At the apex of the American Civil War, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation effectively setting 3.5 million American slaves free. By July, the Battle of Gettysburg had created a “turning point” for the belligerents, and on October 3, 1863 the president issued an executive order to both from the White House. “A Proclamation for Thanksgiving” begins;

The year that is drawing towards its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies.

Over 90 heads of state and 35,000 representatives from 190 countries around the world attended the UN Climate Change Conference this week in Egypt. Called the COP2 Summit, the United Nations reports the planet warmed 1.8 degrees between 1900 and 2020. Carbon Dioxide levels have increased 40% since the Industrial era, and the planet is on track to warm another 3 degrees Celsius this century.

According to the UN, the effects of global warming have and continue to unfold in ascending order including; heat > drought > storms > rising ocean > food shortage > health risks > poverty > displacement > loss of life > extinction.

The international community became concerned about the earth’s sustainability in 1992 and gathered for the first time at the Earth Summit to discuss the co-dependent relationship between earth’s societies, economies and shared environment.

For 30 years, wealthy countries have admonished developing nations to phase out fossil fuels and transition to renewable energy. Tensions between richer countries and poorer nations, the latter of which bear the brunt of climate impacts, over climate finance remain in dispute and unresolved among developed countries.

Moreover, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's 2022 Global Report on Food Crises estimates 193 million people in 53 countries were food insecure in 2021. The World Health Organization reports 34,000 children around the globe have been hospitalized due to severe malnutrition this year. Lincoln continues;

In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Tuesday said, “I have no doubts the Ukraine was not to blame for the missile strike that killed two people in Poland.” He’s called for Ukrainian officials to be allowed to access the blast site and to be part of the investigation, but Polish authorities will not include Ukraine, according to a senior Polish official. Warsaw believes the strike was most likely caused by Ukrainian air defense attempting to intercept a missile fired by Russia.

Their comments follow NATO Chief Jens Stoltenberg announcement, “Kyiv's air defense missiles were most likely to blame.” Even U.S. President Joe Biden rebuffed Zelensky's claim that Russian missiles intentionally struck Poland — which would have effectively engaged NATO Allies in the war — with a single statement to reporters aboard Air Force One, "that's not the evidence.”

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, over 7.8 million refugees have fled Ukraine, and an additional 8 million have been displaced within the country. Mass evacuation, forced displacement, expulsion and deportation of millions has caused the largest refugee crisis since World War II.

Needful diversions of wealth and strength, from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense, have not arrested the plough, shuttle or ship. The axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements and mines, iron, coal and precious metals yield even more abundantly than heretofore.

Walmart, CVS, and Walgreens have reached deals to pay more than $10 billion to settle claims the companies mishandled opioid painkiller prescriptions, the latest companies to agree to major payouts over allegations they helped fuel the opioid epidemic.

The agreements come several months after pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal, McKesson, and AmerisourceBergen agreed to pay $26 billion to settle a slew of lawsuits from states and cities that alleged they helped fuel the opioid crisis. None of the companies acknowledged wrongdoing.

The U.S. pharmaceutical industry earned $550 billion in annual revenue in 2021. The total biopharmaceutical industry is valued at $625 billion and makes up roughly 3.2% of the total U.S. GDP

Population has steadily increased; notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the siege, camp, battlefield and country.

Planet Earth is now home to 8 billion humans as of November 15, 2022. Unprecedented growth from 7 to 8 billion in 12 years is attributed to gradual lifespan increases due to improvements in public health, nutrition, hygiene and medicine in developing nations.

Just eight countries account for more than half the rise in population expected by 2050 including; the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and Tanzania.

The 9 billion mark is approximated for 2037.

They are the gracious gifts of God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the American People.

Over 200,000 protestors packed Mexico City’s main boulevard on Sunday to protest left wing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s proposal to overhaul the country’s electoral authority. In 30 years, Mexico progressed from a one-party state to free, fair elections — that progress is now at risk.

The initiative eliminates state-level electoral offices; cuts public financing of political parties; and allows the public to elect members of the electoral authority rather than the lower chamber of Congress.

Former U.S. president Barack Obama observes, "the threat to democracy doesn't always run along a conservative axis. It has nothing to do with traditional partisan lines or policy preferences. AMLO is challenging the foundational principles of democracy itself."

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving.

China on Friday pushed back on claims it was operating official police stations on U.S. soil, calling the sites “volunteer-run.” FBI Director Christopher Wray told the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Friday, “We’re very concerned about unauthorized stations, and Beijing's influence operations to police the people of the United States.”

And I recommend to His tender care all widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged;

The first death sentence was issued this week over protests triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

An ongoing series of protests and civil unrest against the government of Iran began in Tehran on 16 September 2022 as a reaction to the death of 22-year-old Amini who was arrested by the Guidance Patrol for wearing an improper hijab — a violation of Iran's mandatory hijab law — while visiting Tehran from Saqqez. According to eyewitnesses, Amini was severely beaten by Guidance Patrol officers, an assertion denied by Iranian authorities.

More than 2000 people have been charged in demonstrations which began two months ago, and 20+ are facing the death penalty. NGO Iran Human Rights reports at least 326 people have been killed by security forces as a result of current protests.

Fervently imploring the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation, and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and Union.

Turkish police have arrested a total of 17 people in connection with a terrorist bombing in Istanbul. Six people were killed and over 80 wounded when a TNT-laden bomb detonated in Istanbul's lively Istiklal Avenue. Two children were among the casualties.

Turkish authorities are blaming the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Syrian Kurdish militia (YPG). Both have denied any involvement.

An additional 29 people who were rounded up in the wake of the attack have been slated for deportation. The public prosecutor's office has accused all 46 suspects of "violating state unity."

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand,

Nancy Pelosi stepped down this week as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. U.S. President Joe Biden called Pelosi "the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the most consequential in our history."

And cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed,

"For me,” Pelosi said, following a politically motived attack on her 82-year-old husband in San Francisco last week, “the hour's come for a new generation to lead.”

Signed,
President Abraham Lincoln