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Giving Thanks (A look at the Thanksgiving Day proclamations of Washington and Lincoln)
The Claremont Institute ^ | November 23, 2005

Posted on 11/23/2005 1:09:41 PM PST by Stoat

Giving Thanks

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Though celebrated privately in homes, Thanksgiving is a public opportunity for Americans to bring the sacred into our lives. Our two greatest presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, understood this connection between the public and the private in their proclamations of Thanksgiving as a national holiday. They were proclaiming a holy day, a day for prayer and recognition of Almighty God's authority over man. Religious liberty is one of the blessings of constitutional government we must be thankful for. In this spirit, presidents, with the approval of Congress, have provided a public occasion for prayer—which is of course what a thanks-giving is.

We forget too easily the meaning of this national holiday as it was first established by George Washington on October 3, 1789 and reaffirmed as we know it today by Abraham Lincoln on October 3, 1863, exactly 74 years later. A mere glance at their Thanksgiving proclamations reminds us of the noblest purposes of government, including its greatest endeavors—fighting war and educating its citizens.

A close reading of these two messages reveals a careful and subtle teaching about the higher purposes of government and of human life. Washington urged prayer "to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed...." Prayer should also lead this nation of "civil and religious liberty" to "promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among [other nations] and us...." God and the human mind are in alliance. We are most human when we honor our duties, to our country and to our Creator, and the wisdom that unifies these duties.

Even in the midst of "the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged," Lincoln first paints a picture of a prosperous, free, and indeed flourishing land. These 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." At the end of the proclamation, Lincoln asks for prayers of thanks but also with expressions of "humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience." Thus do we "commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers" in the war. Have we, as those Americans did, taken to heart the Thanksgiving prayers Father Abraham urged upon us?

As our soldiers fight and die in Iraq and around the world, we should remember the wartime wisdom of Lincoln and the founding wisdom of Washington on Thanksgiving Day. Guided by prayer, we should recall our higher purposes. We enjoy the fruits of our leisure this Thursday on account of the wisdom and sacrifices of others present and past.



TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: lincoln; proclamation; thanksgiving; washington
http://www.founding.com/library/lbody.cfm?id=114&parent=47

Thanksgiving Proclamation

George Washington

City of New York, 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 thanks-giving 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."

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 tranquillity, 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.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the People, by constantly being a government of wise, just and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

 

Lincoln, Abraham - Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

 

Proclamation Establishing Thanksgiving Day

October 3, 1863
 

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.

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.

A. Lincoln


1 posted on 11/23/2005 1:09:42 PM PST by Stoat
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To: Stoat

Boycott "Turkey Day"


2 posted on 11/23/2005 1:11:03 PM PST by BibChr ("...behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?" [Jer. 8:9])
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To: Stoat

Funny how they each mentioned God--several times. I thought this God thing was a recent addition by the religious right. /sarcasm.


3 posted on 11/23/2005 1:24:37 PM PST by Knuckledragger
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To: Stoat

bttt


4 posted on 11/23/2005 1:27:07 PM PST by Christian4Bush ("Cowards cut and run: Marines never do." And I do NOT wish to revise or extend my remarks.)
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To: Stoat

Thank you Stoat for posting this thread.
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http://www.truthusa.com/ThanksGIVING.html


5 posted on 11/23/2005 1:31:55 PM PST by Cindy
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To: Stoat

later read.


6 posted on 11/23/2005 1:40:02 PM PST by little jeremiah
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To: BibChr

Especially for us vegetarians!


7 posted on 11/23/2005 1:40:28 PM PST by little jeremiah
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To: Stoat

Powerful words. It's sad that all school children will never read this in class.


8 posted on 11/23/2005 1:58:30 PM PST by rightinthemiddle (#1 Rule in Dealing with the Media, Democrats and Terrorists: Can't Please 'Em, so Don't Appease 'Em.)
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To: BibChr

Ha, ha, ha. Wait until all the athiests out there find out that Thanksgiving day was set up to give thanks to -- GOD!


9 posted on 11/23/2005 2:47:53 PM PST by R.W.Ratikal (-)
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To: NoCmpromiz; Darksheare

ping


10 posted on 11/23/2005 6:42:25 PM PST by DJ MacWoW (If you think you know what's coming next....You don't know Jack.)
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