This is the proclamation which set the
precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving. During his
administration, President Lincoln issued many orders similar to this. For
example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a
local day of thanksgiving.
Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine
editor, wrote a letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the
"day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival."
She explained, "You may have observed that, for some years past, there has
been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on
the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and
authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and
institution."
Prior to this, each state scheduled its own
Thanksgiving holiday at different times, mainly in New England and other
Northern states. President Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale's request immediately,
unlike several of his predecessors, who ignored her petitions altogether. In
her letter to Lincoln she mentioned that she had been advocating a national
thanksgiving date for 15 years as the editor of Godey's Lady's Book. George Washington was the first president to proclaim a day of
thanksgiving, issuing his request on October 3, 1789, exactly 74 years before
Lincoln's.
The document below sets apart the last
Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise." According
to an April 1, 1864, letter from John Nicolay, one of President Lincoln's
secretaries, this document was written by Secretary of State William Seward,
and the original was in his handwriting. On October 3, 1863, fellow Cabinet
member Gideon Welles recorded in his diary how he complimented Seward on his
work. A year later the manuscript was sold to benefit Union troops.
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 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 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 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 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 Unites States the
Eighty-eighth.
By the President:
Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward,
Secretary of State
From: Abraham Lincoln
Online
