ABRAHAM LINCOLN | A Massachusetts broadside printing of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Thanksgiving Proclamation

Property from the Collection of Elsie and Philip Sang

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

BY HIS EXCELLENCY ABRAHAM LINCOLN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A PROCLAMATION FOR A DAY OF THANKSGIVING, PRAISE, AND PRAYER. [BOSTON, 1863]

Letterpress broadside (27 3/4 x 20 in.; 708 x 508 mm) on paper, incorporating several display and ornamental fonts, as well as the seal of Massachusetts, docketed on the verso "Post Office Hanover"; some light offsetting, several fold separations, some closed on verso with transparent tape.

Following the Union Army's bloody victory at Gettysburg, which thwarted the last significant attempt by the Confederacy to invade the North, President Lincoln issued a Thanksgiving Proclamation appointing 6 August 1863 as a day to recognize that "It has pleased Almighty God to hearken to supplications and prayers of an afflicted people and to vouchsafe to the Army and Navy of the United States on the land and on the sea, victories so signal and so effective as to furnish reasonable grounds for augmented confidence, the Union of these States will be maintained, their constitution preserved, and peace and prosperity permanently established." Lincoln also noted that "these victories have been accorded not without sacrifice of life, limb, health, and liberty, incurred by brave, patriotic and loyal citizens."

Lincoln's original proclamation is printed here underneath a proclamation by Massachusetts Governor John A. Andrew, 27 July 1863, endorsing the observation of this day of Thanksgiving in his state.