OF LANCASTER COUNTY. 267 



forfeited every favor, aud their liumble and earnest supplication, tliat it 

 may please God, tbrougb the merits of Jesus Christ, mercifully to forgive 

 and blot them out of his remembrance; that it may please Him gra- 

 ciously to afibrd His blessings on the Government of these States respect- 

 ively and prosper the Councils of the whole ; to inspire our Commanders 

 both by land and sea, and all under them, with that wisdom and fortitude 

 which may render them fit instruments under the Providence of Almightv 

 God, to secure for these States the greatest of all human blessings, inde- 

 pendence and peace; that it may please Him to prosper the Trade and 

 manufactures of the people, and the labor of the husbandman, that our 

 land may yet yield its increase ; to take Schools and Seminaries of Edu- 

 cution, so necessary for Cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue 

 and piety, under His nurturing hand, and to prosper the means of Eeli- 

 gion, for the promotion and enlargement of that Kingdom which cou- 

 sisteth in righteousness, peace and joy, in the Holy Ghost. And it is 

 further recommended, that Servile labor, and such recreations as, though 

 at other times innocent, may be unbecoming the purpose of this appoint- 

 ment, may be omitted on so solemn an occasion. "We therefore, do hereby 

 call upon the good people of this Commonwealth, to set apart Thursday 

 the Eighteenth day of December next, for the purpose of Solemn thanks- 

 giving and praise. 



"By order of Council. 



"Thomas Wharton, jun'r, President. 

 "Attest — Timothy Matlack, Secretary. 



" God Save the Commonwealth." 



^'- By tlie Supreme Executive Council of t/i,e Commomvealtli of Pennsylvania. 



"A PROCLAMATION 



"AVhereas, by an Act of the General Assembly of the Common- 

 wealth of Pennsylvania, made and passed at Lancaster, the 13th Octo- 

 ber, 1777, entitled 'An Act for Constituting a Council of Safety, and 

 vesting the same with the powers therein mentioned,' It is Enacted that 

 the Members of the Supreme Executive Council of this State, together 

 with John Bayard, &c., should be constituted a Council of Safety, with 

 the powers and for the purposes in and by the said Act particularly 

 mentioned and declared: And u-hereas, in and by the same Act of As- 

 sembly it is further enacted, that the Supreme Executive Council of 

 this State might at any time during the powers and Authorities thereby 

 granted by Proclamation or other publick Act, Eenounce, determine 

 and extinguish the same, and every part thereof; And that, thereupon, 

 the said powers, and every of them, should cease and become void, and 

 be no longer exercised or enforced : And tuhereas, by the blessing of 

 Heaven, the progress of the Enemy hath been Restrained, in so much 



