Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-11-21
Thanksgiving Day
Origin and First
Peace realty Made
How Observance of Day De-
veIoped-Newark Settled by
Same Type OF People.

The Pilgrim inaugurators OF
| Thanksgiving Day had great reason
] for an expression of gratitude to God.
after their first winter of perils from
famine cold and Indian enemies, on
the bleak shores of Plymouth Bay.
Since the institution of the first
Thanksgiving service and dinner
which Massasoit and his ninety braves
shared with the Pilgrims, the savory
odor of roast turkey and pastries has
continued through nearly 800 years.
The little settlement of a few houses
has become a nation of a hundred
million people and thousands of towns
and great cities. The city of Newark
was settled by some of the same
stock-though a little over forty years
after the Plymouth settlement
sturdy, strongly religious people,
seeking land and an opportunity for
a government of theocratic character.
That first Thanksgiving dinner was
not only an occasion for gratitude
and Joy over blessings received, but
was given, too, as a celebration OF
the first peace treaty signed by Mas
sasoit and the Pilgrims. The condi-
ton of peace was favorable to their
success In harvests. Peace ana
Plenty" for at least one season, be-
came the couplet that expressed their
causes for thanksgiving.
Since then this nation has had
many more years Of peace than OF
war. OF late years 1t has given its
attention to peace making through
treaties with numerous nations. 1t Is
CARRYING out the suggestive example
of the Pilgrims. With the successful
crops of this year peace and plenty
Is still a reason for Thanksgiving.
In 1884 Congress recommended a
day of national thanksgiving for the
return of peace after the Revolu-
tionary War. Also in 1915 President
Madison proclaimed a day of thanks
giving for the return or peace.
Washington appointed a day In l7sS,
after the adoption of the Constitu-
ton. But 1t was not until the CiVll
War that Thanksgiving Day ceased
to be a provincial New England hou-
day and became a national observ-
ance when President Lincoln, in 1868,
proclaimed the day national one.
From the day set aside by President
Madison to the time Lincoln revived
the idea, forty-eight years had passed
without such national observance,
New England alone keeping alive the
custom.
The day formerly was more of a
religious observance than IL Is now.
n was an occasion for the preaching
of great sermons or the delivery OF
notable addresses on some pertinent
national theme There was a deep
consciousness that the development OF
the character of the nation and It's
successes depended on maintaining
close relation to God. During the
ifty-one years that the nation has
observed Thanksgiving Day there
must have gone into the moral ana
spiritual structure of the nation
much of the mind and spirit of God
~ this consciousness Of divine rela-
tionship has continuously and earnest
w been nourished. The city of New
ark. like the nation, though the home
of MANY nationalities, owes in con.
siderable measure its historical ad-
vance and character to those who
laid it's foundations. Influences Tor
good persist.
When the Pilgrims landed on the
rock-ribbed coast of New England
and there decided to begin their set
Element they may be said to have
built the prospective nation, Wnlch
they could not have foreseen, on
rock, and against 1t winds may dow
and beat, and on II rains may descend
and over it floods may roll, but II
stands firm because built on the rock
of religious conviction, the spirit OF
democracy and the spirit or peace,
with grateful recognition or Gods
beneficent sovereignty.