Printed broadside; 15 x 10 in. (381 x 254 mm).Signed in type by President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward. Creasing from old folds, some toning to same.

THE FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION ISSUED BY LINCOLN DURING THE CIVIL WAR, and the first issued by a President since the administration of James Madison. Lincoln declared 26 September 1861 as the special day, and it was the first of nine Thanksgiving proclamations he issued, this one about three weeks after the first battle of Bull Run. It reads in part: "That our arms may be blessed and made effectual for the re-establishment of law, order, and peace throughout our country, and that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence... I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do appoint the last Thursday in September next as a day of Humiliation, Prayer, and Fasting, for all the people of the nation..." 

RARE: Online records indicate that only two copies have appeared at auction in the past century.

Provenance:

Louise Taper, Beverly Hills, California