A Proclamation....

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
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 Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State

150th Anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address...

150th Anniversary of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address...


(Note: My annual tribute to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, originally posted in 2011...)

Today marks one of the most memorable speeches ever given by an American President. One hundred and forty eight years ago, President Abraham Lincoln gave remarks at the dedication of the National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Lincoln was not the keynote speaker of the day, that honor fell upon Edward Everett, who was a famous politician, educator and public speaker of the day.

Everett spoke for two hours before President Lincoln gave his address, which last about two minutes. Everett then famously sent Lincoln a note of admiration on his speech, "I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion, in two hours, as you did in two minutes."


The text of the Gettysburg Address: 


Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate, we can not consecrate, we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

A. Lincoln November 19, 1863

Actor Sam Waterston performing the Gettysburg Address...

The only known picture of President Lincoln at Gettysburg...

(Thanks to Tom Piselli for the reminder...)

NOTE: I've read several very good books about Abraham Lincoln over the last 18 months, here's my reading list...

Team Of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
A. Lincoln - A biography by Ronald C. White
Bloody Crimes - The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis by James L. Swanson
Chasing Lincoln's Killer - by Robert Swanson
Manhunt - James Swanson

Sources: 

http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/gettysburg.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address#Text_of_Gettysburg_Address

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Everett

Who was Thomas "Boston" Corbett?

Who was Thomas "Boston" Corbett?

A) A podiatrist from Des Moines who died in World War two...
B) A relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox in the early 1960's...
C) A history teacher from Kalamazoo, Michigan in the 1930's...
D) The man who shot Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth...

  We're almost exactly a week from when we heard that we'd killed Osama Bin Laden in a residential compound in a town called Abottabad, Pakistan. The event has been analyzed from all sides, with unanimous praise for Seal Team Six. (Except from pro Bin Laden types, I suppose.) Tradition suggests we as a people will never know the names, faces, stories of the members of  Team Six. What we do know about them is that they are regarded as "the best of the best" or "the A team." It would be fascinating to hear about that mission from the soldier who fired the shot that killed Bin Laden, but neither the Seals nor Bin Laden are doing much talking these days.

  What other famous manhunts in our nations history could compare? There has been a handful of very high profile cases including Bruno Hauptmann in the 1932 Lindberg baby kidnapping/murder, Lee Harvey Oswald, the man who killed JFK, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma City, Federal Office building bombing in 1995 and Ted Kaczinski a/k/a/ "The Unabomber" from the late 70's to 1995 when he was finally caught. As big as those pursuits were, I don't think ANY match the hunt for the killer of our 16th President, Abraham Lincoln, actor John Wilkes Booth. The search finally ended in an old tobacco barn in northern Virgina twelve days after he shot Lincoln in Ford's Theater.

 We do know quite a bit about the man who shot and killed Booth. His name was Thomas "Boston" Corbett.

  Corbett was born in 1832 in London, England. His family immigrated to America, where he worked as a hat maker. He married, but lost his wife during childbirth of their first child. After her death, he relocated to Boston, where he joined the Methodist Episcopal Church and found Christ. It was at this time he changed his first name to "Boston" in honor of the city of his rebirth. We know he grew his hair long in order to imitate Jesus Christ. We also know that in order to overcome the temptations of local prostitutes, Corbett castrated himself with a pair of scissors. Immediately afterwards, he had dinner and then attended a prayer meeting before seeking medical attention.

  In April of 1861, he enlisted in the Union Army and re-enlisted in September of that same year. Captured by the Confederacy, he was "exchanged" back to the Union side in November 1864. He was promoted to Sergeant. He then served in the 16th New York Cavalry Regiment who were assigned to assist in the search for John Wilkes Booth. Finding Booth and his accomplice David Herrold in a barn on the old Garret farm, soldiers surrounded the structure. Herrold surrendered, leaving only an already injured Booth inside the barn. Soldiers set the barn on fire in an attempt to force Booth out but he stayed inside defying the Union troops.

  There was no realistic hope for escape for Lincolns killer. Soldiers peered through the openings in between the slats that formed the sides of the barn. Booth, leaning on a cane because of his broken leg, held a pistol  in one hand and surveyed the situation. Thinking that Booth had pointed his weapon at the soldiers, despite orders that had been given to NOT fire upon him, Corbett fired a single shot into the back of Booth neck, where it passed through his throat, exiting on the other side. Booth was immediately paralyzed and fell to the ground.

  Corbett was arrested immediately for violation of his orders, but ultimately found not guilty. He served no prison time and was awarded a share of the reward money, $1653.84. After the investigation, Corbett then explained why he shot Booth with the answer, "Providence directed me."

  After leaving the Army in 1865, Corbett returned to both the Northeast and the making hats. Twelve years later, he took at job as the assistant  doorkeeper at the Kansas State House. After hearing someone mock the opening prayer one day, he brandished a pistol and waved it around the chamber threateningly. He may also have felt that various men from Topeka were out to get him. He was arrested for his actions in the House chamber and put on trial. He was found to be insane and was sent to the Topeka Asylum for the Insane. Corbett would escape from this facility 1888. Some historians believe Corbett had been poisoned by working with mercury during the hat making process. This is where the expression, "Mad as a hatter" comes from.

  No one is sure what happened to Boston Corbett after the escape. Some say he hooked up with a fellow prisoner of war from the Civil War time for a short while.The consensus is that he traveled to Minnesota and lived in a cabin he built himself. While no conclusive evidence exists, there is a Thomas Corbett on the dead and missing list of the Great Hinckley Fire of September 1, 1894. He would've been sixty-two years old.

  When asked about their friend Thomas Corbett, acquaintances said he was, "different."


Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_SEALs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Corbett
http://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln32.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Hinckley_Fire