Abraham Lincoln actually said...

it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation.

that the inestimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings of our fathers...

to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly deserved.

to bow in humble submission to His chastisements, to confess and deplore their sins and transgressions in the full conviction that the fear ...