Thanksgiving

After our countries day of Thanksgiving I felt it appropriate to post this to my blog because I am very thankful to God for all He has, is and will do for me, my family and our country and even the whole world if any will turn to Him. After the Psalm is the Proclamation from President Lincoln that set a National Holiday that gives praise to our God for His provision. May He always guard and guide our country and our homes and may we always be His as a country. Amen.

Psalm 34

American Standard Version (ASV)

A Psalm of David; when he changed his behavior before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed.

34 I will bless Jehovah at all times: His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

² My soul shall make her boast in Jehovah: The meek shall hear thereof, and be glad.
³ Oh magnify Jehovah with me, And let us exalt his name together.
⁴ I sought Jehovah, and he answered me, And delivered me from all my fears.
⁵ They looked unto him, and were radiant; And their faces shall never be confounded.
⁶ This poor man cried, and Jehovah heard him, And saved him out of all his troubles.
⁷ The angel of Jehovah encampeth round about them that fear him, And delivereth them.
⁸ Oh taste and see that Jehovah is good: Blessed is the man that taketh refuge in him.
⁹ Oh fear Jehovah, ye his saints; For there is no want to them that fear him.
¹⁰ The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger; But they that seek Jehovah shall not want any good thing.
¹¹ Come, ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of Jehovah.
¹² What man is he that desireth life, And loveth many days, that he may see good?
¹³ Keep thy tongue from evil, And thy lips from speaking guile.
¹⁴ Depart from evil, and do good; Seek peace, and pursue it.
¹⁵ The eyes of Jehovah are toward the righteous, And his ears are open unto their cry.
¹⁶ The face of Jehovah is against them that do evil, To cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.
¹⁷ The righteous cried, and Jehovah heard, And delivered them out of all their troubles.
¹⁸ Jehovah is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, And saveth such as are of a contrite spirit.
¹⁹ Many are the afflictions of the righteous; But Jehovah delivereth him out of them all.
²⁰ He keepeth all his bones: Not one of them is broken.
²¹ Evil shall slay the wicked; And they that hate the righteous shall be condemned.
²² Jehovah redeemeth the soul of his servants; And none of them that take refuge in him shall be condemned.

Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

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.

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