<--PREV Doc #182  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #184 Document #183; May 11, 1953 To Emmet John Hughes Series: EM, WHCF, Official File 144-F ; Category: Memorandum The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, Volume XIV - The Presidency: The Middle Way Part II: Settling into "the long pull"; May 1953 to August 1953 Chapter 3: "A time for continued vigilance"   Mrs. Whitman tells me you have some thoughts on a possible answer to Bishop Sheen.1 His letter is attached.2 I understand that May 30 has, by Act of Congress, been set aside as a "Day of Peace."3 I wonder whether the proclamation could not proclaim it a National Day of Expiation and Prayers for Peace. If so, what would you think of a draft something along the following lines to Bishop Sheen: " Dear Bishop Sheen: Thank you very much for your moving letter. Quite naturally, I am additionally grateful for the generous personal sentiments it expressed. As you suspect, we are now receiving a number of letters and postcards suggesting that a Day be set aside as a National Day of Prayer for Peace. This same idea is contained in a Joint Resolution passed by Congress something over a year ago, in observance of which the date of May 30, 1953 was proclaimed National Peace Day. (Please look up the exact title.) It occurs to me that because May 30th already has such significance in our national history, that it would be most appropriate to fit together our purposes of honoring our nation's dead, our recognition of our need of seeking Divine forgiveness and guidance, and proclaiming again our aspiration for a peaceful world, by naming May 30 as a National Day of Expiation and Prayers for Peace. While my ideas are still only in the formative stage, I did want to write you at once to thank you for your impressive suggestion. In the event that a Proclamation is issued of this general tenor, I presently have the further purpose of quoting from the Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln.4 Very sincerely," Please let me know what you think of this suggestion.5 1 Fulton John Sheen (A.B. St. Viator College 1917), national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith since 1950 and auxiliary bishop of New York since 1951, had preached on the "Catholic Hour" radio program from 1932 until 1952. In 1951 he had appeared regularly on his own television program, "Life is Worth Living." Sheen had also published a number of books dealing with religion and communism. An undated note to White House aide Bernard Shanley (same file as document) indicates that Eisenhower drafted this letter himself. 2 In his letter of May 6 (ibid.) Sheen had explained to Eisenhower that in his television broadcast of May 5 he had urged his viewers to ask Eisenhower to "declare a National Day of Prayer and Fasting and Reparation, for our sins, for the peace of the world." Sheen noted that in Eisenhower's inaugural address "God was not an after-thought, but a pre-thought and a dedication," and that therefore he would be "sensitive to the appeals of the American people for such humbling of ourselves before God, that we may be exalted as a nation." Sheen hoped that God would give the President the "strength and the wisdom to lead us on this Divine path to peace." As a result of Sheen's appeal, the White House received more than fifty thousand letters, cards, and telegrams. 3 In 1950 Congress, by joint resolution, had dedicated Memorial Day as a day "for Nation-wide prayer for permanent peace." President Truman's May 22 proclamation had designated 11:00 in the morning as the time that should be set aside for prayer. 4 In his letter Sheen had enclosed a quotation that he mistakenly attributed to Lincoln's second inaugural address. In this passage, which was actually from a proclamation issued in March 1863 (see Jones to Brownell, May 28, 1953, same file as document), Lincoln had warned that the Civil War might have resulted from divine punishment for having forgotten God in the course of America's rise to wealth and power. Lincoln had called upon Americans to humble themselves, to confess their sins, and to ask for clemency and forgiveness. 5 White House aide Hughes would make a few minor changes in Eisenhower's draft, and the letter would be sent to Sheen on May 13. On May 20 Eisenhower would inform Sheen that he had learned that Congress had set aside two days for prayer each year. The second, approved by joint resolution on April 17, 1952, was to be selected by the President on a suitable day (other than a Sunday) each year. In reply, Sheen would again ask that the day selected should not be "merely one of prayer, but of expiation." Sheen reasoned: "Prayer alone can be like an office seeker coming to you for a political favor; expiation is a humble approach for failure to fulfil an appointed task in all justice and charity. Since God exalts the humble, may we, who are the greatest nation in the eyes of men, at least for one day admit before God that we may be the least in His Sight" (Sheen to Eisenhower, May 26, 1953). On June 23 Eisenhower, citing Lincoln's example "in times of national stress," would proclaim July 4, 1953, to be a "National Day of Penance and Prayer." The proclamation and all other papers are in the same file as this document. For developments see no. 307. Bibliographic reference to this document: Eisenhower, Dwight D. Memorandum To Emmet John Hughes, 11 May 1953. In The Papers of Dwight David Eisenhower, ed. L. Galambos and D. van Ee, doc. 183. World Wide Web facsimile by The Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Commission of the print edition; Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, http://www.eisenhowermemorial.org/presidential-papers/first-term/documents/183.cfm <--PREV Doc #182  |  Memorial Commission Home Page  |  First Term Table of Contents  |  Presidential Papers Home Page  |  Doc#  |  NEXT--> Doc #184

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