Our current resident in the White House was not the first to want to transform
the fundamentals of America. It happened before at a time when traditions still
mattered. George Washington set aside Thursday the 26th of November 1789
a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted 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.” Reflecting American religious practice and tradition.
While Washington did not set a specific day for the celebration each year it was
an important step in establishing a tradition a tradition in the United States.
In 1863 Lincoln proclaimed the 4rth Thursday of November as the official
National day for Thanksgiving.
Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a
letter to Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the “day of our
annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Festival.” She explained, “You may
have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest
felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the
States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to
become permanently, an American custom and institution.”
Prior to this, each state scheduled its own Thanksgiving
holiday at different times, mainly in New England and other Northern states.
President Lincoln responded to Mrs. Hale’s request immediately, unlike several
of his predecessors, who ignored her petitions altogether. In her letter to
Lincoln she mentioned that she had been advocating a national thanksgiving date
for 15 years as the editor of Godey’s Lady’s Book. George Washington was
the first president to proclaim a day of thanksgiving, issuing his request on
October 3, 1789, exactly 74 years before Lincoln’s. Now the fourth Thursday of
November would be national recognized as a day of Thanksgiving. Lincoln’s
proclamation was not in perpetuity but it set a precedent and the people agreed
and so a tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of November
was established.
In 1939 Roosevelt ignored this established tradition and
moved Thanksgiving up a week responding to pressure from larger retailers who
wants to expand the Christmas Shopping Season by an additional week. While
Roosevelt celebrated Thanksgiving on November 23, 1939 states and private
citizen ignored his proclamation to hold fast to the traditional date of the 4th
Thursday of November. Changing this traditional observation of Thanksgiving
became controversial because it mattered to many Americans. Thousands of
letters poured in the White House complaining about this betrayal of American
Tradition. Roosevelt continued to ignore the people for two more years before
Congress intervened on behalf of the people and the country returned to the
traditional celebration of Thanksgiving on the 4th Thursday of November.
It mattered to the people and they made their voices heard.
It mattered to the states and they stood up to this violation of American
Traditional Values. The pressure was such that congress was forced to abide by
the will of the people to hold fast to the Traditional American
Values.The original House Resolution 41 of 1941
attempted to set the date as the last Thursday of November but was amended by
the Senate to set the more traditional 4th Thursday as a day set aside as the
National Day of Thanksgiving.
Imagine, such outrage over moving a holiday…one that most
Americans knew was not traditionally observed on the actual day of the first
Thanksgiving. That wasn’t the point – this day had been set apart to recognize
that first Thanksgiving and it was important to the people. Today, the assault
on traditional American Values is under assault. There has never been a time in
American History when Faith and Family have seen such open hostility but the
same pressure from the people demanding their leaders uphold Traditional
American Values seems to no longer exist except for a small remnant of American
Society. While we have been indoctrinated to accept a false pretense of
separation of church and state, Washington’s Proclamation demonstrates no such
recognition. Here is that Thanksgiving Proclamation of Thanksgiving by
Washington:
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 day 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 favor, able 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 trangressions; 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 third day of October in
the year of our Lord 1789.
Lincoln’s proclamation followed this same recognition:
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.
Revisionists have sought to ignore and discredit the role of
Faith Principles in the Founding of our nation but as John Adams said “Facts are
stubborn things!” Those same revisionists like to credit Roosevelt for
establishing a National Day of Thanksgiving when such an action was a result of
the pressure of the people upon their representatives. Traditions are
important, but equally important is knowing and understanding the reasons those
traditions exist. We need American Patriots to stand in the Gap to not only
preserve the traditions but to teach the meaning and purpose of such
traditions. Tomorrow Americans will gather on the 4th Thursday of November
because it mattered to our ancestors to preserve the Tradition because they
understood its meaning and purpose. Then intended that this meaning and purpose
be preserved for future generations and thanks to those Americans the Tradition
was preserved. For such dedication we should give thanks in a matter that
inspires us to preserve their actions in our own hearts and spirits.. Like
Lincoln, we implore the intervention of Divine Providence to assure that
traditional American Values of Faith and Family remain. We extends to our
member the best wishes for a blessed day of Thanksgiving and Praise fervently imploring 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 and, tranquility. We
offer prayers for those in military service and their families who can not be
reunited with their families this Thanksgiving.
God Bless
America!