Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-11-24
The scattered sheaves Of home and KIM


The scattered sheaves OF home and kim
in every State of the Union, making one
grand family reunion occasion of all the
families that compose our brotherhood OF
States. When it was New England alone
that enjoyed the festival, there were
friends in the Southern, Western and Pa
cific States excluded from It's enjoyments,
and the thought diminished our own pleas
ure in some degree. To-day we all re-
joice and give thanks together for the
blessings Of Providence through the year
As nation we send up tribute OF CRATE
full hearts for plenty and peace, prosperity
and happiness. No matter how or where
the custom originated, it is one that is
founded on the best principles of human
nature, and worthy of adoption wherever
the family relation exists or dependence
upon Providence is felt and acknowledged.
What can better mark the good father and
the devout thoughtful man, than at the
close Of the active labors Of the year gath
ering his family far and near around bis
well filled board, and reverently, joyfully,
acknowledging and sharing with them the
bounties of the Giver of all the good things
of the season? To the rebellion are we
indebted for the spread of this holiday in
stitution as for the extension of human
freedom throughout our domain, and may
it knit together In closer bonds the ties
that bind State to State and all in one
Union, as it draws together the members
of the individual family.
The pleasures Of the Thanksgiving
which we hold to-day will be married by no
thoughts of national Affections. The har-
vest is'plenteous. Our granaries are full
of the products of the year. We have
enough and to spare. No part Of our
country is suffering from scarcity. There
are are none with the ability to work who
may not find renumeratiye employment,
while the means of relief to the needy and
suffering poor were never more generous.
No pestlence has swept over our homes
and clothed them in mourning Health
has reigned through the year. We have
been blessed with wise and economical
government The public debt--the bur-
den imposed upon us by the rebellion
has been steadily reduced, while at the
same time taxation has been reduced also
We are at peace with all the world. While
blood is flowing in rivers upon the other
continent, and the war clouds over Etl-
rope grow blaeker and blacker, we are
undisturbed, except as spectators and
sympathizers, by the terrific conflict, and
are able to give our attention entirely to
the arts and labors of peace. Even the
wild Indian has been pacified by gentle
and fair treatment and has buried the
Ratchet, while the wide plains over which
his dominion extended are becoming sub
ject to civilization. With all these rea-
sons for thankfulness at our condition we
may enjoy the privileges Of the occasion
to the fullest extent. Happy the family
that can gather in unbroken numbers at
the homestead to-day. Happy the nation
that from the dust aud smoke Of the recent
conflict can see the States united under one
banner, and all the people in them joining
to-day in difference to the proclamation Of
the President OF the United States TO rem
der praise FOR the common blessings of the
year.