Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation

Unless you homeschool and teach your children accurate history, then it's been a long time since many of us were in school and studied the writings of President Abraham Lincoln. Or maybe you, dear reader, are not a citizen of the United States of America and have no idea of the beginnings of this national holiday. Tomorrow, we celebrate one of our most-loved holidays ~ Thanksgiving. In most homes, is it a day of family get-togethers with yummy, traditional American foods like turkey, mashed potatoes & gravy, green beans, corn, rolls; desserts of many kinds but tradition holds out for pumpkin pie ~ with emphasis on the turkey and pumpkin pie with a little bit of football for good measure. :-)

But the greatest emphasis for the day in our family ~ and many other Americans on this holiday ~ is that of THANKFULNESS. Thankfulness for our great country and the freedoms will have enjoyed during our 236 year history and hope to keep ~ but mostly, the recognizing from WHOM they come from. Almighty God. THE One True God of heaven and earth. Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer of all.

To Him, we are eternally grateful for all He has done for ourselves and for our great country.

In remembrance of the celebration of Thanksgiving Day, here is the Proclamation that President Abraham Lincoln wrote on October 3rd, 1863, establishing the last Thursday of November as a national day of thanksgiving to God Almighty for the blessings He has bestowed upon our great nation . . .

 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
(/insurance)
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

Blessings and Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours . . . Kim<><