Thanksgiving Special (2023)

We might not celebrate Thanksgiving Day, as we do, if Abraham Lincoln had not responded to a letter from a lady named Sarah Hale.

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 and there is an enduring tale of members of the Wampanoag tribe joining with the new settlers in a feast. It is believed that they shared deer, lobster, fish, oysters, squash, carrots, and maize; and possibly turkey, duck and goose as one report said the men went “fowling”.

Over the next hundred and fifty years, there were occasional proclamations by civic and religious leaders which encouraged people to be thankful for a historical or recent special event, a good harvest, or even a political or military victory; but those were singular celebrations with no recurring annual similar holidays.

In 1777, while the Revolutionary War was still being waged and victory was uncertain, the Continental Congress issued a proclamation designating Thursday December 18, as a Day of Solemn Thanksgiving.

Then, on October 3, 1789, President George Washington proclaimed a Thanksgiving Day for Thursday, November 26. However, since Washington was not prone to issue any type of religious orders, he began the proclamation with this disclaimer, “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 November holiday. Also, several Governors proclaimed Thanksgiving Days, but they were scattered all over the calendar.

In 1830, a determined woman named Sarah Josepha Buell Hale made it her personal mission to have an annual National Day of Thanksgiving! She was a well-known editor and novelist, who wrote Mary had a Little Lamb, and who also wrote, in 1828, a popular novel, “Northwood, Life in the North and the South” in which she envisioned a future of regional reconciliation after an end to slavery. This was nearly twenty-five years before Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the more impassioned and successful anti-slavery novel “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”  For thirty years, Sarah used her public persona to lobby individual states and Congress to declare a Thanksgiving Day and, by 1860, thirty-one states had done so; however, she had no success with Congress or with the four Presidents who preceded Lincoln . As editor of the popular Godey’s Lady Book and The Ladies Magazine, she and her readers continued to “encourage” (her word) and “pester” (one congressman’s word) national politicians to establish a specific day for Thanksgiving. 

Then, Abraham Lincoln became President and in the midst of a Civil War that continued with no victory in sight, in 1861 he and his Secretary of State, William Seward, decided to issue a proclamation requesting the nation’s citizens pray for guidance.  And then, in April 1863, the two men collaborated to issue another proclamation for prayer.

But soon, Lincoln would have to deal with Mrs. Hale! She knew that he had issued the two earlier proclamations for prayer, however, 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 late summer, 1863, she wrote of her hopes in a letter to President Lincoln, which he promptly shared with William Seward, and he asked Seward to draft a Presidential Proclamation which would include the universal and conciliatory themes that Sarah Hale had proposed.  Lincoln only made a few changes to Seward’s draft which, for the first time, established a fixed date of the last Thursday in November for the national observance. The two men issued “Thanksgiving Proclamations” in November 1863 and again in 1864.

Seward was a devout Episcopalian and his wording tended to be more ecclesiastical, while Lincoln, who was no less spiritual, tended to use simpler terms. Between them, they produced four memorable documents. The reader can find the full proclamations by searching for (1) 1861 Proclamation for Prayer, (2) April 1863 Proclamation for Prayer, (3) 1863 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation, and (4) 1864 Thanksgiving Day Proclamation.

(Note that Congress later adopted a resolution making Thanksgiving the fourth Thursday in November to avoid confusion in those infrequent years when there are five Thursdays in the month.)

However, because of an assassin’s bullet on April 14, 1865, the 1864 proclamation became President Lincoln’s last. On the other hand, Sarah Hale lived to see her vision become a treasured special day “to be thankful for the blessings of life.”  By Thanksgiving Day 1865, the Civil War had ended and a Constitutional Amendment to abolish slavery was nearing ratification by the states; however, unfortunately, Abraham Lincoln did not get to see the changes. That year’s Thanksgiving proclamation was issued, unenthusiastically, by Andrew Johnson, who succeeded Lincoln as President.

But as Mrs. Hale, Lincoln, and Seward had wished, the National Day of Thanksgiving is still observed across all lines that, on other matters, may divide us; such as geography, ethnicity, religion, and politics. Hopefully, in a year of serious political divisions, we will try to honor that message as we celebrate this special holiday.

My family will celebrate this special Day and be “Thankful for the blessings of life” as Mrs. Hale and Abraham Lincoln hoped. I hope you also have a wonderful, and reflective, Thanksgiving Day. Abe would!