When David Barton appeared on Glenn Beck’s program to discuss the important of prayer and fasting, he displayed various prayer proclamations issued by the Founding Fathers before highlighting one issued by Abraham Lincoln that Barton claimed Lincoln released because he felt that America had “become so prosperous, so bountiful” that it had forgotten God and needed to be reminded to humble itself and be thankful for all God had given this nation, declaring that it showed that “Lincoln had great spiritual insight at a time when the nation really was doing well”:

The proclamation that Barton cited was issued by Lincoln on August 12, 1861 … just a few months after the start of the Civil War; not exactly “a time when the nation really was doing well”: