It is meet and right to recognize and confess the presence of the Almighty Father and the power of His hand equally in these triumphs and in these sorrows.... I invite the people of the United States ... to render the homage due to the Divine Majesty for the wonderful things He has done in the nation's behalf, and invoke the influence of his Holy Spirit to subdue the anger which has produced and so long sustained a needless and cruel rebellion.—Thanksgiving Proclamation, July 15, 1863. Complete Works, II, 370.
In regard to the Great Book, I have only to say, it is the best gift which God has ever given man. All the good from the Saviour of the world is communicated to us through this book.—Response to Presentation of Bible. Complete Works, Nicolay and Hay's new and enlarged edition, twelve volumes, N. Y., 1905, X, 217-18.
Signal successes ... call for devout acknowledgment to the Supreme Being in whose hand are the destinies of nations.—Thanksgiving Proclamation, September 3, 1864. Complete Works, II, 571.
God knows best ... surely He intends some great good to follow this mighty convulsion, which no mortal could make and no mortal can stave.... That you believe this I doubt not; and believing it, I shall still receive for our country and myself your earnest prayers to our Father in Heaven.—Letter to Mrs. Gurney, September 4, 1864. Complete Works, II, 573-74.
I do further recommend to my fellow citizens aforesaid, that they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony.—Thanksgiving Proclamation, October 20, 1864. Complete Works, II, 587.
I am thankful to God for this approval of the people; ... I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity.—Response to Serenade following Re-election, November 9, 1864. Complete Works, II, 595.
I am naturally anti-slavery. If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I cannot remember when I did not so think and feel, and yet I have never understood that the Presidency conferred upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this judgment and feeling.... I claim not to have controlled events, but confess plainly that events have controlled me. Now at the end of three years' struggle, the nation's condition is not what either party, or any man, devised or expected. God alone can claim it. Whither it is tending seems plain. If God now wills the removal of a great wrong, and wills also that we of the North as well as you of the South, shall pay fairly for our complicity in that wrong, impartial history will find therein new cause to attest and revere the justice and goodness of God.—Letter to A. G. Hodges, April 4, 1864. Complete Works, II, 508-09.
Enough is known of army operations within the last five days to claim an especial gratitude to God, while what remains undone demands our most sincere prayers to, and reliance upon, Him without whom all human effort is vain.—Recommendation of Thanksgiving, May 9, 1864. Complete Works, II, 519.
I invite and request ... all loyal and law-abiding people ... to render to the Almighty and merciful Ruler of the universe homages and confessions.—Proclamation of Day of Prayer, July 7, 1864. Complete Works, II, 544.