The  President,  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  desires
and  enjoins  the  orderly  observance  of  the  Sabbath  by  the  officers  and  men
in  the  military  and  naval  service.  The  importance  for  man  and  beast
of  the  prescribed  weekly  rest,  the  sacred  rights  of  Christian  soldiers  and
sailors,  a  becoming  deference  to  the  best  sentiment  of  a  Christian  people,
and  a  due  regard  for  the  divine  will  demand  that  Sunday  labor  in  the
Army  and  Navy  be  reduced  to  the  measure  of  strict  necessity.
The  discipline  and  character  of  the  national  forces  should  not  suffer
nor  the  cause  they  defend  be  imperiled  by  the  profanation  of  the  day  or
name  of  the  Most  High.  '  'At  this  time  of  pubhc  distress,"  adopting  the
words  of  Washington  in  1 776,  ' '  men  may  find  enough  to  do  in  the  service
of  God  and  their  country  without  abandoning  themselves  to  vice  and  im-
morality." The  first  general  order  issued  by  the  Father  of  his  Country
after  the  Declaration  of'  Independence  indicates  the  spirit  in  which  our
institutions  were  founded  and  should  ever  be  defended:

The  General  hopes  and  trusts  that  every  officer  and  man  wilt  etidenvor  to  live  and
act  as  becomes  a  Christian  soldier  defefiding  the  dearest  rights  and  liberties  of  his
country.
ABRAHAM  LINCOI.N.
Executive  Mansion,
Washington  City,  November  21,  1862.
