Thanksgiving has always been my favorite holiday. Could any holiday be more American than this one? (Well the Fourth of July comes pretty close, doesn't it?) Anyway, since Thanksgiving dinner prep and work will keep me from blogging much of this week, I'm going to recycle an old blog about my favorite holiday:
On November 28, 1861, President Abraham Lincoln declared all government offices closed for a day of Thanksgiving. Magazine editor Sarah Josepha Hale suggested that
By the President of the
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 unequaled 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 defense, 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 consiousness 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
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the
Done at the City of
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State
http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm
3 comments:
Great blog! You are so... up on everything!
LOL yeah that's me -- on top of news from 140+ years ago *G*
Would ya put something new up, it's almost Christmas! ;)
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