The American holiday celebrated as Thanksgiving Day has
its origins in the Civil War Thanksgiving Proclamations of President Abraham Lincoln.
The most famous one was written in October 1863. It proclaims a national day of
thanksgiving for the last Thursday in the upcoming month of November. The first national
day of thanksgiving was proclaimed by President George Washington on October 3, 1789 and
was to be celebrated on Thursday, November 26, 1789. Lincoln followed Washington's
example for national days of thanksgiving during the Civil War. One such day was
declared in a proclamation dated href="http://books.google.com/books?id=im4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=abraham+lincoln+official+papers&source=bl&ots=75p9fnNBkP&sig=Qxs96_fr6EYNuzcvZXve55doSRs&hl=en&ei=ITdoTeaTLMP_lgfN9cX_AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&sqi=2&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=thanksgiving&f=false">July
15, 1863, with a national day of thanksgiving set for the upcoming 6th of
August. It was "to be observed as a day for National Thanksgiving, praise, and prayer"
with "the people of the United States" assembled ...
on that occasion in their customary
places of worship ... [to] render the homage due to the Divine Majesty ... and invoke
the influence of his Holy Spirit, to subdue the anger ... [of] a needless and cruel
rebellion. ( href="http://books.google.com/books?id=im4FAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=abraham+lincoln+official+papers&source=bl&ots=75p9fnNBkP&sig=Qxs96_fr6EYNuzcvZXve55doSRs&hl=en&ei=ITdoTeaTLMP_lgfN9cX_AQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&sqi=2&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=thanksgiving&f=false">245)
On
href="http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm">September
28, 1863, Lincoln received a letter from the editor of Godey's
Lady's Book, importuning him to establish a permanent annual
national day of thanksgiving. The 74-year-old editor Sarah Josepha Hale had been
agitating for a national thanksgiving through her editorials for 15 years. Lincoln
immediately adopted her idea and on October 3, 1863 set forth his most famous
Thanksgiving Proclamation. Lincoln's final href="http://books.google.com/books?id=I_0cTQo8t7oC&pg=PA266&lpg=PA266&dq=Proclamation+of+Thanksgiving+++October+20,+1864++By+the+President+of+the+United+States+of+America:&source=bl&ots=pYEkXIR3jY&sig=Y64tvf1Y748W9EcsUBZqGTDGlJI&hl=en&ei=h3JoTdHNENHPgAeEwaDLCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Proclamation%20of%20Thanksgiving%20%20%20October%2020%2C%201864%20%20By%20the%20President%20of%20the%20United%20States%20of%20America%3A&f=false">October
20, 1864 Proclamation fixed Thanksgiving Day as permanent ( href="http://books.google.com/books?id=I_0cTQo8t7oC&pg=PA266&lpg=PA266&dq=Proclamation+of+Thanksgiving+++October+20,+1864++By+the+President+of+the+United+States+of+America:&source=bl&ots=pYEkXIR3jY&sig=Y64tvf1Y748W9EcsUBZqGTDGlJI&hl=en&ei=h3JoTdHNENHPgAeEwaDLCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDYQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=Proclamation%20of%20Thanksgiving%20%20%20October%2020%2C%201864%20%20By%20the%20President%20of%20the%20United%20States%20of%20America%3A&f=false">267)
to remember "Freedom and Humanity" and "Peace, Union and Harmony." Some of the language
of the href="http://showcase.netins.net/web/creative/lincoln/speeches/thanks.htm">October
1863 Proclamation says:
the country, rejoicing ... is permitted to
expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. ... the gracious gifts of
the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless
remembered mercy. ... I do therefore ... set apart and observe the last Thursday of
November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise ... [and] with humble penitence for
our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to [Him] ... widows, orphans,
mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife ... [that] the Almighty Hand ...
heal the wounds ... to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and
Union.
How, when, why, and
through whom Lincoln's National Day of Thanksgiving became disassociated from Lincoln,
freedom, and Union--all central to the Civil War--and re-associated with the October
harvest feast of thanksgiving celebrated by the Pilgrims in mid-October of 1621 is
unclear--but become disassociated and re-associated it did. Lincoln's thanksgiving for
the preservation of the Union and for an increase in freedom and its attendant liberty
and equality has been buried under turkeys and Pilgrims. One common thread remains
however: Lincoln did eat turkey in the White House on his national days of thanksgiving,
praise, and prayer.
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