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Abraham Lincoln Thanksgiving Proclamation
Abraham Lincoln | October 3, 1863 | Abraham Lincoln

Posted on 11/28/2024 7:45:10 AM PST by Retain Mike

Washington, D.C. October 3, 1863

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 unequalled 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 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 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 battlefield; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness 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, tranquility 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 United States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; Education; History
KEYWORDS: abraham; lincoln; thanksgiving

1 posted on 11/28/2024 7:45:10 AM PST by Retain Mike
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To: Retain Mike

In other words, if the North hadn’t invaded the South in 1861 there would be no Thanksgiving.


2 posted on 11/28/2024 7:55:37 AM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: BenLurkin

It is interesting to speculate about what might have happened if Jeff Davis had prevented South Carolina from firing on Fort Sumpter. That gave Lincoln the provocation he needed to institute a blockade and call for volunteers. The peaceful seizure of other federal facilities had not provoked a military response. Then Jeff Davis could have still gone to Washington.


3 posted on 11/28/2024 8:46:20 AM PST by Retain Mike ( Sat Cong)
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To: BenLurkin

It was the war of northern aggression. The south wanted to live in peace, but Lincoln would have none of that.


4 posted on 11/28/2024 9:34:58 AM PST by DownInFlames (P)
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To: DownInFlames; All

You losers can’t even stop on the UNITED STATES 2nd most important holiday. Get th3 hell out of my Country if you hate it so much. SAME AS THE LEFT.


5 posted on 11/28/2024 9:49:11 AM PST by cowboyusa (YESHUA IS KING OF AMERICA, AND HE WILL HAVE NO OTHER GODS BEFORE HIM!)
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