER 27, 1860 1 By the Governor of the State of Texas: Though the year that is drawing to its close, has not been marked by that degree of prosperity, which has hitherto attended the people of Texas, yet we can feel grateful to Heaven for the manifold blessings vouchsafed to us. For that protecting power, which attended Texas in her hours of gloom, and has conducted her through the paths of prosperity up to the present period, for all this we have abundant reason to be thankful. For our present happy position, the civil and religious liberty that we enjoy, the preservation of our lives and the unexampled good health which has been ours in the past year, we may seek the presence_of our Heavenly Father, humbling ourselves before Him and rendering our Praise, asking in a Spirit of Thankfulness that the promise of the future may be realized in its fullness, not only by us and the generations that are to come after us, but to the·Millions in other lands now hopefully awaiting their deliverance from op- pression. Providence has ever guarded the people of these United States. He sustained the hope of our struggling fathers until they gained the liberty that we now enjoy. He gave them the wisdom and the prudence through which our government was formed. For Eighty four years that Same Providence has shielded us, and amid danger from without and dissention from within, He has encircled us with His protecting Arm and has preserved our liberties intact. Let us in the hour of Prayer, implore Him to shield us still in the time of peril, that we may be preserved a United people, free, independent, and prosperous. That a Nation's Prayer may harmoniously ascend to the Al- mighty Throne, Now, Therefore, I, Sam Houston, Governor of the State of Texas, do appoint Thursday, the Twenty ninth Day of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Prayer to Almighty God, and I recommend to the people of this State, that on that day they abstain from their usual avocations, and assemble in their places of worship, there to render to God, the Ruler of the Universe, the Thanks due for his Kindness and Mercy. . Sam Houston. 1 Executive Reco1·ds, 1859-1861, p. 136, Texas State Library. State Gazette, October 30, 1860; Han·ison Flag, October 30, 1860; The True Issue, Novem- ber 1, 1860; The Red La1ul Exp1·ess, October 30, 1860.
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