Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-11-26
Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day
The Puritans have the credit of organ z
ing the public school and giving it to tt,
country. Gerrit Smith, it is true, is lately
out with letter in which he claims tia
school and state, as well as church an.
state should be separate, and that educatioc
like religion, should be upheld By voluntary
contributions alone The firm and immov-
able bold the system has upon the people Is
brought home to everybody by the mere
statement of proposition to DO away with
it. Such a proposal strikes against tie
sense of the country as against rock.
There is only one other "peculiar inst
tuition " that our country receives from tie
grim-visaged men who dared New England
winters, knowing they could frown them
down. About the first thing the first lot of
them did was to thank God heartily that
they had landed on a New England rock in
December. That their thanksgiving should
grow into an institution and come to afford
national holiday, was not in their thoughts
They were glad for their safety and gave
thanks for it.
Gov. Winthrop appointed public thank =
giving in Massachusetts III 1851, and the
pra tice soon obtained of having regularly a
fast day in the springa and Thanksgiving d ~
in the fall. In some of the colonies labor
was forbidden by law, aud even at the pres
ent day the amount of work done is not
alarmingly large 10 quantity; but it is now
the willingness Of the sovereign people to
rest, and not the majesty of the law that
prevents toll. We could not, in the present
enlightened age, endure the severe pTOvls-
ions of sumptuary law " that should
force us to abstain from work and to partake
Of the well-d)ne turkey. The spirit of the
nineteenth century wants to observe thanks
giving day of its own free will and not as
being ordained to do it 1t is a little strange
that the one day on which the Puritans have
put their mark and which they had a right
to patent on, should be, of all days, the
one of most genial social intercourse, day
of hearty sympathy; one OF not happiness
alone, but of merrIment also. There must
have been warm hearts uuder the rough
husk, for they, leaving Rome and England,
kept but one fast day in their calendar, and
invented this day of general enjoyment and
rejoicing.
Christmas these settlers of New England
NUOO1h of IL had staIn Of
and prelacy to their minds. And it may be
that human nature gradually added to the
original characteristics of thanksgiving day
and supplied it with features that went far to1
make up for the nOn-Observance of Christ
mas. In one regard the present generation
may well claim an advance from the posi-
ton of its predecessors. The old soreness is
pretty much worn away, and Thanksgiving
and Christmas have come to be pretty good
friends with each other. Both are now fes-
rivals largely observed by nearly all den0mi-
nations, which is far better than when the
Puritans forbade Christmas festivities, and
when those who Joined in the latter despised
the thanksgiving turkey as plebeian bird.
The sermon, the public giving of thanks,
should now equally as in the olden time he
the time-hOnored way by which entrance is
had to the remaining Observances of the day.
The reunion of families whose members nave
perhaps been widely separated is well made
around the thanksgiving dinner table. Social
intercourse elucates the brain and still
more the heart. The most confirmed misan-
thrope would have to thaw out and become
moderately happy and reasonable with his
fellow creatures if exposed to good thanks
giving dinner, followed by Judicious OBJ
servance of" Merry Christmas"
This year there is every reason for full
and generous observance of this ancient fesfi-
val. There are things enough to be thankful
for; life, good health perhaps. friends and
generally chance to work. Thanksgiving
day is never quite itself without fair sup
ply of snow to remind US that winter is
on hand. and there is this year surely enough
of that
Above all, those blessed with this worlds
goods should see to it that no poor family
within their reach is without means to enjoy
the morrow as a day of abundance, so that
one day of the year, at least, its members
may thank God that poverty does not pinch.