Thanksgiving and Prayer Proclamations
Lincoln's Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863
National Fast Day 1863
Washington's Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving, 1789
Governor Bradford's Thanksgiving Pronouncement, 1623
Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1676
Psalm 100
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AD 1863
Proclamation
of Thanksgiving
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 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 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
William H. Seward, Secretary of State
For more information, see Abraham Lincoln Association
Proclamation Appointing
a National Fast Day [1]
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March 30, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority
and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations,
has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day
for National prayer and humiliation:
And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence
upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions,
in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to
mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy
Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose
God is the Lord:
And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are
subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly
fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may
be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful
end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients
of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years,
in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other
nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious
hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened
us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all
these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel
the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God
that made us!
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess
our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the
views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart
Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting
and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day,
from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places
of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the
Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to
that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the
hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will
be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our
national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country,
to its former happy condition of unity and peace.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United
States to be affixed.
[L. S.]
Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence
of the United States the eighty seventh.
By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN
WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.
Annotation
[1] DS, DNA FS RG 11, Proclamations. The Senate Resolution requesting the president
to proclaim a day for ``national prayer and humiliation'' was introduced by
Senator James Harlan on March 2, and adopted on March 3, 1863.
Proclamation of a National Day of Thanksgiving
AD 1789
Whereas it is
the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty
God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and
humbly to implore His protection and favor; and
Whereas both Houses of Congress have, by their joint committee requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness":
Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the Beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is , or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquillity, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted; for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our national government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace, and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best.
Given under my hand, at the city of New York,
the 3rd day of October, AD 1789
George Washington
Governor Bradford’s Thanksgiving Pronouncement
AD 1623
Inasmuch as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat, peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetables, and has made the forests to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us from the ravages of the savages, has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience.
Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.
William Bradford Ye Governor of Ye Colony, AD 1623
1676 Thanksgiving Proclamation
"The Holy God having by a long and Continual Series of his Afflictive dispensations in and by the present Warr with the Heathen Natives of this land, written and brought to pass bitter things against his own Covenant people in this wilderness, yet so that we evidently discern that in the midst of his judgements he hath remembered mercy, having remembered his Footstool in the day of his sore displeasure against us for our sins, with many singular Intimations of his Fatherly Compassion, and regard; reserving many of our Towns from Desolation Threatened, and attempted by the Enemy, and giving us especially of late with many of our Confederates many signal Advantages against them, without such Disadvantage to ourselves as formerly we have been sensible of, if it be the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, It certainly bespeaks our positive Thankfulness, when our Enemies are in any measure disappointed or destroyed; and fearing the Lord should take notice under so many Intimations of his returning mercy, we should be found an Insensible people, as not standing before Him with Thanksgiving, as well as lading him with our Complaints in the time of pressing Afflictions:
The Council has thought meet to appoint and set
apart the 29th day of this instant June, as a day of Solemn
Thanksgiving and praise to God for such his Goodness and Favour,
many Particulars of which mercy might be Instanced, but we doubt
not those who are sensible of God's Afflictions, have been as
diligent to espy him returning to us; and that the Lord may
behold us as a People offering Praise and thereby glorifying Him;
the Council doth commend it to the Respective Ministers, Elders
and people of this Jurisdiction; Solemnly and seriously to keep
the same Beseeching that being persuaded by the mercies of God we
may all, even this whole people offer up our bodies and souls as
a living and acceptable Service unto God by Jesus Christ."
A Psalm for Giving Thanks
1 Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.
3 Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his ; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.
