In Lockland, Ohio the Baptist, Methodist and Presbyterian congregations join together for a Thanksgiving service preached by Silas Hawley, a Presbyterian minister. Entitled, “National Reconstruction: The Glory and Shame of a Nation,” the sermon celebrates the securing of human equality in the Union victory over the Confederate States of America. America is a “righteous” nation,…
As Union General Ulysses S. Grant makes ready his imminent spring campaign against the Confederate capital of Richmond, the Southern nation observes a day of fasting and prayer, as instructed by Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Of the many such days proclaimed by Davis during the war, today’s observances are probably the most widely observed, due…
The Pennsylvania State Baptist Convention this month weighs in on U. S. President Abraham Lincoln‘s September 22 Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Resolved, That this Convention, representing forty thousand of the citizens of Pennsylvania, mindful, in the present national crisis, of our own solemn duties to our country and our God, hereby declare our profound conviction of…