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THE FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION - JUNE
20, 1676:
THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON
PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN
THE FIRST THANKSGIVING PROCLAMATION - JUNE 20, 1676:
"The Holy God having by a long and
Continual Series of his Afflictive
dispensations in and by the present War with the Heathen Natives of
this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own
Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern
that in the midst of his judgments he hath remembered mercy, having
remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us
for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly
Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation
Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of
late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them,
without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been
sensible of, if it be the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, It
certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in
any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take
notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be
found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with
Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of
pressing Afflictions:
The Council has
thought meet to appoint and set apart the 29th day of
this instant June, as a day of Solemn Thanksgiving and praise to God
for such his Goodness and Favor, many Particulars of which mercy might
be Instanced, but we doubt not those who are sensible of God's
Afflictions, have been as diligent to espy him returning to us; and
that the Lord may behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby
glorifying Him; the Council doth commend it to the Respective
Ministers, Elders and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and
seriously to keep the same Beseeching that being persuaded by the
mercies of God we may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies
and souls as a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ."
October
3, 1789
Whereas
it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty
God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to
implore his protection and favor, and Whereas both Houses of
Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to
the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving
and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts
the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording
them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for
their safety and happiness."
< style="font-family: monospace;">Now
therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of
November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the
service
of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of
all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all
unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind
care and protection of the People of this country previous to their
becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies,
and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we
experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great
degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since
enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been
enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and
happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted,
for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and
the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge,
and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath
been pleased to confer upon us.
Proclamation of Thanksgiving
Abraham Lincoln 1863
(from the
collection of Lincoln's papers in the Library of America series, Vol
II, pp. 520-521).
The year
that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings
of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so
constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which
they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a
nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart
which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of
Almighty God.
In the
midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has
sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their
aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been
maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has
prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while
that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and
navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from
the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not
arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the
borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as
of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than
heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the
waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field;
and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength
and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large
increase of freedom.
No human
counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great
things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while
dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered
mercy.
It has
seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently
and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole
American People.
I do
therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States,
and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign
lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as
a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth
in the Heavens.
And I
recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to
Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with
humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience,
commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans,
mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are
unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the
Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as
soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full
enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
Proclamation of Thanksgiving
Abraham Lincoln 1864
October,
1864
It has
pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year,
defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from
abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories
over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our
Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our
soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and
seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population
by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to us new
sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our working men in
every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has
been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts
with fortitude, courage and resolution sufficient for the great
trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence
as a nation to the cause of Freedom and Humanity, and to afford to
us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our
dangers and afflictions.
Now,
therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do,
hereby,
appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day,
which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens wherever
they may then be as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to Almighty
God the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do farther
recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on
that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and
from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications
to the Great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable
blessings of Peace, Union and Harmony throughout the land, which
it has pleased Him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and
for our posterity throughout all generations.
In
testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of
the
United States to be affixed.
Done at
the city of Washington this twentieth day of October, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty four, and, of the
Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
By the
President
Abraham
Lincoln
William H Seward, Secretary of State
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