Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1897-11-20
Thanksgiving is a Festival Peculiar
to This Country.
OBSERVED UNDER CURIOUS CONDITIONS
n =
How 1t Has Been Spent at Home
and Abrosd.r
IN ACE AND IN WAR


Written for The Evening Star.
When. in the year of grace 1850, sturdy
Governor John Winthrop and the Puritan
cclonists of Massachusetts, proclaimed and
duly observed u Public thanksgiving.
they probably had little idea of the i'm
portance which that festival was destined
to obtain in the history of America.
The first Thanksgiving differed very ma
terially from its successors, in that it was
proclaimed as a fast and not as a feast.
Supplies had run short, the ships expected
from England were delayed, and extinction
threatened the governor and company of
Massachusetts bay in New England" Win
throp and his council decided to hold a day
OF prayer and abstinence, 80 that We I.orde
be propitiated and locke upon His servants
with favor, in that they have humbled
themselves before Him. Accordingly a
crler was sent about the primitive settle
ment of Charlestown, and the colonists
were each and all invited to take part in
the fast. Their sacrifice met with speedy
reward.
Scarcely had the noon hour of the allotted
day arrived when the long-hoped- for ship
made its welcome appearance in Massachu-
sets bay, the cargo was landed and the
last was succeeded by a banquet of sort
winch must have seemed SumptuouS indeed
to the exiles SO recently plunged in hunger
and hardship. On the threshold of dreaded
winter Winthrop and his followers found
what mad been prospect of fear and peril
changed into one of happiness and hone
Such was Americas first Thanksgiving. as
celebrated 260 years ago. Thereafter each
Succeeding November was marked in the
annals of the colony by similar festival
OF gratitude.
With the EARLY Dutch.
But Thanksgiving in the early days of
our history was not confined to the New
England pioneers alone. Just fifteen years
after Wipthrops proclamation, L. e., in
1915, Governor Kieft Of the Dutch COLONY.
then known as Nieuw Amsterdam but now
as New York, ordered the observance of a
DAY of rejoicing and thanks, for the rest
aid peace which God had been pleased TO
bestow upon His servants" Thus we see
that the feast of Thanksgiving is not as
generally supposed, peculiarly Puritan in
st1tution, but is equally derived from the
stalwart burghers of Manhattan Island.
The next notable Thanksgiving day in
history fell in 115S. On that date the Brit
Ism ana colonial army, numbering $1,000
men. and commanded by Gen. Forbes at
tackled and captured from the French after
fierce struggle, Fort Duquesne, at the
Junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela
rivers. The name of the place was changed
to Fort Pitt, and was the nucleus of the
city of Pittsburg. Thus in special sense
the history of the great capital of the coal
and iron industries is connected with the
celebration of Thanksgiving day
At the time that the British We're con-
quering Fort Duquesne, Whitefield, the
famous Methodist preacher called upon all
his adherents in London to join Service
OF praise and Thanksgiving for the victories
of the English arms on land and sea-" This
British Thanksgiving was, We are told,
widely observed, and awakened intense en-
thuslasm, not only among the Methodists,
but Throughout all the different sects.
Whitefelds idea was afterwafd on several
occasions revived in England. For in
stance, in 1914 the government proclaimed
a general Thanksgiving Tor the victory Of
Waterloo. Again. two yeaRs later, In 1876
Proclamation was Inada Of popular
thanksgiving for the restoration of peace
After the Crimean war aethird jubilation OF
this nature took place.
The Fast Became n Feast.
But meanwhile, in New England. what
had been begun as an occasional day OF
pious rejoicing had assumed the proper
tons of fixed national holiday. In Mas
sachusetts and New Hampshire it was es-
pecially popular. There was at first great
latitude in regard to the day selected for
the feast. Governors proclaimed the chosen
date arbitrarily, and no effort was made
to keep the anniversary of Winthrop's
proclamation Sometimes Thanksgiving oc-
CURED in July, sometimes in midwinter At
length, through the efforts of the presi-
dent and professors of Harvard College, it
was practically fixed upon the last Thurs
day in November.
The college faculty were moved to in
terest themselves in the question by the
fact that the uncertainty regarding the
date caused considerable disorder among
their pupils. Boys from different states
celebrated on different days, many of them
returning home to eat the Thanksgiving
meal under their own rooftrees. This very
undesirable state of affairs could only be
put stop to, said the grave Harvard dons,
by the formal establishment of a uniform
date for the feast. The last Thursday of the
eleventh month suited the collegers and
influence being brought to bear upon the
colonial governors of New England procla-
nations were issued making that day the
regular Thanksgiving.
In the South.
In the south Thanksgiving, as an annual
festival. remarked practically unknown
until in 1855, the curious Virginian contro-
versy on the subject was precipitated. This
controversy, which is not generally known,
deserves brief notice. The governor of
Virginia at the time was one Johns, pa
triotic and broad-minded gentleman, who
had always entertained a reverence for the
Puritan anniversary which was by no
means common below Mason and DiXon's
line. Governor Johns, in a letter to the
state legislature, urgently recommended
the recognition of Thanksgiving in Vir-
ginia, and offered in case his recommended
ton proved satisfactory, to at once issue
a proclamation.
But the legislature Of Washingtons state
did not look upon the New England holiday
with favor. Governor Johns was advised
not to make the Thanksgiving prcclama-
ticn and, as he did not do so, the matter
was allowed temporarily to drop. But pub
lie interest had been awakened, and before
lorg a fierce debate was raging in Vir-
ginia between the opponents and supporters
OF the proposed southern Thanksgiving.
AT last, In 1857, Governor Wise-Johns'
successor-took the metaphorical bull by
the horns and issued proclamation set
ting apart a day for the feast His action
caused much angry criticism, and several
southern newspapers declared that Thanks
giving was simply "a relic of Puritanic big
otry" In spite of this, the innovation
was warmly welcomed. The hospitable
southerners greeted gladly another holiday,
and the northern feast soon ranked among
them as second in Importance only to the
glorious Fourth itself In 1S5S-the year
after Wise's proclamation-no less than
eight governors of southern states pro-
claimed Thanksgiving in their sections.
Inc war, however, coming shortly after
ward, practically extinguished the popu-
larity of the holiday in Dixie.