Magie, David. A Discourse delivered in the Second Presbyterian Church, Elizabeth, N.J., August 6th, 1863 on occasion of the Public Thanksgiving appointed by Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, to Commemorate the Signal Victories Vouchsafed to the Federal Arms. New-York: Printed by Francis Hart & Co., 1863. First Edition. [9101]
Printed wrapper, short edge tear repaired, dampstain at bottom right third throughout. 9 x 6 inches, "From the Author" in pencil top front, 28 pp. Good. Pamphlet.
One month after the Union victories at Gettysburg & Vicksburg, and six weeks after West Virginia joined the Union, President Lincoln appointed a day of National Thanksgiving.
“If all auguries do not fail, it would not be at all surprising to find North Carolina, Louisiana and even Mississippi, soon following the lead of Western Virginia, and Missouri, to seek repose in the bosom of a Union from which they never had an earthly reason to withdraw…There is nothing left for us to do, but go forward, and put down the rebellion at the earliest possible moment, and in the most effectual possible way. How can we falter now, when God has so manifestly answered our prayers, and our brethren in the field call upon us in tones of deep and tender earnestness, to share with them the sufferings and the glory of bringing the quarrel to a speedy close.”
Rev. David Magie (1795-1865), b. & d. in Elizabeth, NJ, the pastor of the Presbyterian church in that city. Dr. Magie graduated at Princeton in 1817 and was tutor in that school 1818-9, and installed as pastor in Elizabeth in 1821. In 1842 he received the degree of D.D. from Amherst, and he was a director for the A. B. C. F. M., the American Tract Society, and Princeton Theological Seminary.
