Kernopelli
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Oct 16, 2006
- Messages
- 2,209
- Location
- Carterville, Illinois
- Tractor
- Mitsubishi MTE2000D, Dig It 258 Mini Ex, Deere Z930A ZTR
I felt this may be the best forum to post this. My post here may ruffle a few feathers but I hope you will take just a one minute to read a little about this day and how precious it is to our country and it's leaders through history....it is very insightful. I am not fishing for political rants here, so please reserve them. I just want to point out how and why it was meant to be observed. I can't imagine the backlash that would result if a recent president were to say this publicly today?
The origins of Thanksgiving
The first Thanksgiving celebration, in 1621, lasted three days. Plymouth Colony's Governor William Bradford, issued a thanksgiving proclamation, and for three days the Pilgrims feasted with their Indian guests on wild turkey and venison.
Days of thanksgiving were celebrated sporadically until President George Washington proclaimed a nationwide day of thanksgiving on November 26, 1789. He made it clear that the day should be dedicated to prayer and giving thanks to God.
Due credit for finally establishing Thanksgiving Day as a lasting national holiday goes to Sarah J. Hale, editor and founder of the Ladies' Magazine. Her editorials and letters to President Abraham Lincoln resulted in Lincoln's proclamation, in 1863, designating the last Thursday in November as a national holiday of thanksgiving. Later, in 1941, Congress adopted a joint resolution setting the date on the fourth Thursday of November.
James Russell Lowell wrote an introduction to The Works of Abraham Lincoln, State Papers, 1861-1865 (edited by John H. Clifford and Marion M. Miller, The University Society, New York, 1908, Vol. 6). In it Lowell describes the terrible conditions facing the Union and Mr. Lincoln. He especially addresses the notion that from that time forward the South and North would experience increasing difficulty feeling at ease and comfortable with one another. It was a sad time.
Note part of the "Proclamation of Thanksgiving" that President Lincoln delivered October 20, 1863: "It has pleased almighty God to prolong our national life another year. Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday of 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 further 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" (ibid., p. 166).
The origins of Thanksgiving
The first Thanksgiving celebration, in 1621, lasted three days. Plymouth Colony's Governor William Bradford, issued a thanksgiving proclamation, and for three days the Pilgrims feasted with their Indian guests on wild turkey and venison.
Days of thanksgiving were celebrated sporadically until President George Washington proclaimed a nationwide day of thanksgiving on November 26, 1789. He made it clear that the day should be dedicated to prayer and giving thanks to God.
Due credit for finally establishing Thanksgiving Day as a lasting national holiday goes to Sarah J. Hale, editor and founder of the Ladies' Magazine. Her editorials and letters to President Abraham Lincoln resulted in Lincoln's proclamation, in 1863, designating the last Thursday in November as a national holiday of thanksgiving. Later, in 1941, Congress adopted a joint resolution setting the date on the fourth Thursday of November.
James Russell Lowell wrote an introduction to The Works of Abraham Lincoln, State Papers, 1861-1865 (edited by John H. Clifford and Marion M. Miller, The University Society, New York, 1908, Vol. 6). In it Lowell describes the terrible conditions facing the Union and Mr. Lincoln. He especially addresses the notion that from that time forward the South and North would experience increasing difficulty feeling at ease and comfortable with one another. It was a sad time.
Note part of the "Proclamation of Thanksgiving" that President Lincoln delivered October 20, 1863: "It has pleased almighty God to prolong our national life another year. Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do hereby appoint and set apart the last Thursday of 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 further 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" (ibid., p. 166).
Last edited:
