From George Washington
General Thanksgiving
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 favour: And whereas both Houses have, by their
joint committee, requested me "to recommend to the people of the United
States, a DAY of PUBLICK THANKSGIVING and PRAYER, to be observed by
acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favours 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 TWENTY-SIXTH 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 favourable interpositions of his Providence 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; -
and in general, for all the great and various favours 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 publick 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 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 third day of October, in
the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.
George Washington
Note that the Lord that President Washington refers to is Jesus by signing at
the end, "in the year of our Lord". Also note in the last
paragraph, "..... by constantly being a government ....... to promote the
knowledge and practice of true religion ....".
Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation - 1863
It is the duty of nations as well as of men to owe their
dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and
transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance
will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in
Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose
God is the Lord.
We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals,
are subject to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justify
fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be
punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins; to the needful end of
our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of
heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have
grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we
have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in
peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly
imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were
produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with
unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of
redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God 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 as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who
dwelleth in the heavens.
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
