that I will faithfully execute the office of
President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability
preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.

JOHN TYLER
APRIL 6, 1841.

[Footnote A: The Secretary of the Navy was absent from the city.]

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA,
_City and County of Washington, ss_:

I, William Cranch, chief judge of the circuit court of the District of
Columbia, certify that the above-named John Tyler personally appeared
before me this day, and although he deems himself qualified to perform
the duties and exercise the powers and office of President on the death
of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States, without
any other oath than that which he has taken as Vice-President, yet as
doubts may _arise_, and for greater caution, took and subscribed
the foregoing oath before me.

W. CRANCH.
APRIL 6, 1841.

PROCLAMATION.

TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.

A RECOMMENDATION.

WASHINGTON, _April 13, 1841_.

When a Christian people feel themselves to be overtaken by a great
public calamity, it becomes them to humble themselves under the
dispensation of Divine Providence, to recognize His righteous government
over the children of men, to acknowledge His goodness in time past, as
well as their own unworthiness, and to supplicate His merciful
protection for the future.

The death of William Henry Harrison, late President of the United
States, so soon after his elevation to that high office, is a
bereavement peculiarly calculated to be regarded as a heavy affliction
and to impress all minds with a sense of the uncertainty of human things
and of the dependence of nations, as well as individuals, upon our
Heavenly Parent.

I have thought, therefore, that I should be acting in conformity with
the general expectation and feelings of the community in recommending,
as I now do, to the people of the United States of every religious
denomination that, according to their several modes and forms of
worship, they observe a day of fasting and prayer by such religious
services as may be suitable on the occasion; and I recommend Friday, the
14th day of May next, for that purpose, to the end that on that day we
may all with one accord join in humble and reverential approach to Him
in whose hands we are, invoking Him to inspire us with a proper spirit
and temper of heart and mind under these frowns of His providence and
still to bestow His g