Posted on 11/28/2013 11:36:30 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It was 150 years ago that Sarah Josepha Hale gave us Thanksgiving as we know it.
The influential editor was the best friend Thanksgiving ever had. We are accustomed, in a more jaded and secular age, to wars on various holidays; Hale waged a war for Thanksgiving. For years, she evangelized for nationalizing the holiday by designating the last Thursday of November for it to be celebrated annually across the country.
Besides plugging for Thanksgiving in her publication, Godey’s Lady’s Book, she wrote Presidents Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan about it before hitting pay dirt with Abraham Lincoln. On October 3, 1863, Lincoln urged his fellow citizens to observe the last Thursday of November “as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
Hale had succeeded in her long-sought goal, but kept — as Peggy Baker notes in an essay about her as “the Godmother of Thanksgiving” — writing editorials about Thanksgiving for another dozen years. You might say that she was a bore and nag on the topic, if her cause hadn’t been so splendid and her understanding of Thanksgiving so clear-eyed, clairvoyant even.
Hale saw the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving as the twin festivals of the American people, “each connected with their history, and therefore of great importance in giving power and distinctness to their nationality,” as she put it in an 1852 editorial.
July Fourth celebrated national independence and liberty, while Thanksgiving acknowledged God “as the dispenser of blessings.” She argued that “these two festivals should be joyfully and universally observed throughout our whole country, and thus incorporated in our habits of thought as inseparable from American life.”
Of course, Thanksgiving had existed on these shores long before Hale took it up as a cause. Her description of a New England Thanksgiving feast in her 1827 novel Northwood would have been recognized by Norman Rockwell, and could apply with equal accuracy to the average American home today. She described the table “now intended for the whole household, every child having a seat on this occasion; and the more the better.”
“The roasted turkey took precedence,” she wrote, “being placed at the head of the table; and well did it become its lordly station, sending forth the rich odor of its savory stuffing, and finely covered with the froth of the basting.”
The dessert course is almost as recognizable: “There was a huge plum pudding, custards and pies of every name and description ever known in Yankee land; yet the pumpkin pie occupied the most distinguished niche.”
Thanksgiving had always been held in autumn, Hale explains in the book, “the time when the overflowing garners of America call for this expression of joyful gratitude.” But different states held it on different days, and the holiday tradition was strongest in New England. Hale wanted to guarantee Thanksgiving’s place in America’s firmament by making it a national day.
She quoted the 19th-century British writer Robert Southey in making her case. “Festivals, when duly observed, attach men to the civil and religious institutions of their country,” he wrote. “Who is there who does not recollect their effect upon himself in early life?”
Hale understood the particular pull of Thanksgiving. She wrote in 1837, “It is a festival which will never become obsolete, for it cherishes the best affections of the heart — the social and domestic ties.” (Although her faith in family bonds, re-fortified around the Thanksgiving table, might have been a touch naïve: “How can we hate our Mississippi brother-in-law? And who is a better fellow than our wife’s uncle from St. Louis?”)
In her 1852 editorial, she predicted that “wherever an American is found, the last Thursday would be the Thanksgiving Day. Families may be separated so widely that personal reunion would be impossible; still this festival, like the Fourth of July, will bring every American heart into harmony with his home and his country.” And so it does, still.
— Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review
Thanksgiving holiday was created by a Republican president. Prior to that, two democrat and two whig party presidents turned down the request. Just more proof that democrats are wicked.
We are very proud of her here in New Hampshire.
And the brilliant Hannity was mocking the Jay Leno Man on the street people for not knowing it was George Washington.
Guess he doesn’t know the difference between a proclamation and a National Holiday.
This is one of the beginnings of the slippery slope. People decided that something was good and desirable and the Constitution was an impediment and changing it was just too long and too hard so they just ran around it.
[New York, 3 October 1789]Page Image.
By the President of the United States of America, a Proclamation.
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.
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.
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 shewn 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.
Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington
I didn't know that! Now I'll have to look up where all these national holidays came from. Was wishing President's Day would go back to being Washington and Lincoln's birthday holidays without a King holiday. But now, maybe just to have Washington's birthday holiday back (also without King's holiday).
Always thought it was more Lincoln’s idea, as a way to get the country back together celebrating a common heritage. And I never understood why the 1621 Massachusetts folks were celebrated more than the 1607 Virginia ones.
Then, there is the first President of the United States to issue a Thanksgiving Proclamation, John A Hansen.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/1771850/posts
Actually he was the third President after Samuel Huntington and Samuel Stockton. He was, although, the first President to fulfill the his entire term.
An interesting question regarding president(s) prior to 1789 is: When Geo Washington resigned his command of the Continental Army in 1789 to become the President, to whom did he tender his resignation?
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