A PROCLAMATION.

The centennial anniversary of the day on which the people of the United States declared their right to a separate and equal station among the powers of the earth seems to demand an exceptional observance.

The founders of the Government, at its birth and in its feebleness, invoked the blessings and the protection of a Divine Providence, and the thirteen colonies and three millions of people have expanded into a nation of strength and numbers commanding the position which then was asserted and for which fervent prayers were then offered.

It seems fitting that on the occurrence of the hundredth anniversary of our existence as a nation a grateful acknowledgment should be made to Almighty God for the protection and the bounties which He has vouchsafed to our beloved country.

I therefore invite the good people of the United States, on the approaching 4th day of July, in addition to the usual observances with which they are accustomed to greet the return of the day, further, in such manner and at such time as in their respective localities and religious associations may be most convenient, to mark its recurrence by some public religious and devout thanksgiving to Almighty God for the blessings which have been bestowed upon us as a nation during the century of our existence, and humbly to invoke a continuance of His favor and of His protection.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the city of Washington, this 26th day of June, A.D. 1876, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundredth.

U.S.  GRANT.

By the President: 
  HAMILTON FISH,
    Secretary of State.

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas the Congress of the United States did, by an act approved on the 3d day of March, 1875, authorize the inhabitants of the Territory of Colorado to form for themselves out of said Territory a State government with the name of the State of Colorado, and for the admission of such State into the Union on an equal footing with the original States upon certain conditions in said act specified; and

Whereas it was provided by said act of Congress that the convention elected by the people of said Territory to frame a State constitution should, when assembled for that purpose and after organization, declare on behalf of the people that they adopt the Constitution of the United States, and should also provide by an ordinance, irrevocable without the consent of the United States and the people of said State, that perfect toleration of religious sentiment shall be secured and that no inhabitant of said State shall ever be molested in person or property on account of his or her mode of religious worship, and that the people