The New York herald., 1872-10-13

Day for . Universal Celebration.
The President of the United States has
issued his proclamation recommending ma
tional day of Thanksgiving, and Thursday, the
2Sth day Of November next, as the day. In
support Of this proclamation he most truly
says that ''if any one people has more occasion
than another for thankfulness to Almighty
God for His mercies and His blessings, it is
the citizens of the United States, whose gov
ernment is their creature, subject to their
behests, who have reserved to themselves
ample civil and religious freedom and equality
before the law-who. during the last twelve
months have enjoyed exemption from any
grievous or general calamity, and to whom
prosperity in agriculture, manufactures and
commerce has been vouchsafed." Therefore
he recommends that on the day named 'the
people meet in their respective places OF wor-
ship, and there make their Acknowledgements
to God for his kindness and bounty"
We have here q grateful and beautiful theme
for Sabbath morning discourse to our read
ers. Let us briefly consider it. And first of
all the inquiry occurs as to the origin of this
institution of national day of thanksgiving.
It comes to us among the rich fruits gathered
from our late terrible civil war. Before the
war Thanksgiving Day. as a regular annual
festival, was limited to the North, and was not
much observed in the good old Puritan spirit
Of happy social reunions and devout flial
gratitude beyond the New England States. It
is to President Lincoln, native Kentuckian
and free thinker, if you please, thatwe are
indebted for the example Of national proc
which has made Thanksgiving Day
regular national festival. The Southern dog
mas Of State sovereignty, from the time of
Jefferson down to our late Southern rebellion,
were things not to be trifed with by the Presi-
dent of the United States, even in the matter
Of q national thanksgiving; and SO from JEFF
ferson to Lincoln our Presidents did not think
Of assuming the doubtful constitutional power
even to recommend national Thanksgiving
day. 1t would be trenching upon the forbid
den ground of State sovereignty to venture upon
such recommendation. But in undertaking
to make good, through the ordeal Of battle,
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ereign authority Of the United States, at home
as we'll as abroad, the logical Lincoln, as
President Of the United States, bravely ven
tured upon the recommendation of common
day Of thanksgiving to all the people thereof;
and General Grant in this year s proclamation
is simply following in the footsteps Of his
'illustrious predecessor"
Such, we may say, is the origin and the
establishment Of this beautiful and benefcent
institution among us as regular national fes-
tival. Of course the Governors of the States
are still free respectively to recommend some
other day than that named by the President,
and the people of each State are free to make
their own choice; but in view Of that grand
idea that the people of the United States are
one people and that their President represents
them in this capacity and their general desire,
and their sovereign authority, our State Gov
ernors, as they have hitherto done, will doubt
less in this case in their proclamations adopt
the day suggested by the President We hope,
too, that the Governors of our restored South
ern States, this year more generally than here
tofore, will fall in with the Presidents propo-
sition, for in doing SO they will furnish tes-
timonial of o spirit Of sectional reconciliation
which will have powerful influence in behalf
of generosity towards the South over the still
doubling minds Of the North.
We have said that this national thanksgiv-
ing, as regular yearly festival in the United
States, was inaugurated by President Lincoln;
but the origin Of the institution dates back to
Moses, that divinely inspired leader and law
giver Of the children Of Israel. Thus, among
ance, and recited in the seventh chapter of
Leviticus, it was ordained:-"Also, in the if-
teenth day Of the seventh month, when We
have gathered in the fruit Of the land, We shall
keep feast unto the Lord seven days: On the
first day shall be Sabbath, and on the eighth
day shall be Sabbath" &c. When the
Israelites were yet wandering in the desert
wilderness between Egypt and their Promised
Land this law, among the others of the code
of Moses-that fountain Of law to which we
are SO much indebted-was given them.
President Grant, however, on the broad
American ground OF religious equality-thank
God $50 shapes his proclamation as to cover
Jews and Gentiles; and this is as it should be.
Passing over his remarks upon this subject
without further commentary, we come to his
observations on the blessings which we, as a
people, have enjoyed during the last twelve
months, in ''our exemption from any grievous
or general calamity and in our general pros
perity ''in agriculture, manufactures and
commerce. Last year, in the month Of Octo-
Der, by those terrible fires in the West, by one
Of which the beautiful city Of Chicago was
nearly destroyed, and by others Of which in
the forests and prairies Of Michigan, Wis
consin, Minnesota, Iowa and Dakota, ex-
tensive districts were laid waste, many Ives
were lost, and thousands Of men, women and
childrAn wera 1aft doof;t,,fa s,A d;d o., fFo~ ~