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Colonial and State Records of North Carolina
Proclamation by Richard Caswell concerning a day of thanksgiving [as printed in the North-Carolina Gazette]
Caswell, Richard, 1729-1789
November 14, 1777
Volume 11, Page 805

[North Carolina Gazette, November 14, 1777.]

State of North Carolina.

By his Excellency Richard Caswell, Esq; Governor, Captain General, and Commander in Chief of the State.

A Proclamation.

Whereas I have received authenticated Intelligence that General Burgoyne, and the whole Army under his Command, after repeated Losses, surrendered themselves as prisoners of War to General Gates on the Fourteenth Day of October last; To the End therefore that we may not presumptuously attribute the late signal successes gained over our Enemies to our own Strength, and thereby forget the interposition of Divine Providence in our Behalf, whose assistance we have experienced, and more especially in this Particular, wherein the Goodness of God has been so visibly demonstrated; I have thought proper, with the Advice of the Council of State, to issue this Proclamation, appointing Friday the Twenty Eighth Day of this Instant to be observed in all Churches and Congregations in this State as a Day of General and Solemn Thanksgiving, and I do strictly enjoin the several Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel to embrace this opportunity of testifying, in the most solemn Manner, those Sentiments of Gratitude which the happy Event so justly demands.

Given under my Hand, and the Seal of the State, at NewBern, the Eighth Day of November, in the Second Year of the Independence of the said State.

RICHARD CASWELL.
By his Excellency's Command.
J. GLASGOW, Secretary of the State.