Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Hope
Lincoln’s Hope for Thanksgiving Day
Most of us today, and possibly even Abraham Lincoln as a child, were taught that Pilgrims in North America declared a Day of Thanksgiving in 1621 to celebrate their first harvest.
Certainly, Lincoln knew that, in 1779, President George Washington proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day for Thursday, November 26, writing, “Both houses of Congress have requested me to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed.” Thereafter, a few Presidents issued Thanksgiving Proclamations; however, none designated a recurring holiday and the reasons were varied, such as a military victory or anniversary of an event.
The idea of a special day for spiritual reflection did not originate with Abraham Lincoln, but he embraced the concept when he received a petition from a determined woman named Sarah Buell Hale! She was a well-known editor, novelist, and poet, who, for thirty years, had used her public platform to lobby Congress and Presidents to declare a national Thanksgiving Day. By 1860, although thirty-one states had done so; she had no success with Congress or with the four Presidents who preceded Lincoln. She wanted a designated day “for all Americans to put aside sectional feelings and local incidents” and “to be thankful for the blessings of life, not of war.” In 1861 Mrs. Hale wrote of her hopes in a letter to President Lincoln, and she finally found a receptive leader who also believed in the universal and conciliatory themes that she had proposed. In August 1861, when the awful realities of the Civil War were becoming evident, Lincoln felt that the American people might be comforted by a special day on which they would turn to their religious faith, in whatever forms that may take, to ask for guidance in restoring the forefathers’ vision for the United States. Then, in the following years, he issued three more Thanksgiving Proclamations, two in 1863 and one in 1864, but only the last two set aside a date in November.
Some of the phrases in the four proclamations, co-written by Lincoln and Secretary of State William Seward, are still inspirational today.
“..And, whereas our own beloved country, once by the blessing of God, united, prosperous, and happy, is now afflicted with faction and Civil War……(I urge) all ministers and teachers of religion of all denominations and the heads of all families to observe and keep that day according to their creeds and modes of worship.”
“.We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity….But we have forgotten God.…We have vainly imagined….that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own… And I do request that all the people abstain that day from their ordinary secular pursuits and to unite at their several places of public worship and in their respective homes…..(and pray for) the restoration of our now divided and suffering country…”
In October 1863, Lincoln’s third Thanksgiving proclamation read, “… In the midst of Civil War of unequaled magnitude and severity, peace has been preserved with all (other) nations… and harmony has been preserved except in the theater of military conflict; while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union…(That last portion was decried by Southern politicians and newspaper editors). .... I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens to…observe the last Thursday in November as a Day of Thanksgiving. And I recommend to them that they commend to His tender care those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged and implore the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and restore…..the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union.” For the first time, A November date was set and the phrase “A Day of Thanksgiving” was specifically included!
Then, in October 1864, President Lincoln, by then reasonably assured that the long war would end with a Union victory, issued a new Thanksgiving Day proclamation. He wrote; “…..(God) has been pleased to inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of Civil War into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity…Therefore I set apart the last Thursday in November as a day …of Thanksgiving and praise, offer up penitence and prayers for a return of the inestimable blessings of peace, union, and harmony throughout the land.”
However, there would never be another Thanksgiving proclamation from Abraham Lincoln. Six months later, he would die at the hand of an assassin.
On a personal note, I like to think that, if he had lived, he would have continued these proclamations through the next three years of his Presidency. And afterward, as a private citizen at his home in Springfield, he would have continued to honor the special Day of Thanksgiving which he, Secretary Seward and Sarah Hale had joined together to create.
Hopefully, we can all find a few moments to honor Lincoln’s Thanksgiving message as we celebrate this special holiday.
Have a wonderful, and reflective, Thanksgiving Day. Abe would!