[Federal Register Volume 60, Number 52 (Friday, March 17, 1995)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 14351-14352]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 95-6795]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 60, No. 52 / Friday, March 17, 1995 /
Presidential Documents
____________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 14351]]
Proclamation 6777 of March 14, 1995
National Day of Prayer, 1995
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
Our Nation was built on the steadfast foundation of the
prayers of our ancestors. In times of blessing and
crisis, stability and change, thanksgiving and
repentance, appeals for Divine direction have helped
the citizens of the United States to remain faithful to
our long-standing commitment to life, liberty, and
justice for all.
This reliance on spiritual assistance has especially
characterized times of national transition and
uncertainty. As our country was ravaged by the Civil
War, Abraham Lincoln remarked, ``I have been driven
many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction
that I had nowhere else to go.'' And with him, millions
of slaves cried out to the Almighty for an end to their
suffering.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass said this about the
spiritual songs sung on the plantations: ``Every tone
was a testimony against slavery, and a prayer to God
for deliverance from chains.'' Since that time, we have
witnessed tremendous improvements in relations between
people of all races and backgrounds. Indeed, long ago,
through the work of prayer and common effort, and with
the inspiration of the Creator, we began to turn the
tide in this Nation from divisiveness and recrimination
toward reconciliation and healing.
Let us not forget those painful lessons of our past,
but continue to seek the guidance of God in all the
affairs of our Nation. We must not become complacent,
but rather press onward for the protection of the
vulnerable and the downtrodden. In the words of
President Lincoln, ``it behooves us then to humble
ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our
national sins and pray for clemency and forgiveness''
for any injustice we perceive in our midst. May we, the
people of this country, set a steady course, dedicated
to respect for one another and for individual freedom.
The Congress, by Public Law 100-307, has called on our
citizens to reaffirm annually our dependence on
Almighty God by recognizing a ``National Day of
Prayer.''
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of
the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 4,
1995, as a National Day of Prayer. I call upon every
citizen of this great Nation to gather together on that
day to pray, each in his or her own manner, for God's
continued guidance and blessing. [[Page 14352]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
nineteen hundred and ninety-five, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two
hundred and nineteenth.
(Presidential Sig.)>
[FR Doc. 95-6795
Filed 3-15-95; 2:02 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P
