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Remembering Thanksgiving & Why
The proclamation of Abraham Lincoln
October 3,1893
The year that is drawing its close,has been Filled with the blessings of fruitful feilds 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 of so extraordinary 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 od unequalrd 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 diversion of wealth and strength from the feilds 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 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,rejocing in the conciousness of augumented strength and vigor,is permited to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.No human counsel hath devised nor hath any moral 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 neverless remembered mercy.It has seemed to me fit and proper that they shoulkd 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 recomend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due Him for such singular deliverence and blessings,they do also,with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, comend 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 frevently 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 Devine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace,harmony,tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed,
Presindent Abraham Lincoln
October 3,1893
The year that is drawing its close,has been Filled with the blessings of fruitful feilds 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 of so extraordinary 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 od unequalrd 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 diversion of wealth and strength from the feilds 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 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,rejocing in the conciousness of augumented strength and vigor,is permited to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.No human counsel hath devised nor hath any moral 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 neverless remembered mercy.It has seemed to me fit and proper that they shoulkd 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 recomend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due Him for such singular deliverence and blessings,they do also,with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, comend 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 frevently 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 Devine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace,harmony,tranquility and Union.
In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and cause the Seal of the United States to be affixed,
Presindent Abraham Lincoln
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