George Washington:
Thanksgiving
Proclamation, 1789Whereas 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 and 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 many 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 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 enabled do
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 the great
and various favors which He has been please 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
to us), and to bless them with good governments,
peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and
practice of true religion and virtue, and the
increase 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
3d day of October, AD 1789
George
Washington
_______________
Abraham
Lincoln:
Proclamation
of Thanksgiving, 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 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 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.
By the
President: Abraham Lincoln
William H.
Seward,
Secretary of State
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It is a good
thing to give thanks unto the LORD,
and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High...Psalm 92:1