Thanksgiving Remembered

Special Report - November 25, 2010
As families and friends gather in homes across the country to celebrate Thanksgiving this year, many are facing another year of difficulty—some financial in nature, many others of conscience and faith. It is encouraging to remember that this holiday was given a permanent place of importance in our national heritage by President Abraham Lincoln in the midst of what was arguably our country’s most difficult moment—the Civil War. On October 20, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln gave the following Thanksgiving Proclamation, establishing a permanent national Day of Thanksgiving.

It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life another year, defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to us new sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our working men in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage and resolution sufficient for great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of Freedom and Humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions.

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do, hereby, appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day, which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens wherever they may then be as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to Almighty God the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do farther recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust and from thence offer up penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of Peace, Union and Harmony throughout the land, which it has pleased him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.

The North Carolina Family Policy Council prays that you and your families will enjoy the blessing of time together—sharing faith, food, and fellowship this Thanksgiving. May we all remember that our many blessings and achievements, especially our families, freedoms, and material needs, are truly gifts from God to whom all glory and honor is due, and from whom all blessings flow.

Related resources:
Celebrating Thanksgiving in America - Wallbuilders, 2010
1887 Thanksgiving Proclamation - Wallbuilders, 2010
2010 Thanksgiving Proclamation - The White House, 2010

Copyright © 2010. North Carolina Family Policy Council. All rights reserved.