In 1863 Abraham Lincoln did proclaim that Thanksgiving should be an official American holiday! More on this and the answer to the most important Thanksgiving question!
Today we give thanks to God for our bounty and for His role in our lives. Also, it is a great time to give thanks to all of you for being a part of this Substack project!
The Official American Holiday Of Thanksgiving
The traditional of an official day of giving thanks to God for our bounty goes back a long, long way (1621 it is said) well before the founding of our nation. But it was in 1863 that then-President Abraham Lincoln officially declared the American holiday of Thanksgiving!
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 thus an annual tradition was begun in this country. A country that was founded on the idea that we are all endowed by our Creator with inalienable rights…
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
On this special day, when we are all gathered as families, enjoying a Thanksgiving meal, let us remember to give thanks to God, and to our good fortune. And let us say a prayer for those who are less fortunate who may not be enjoying the same kind of festivities today. May they be lifted up and good fortune shine on them in the year to come.
1789, The First Congressional Resolution…
As I was preparing this message I got an official Thanksgiving message from the Claremont Institute, where I am happy to be a graduate of their Lincoln Fellowship (how appropriate to this post). In it they share a link to a column that ran in the American Mind last year at this time — on the debate about a national day of giving thanks in the Congress, in 1789 (the body had really only been functionally operating for about six months!). Thanks to CI Senior Fellow Christopher Flannery for this…
It’s a short read right here!
Here is the entire proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln, followed by the answer to the most important Thanksgiving Day question of all time…
President Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day Proclamation
Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
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 has 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 one 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.
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 Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the Eighty-eighth.
The Definitive Answer To The Most Important Thanksgiving Question…
What is the best cranberry sauce…
The answer, of course, in one photo:
Happy Turkeyday All!
From The Fleischman Family
Amen, Jon! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the following piece: https://thomasobrien.substack.com/p/america-forgot-this-lesson-that-lincoln?r=1wocq8
I hope all is well!