Rather than providing a list of the people, places, and circumstances for which I am immensely grateful… a list that lengthens with each passing day… I thought instead to reflect on two foundational Thanksgiving proclamations issued by our greatest presidents: George Washington and Abraham Lincoln.
What I found in their words resonated within me as they must have when first proclaimed… maybe even more so considering the turmoil and strife in country and world today.
What struck me beyond their power and eloquence was the linking of thanksgiving and prayer: Giving thanks for the many favors bestowed by God, and prayers for continued blessings for our nation and people, and guidance for those who lead us.
Specifically:
The Thanksgiving proclamation offered by George Washington on October 3, 1789, was barely 6 months into his first presidency and in the formative years of the new nation.
Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation establishing a national Thanksgiving holiday was issued October 3, 1863, to help unite the country in the midst of a brutal civil war.
Excerpts from Washington’s proclamation:
“That we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks…for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness…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 all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.
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 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 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.
Echoes in Lincoln’s words, excerpted from the proclamation for a day of “Thanksgiving and Praise:”
They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God…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…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, tranquility, and union.
Not much I can add, or want to add… other than:
Amen.
Wishing you all the best of this most precious season,
Peter
George Washington's complete proclamation:
Abraham Lincoln's proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving and Praise:
https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/proclamation-106-thanksgiving-day-1863
