The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1915-11-24
Member of the Associated Press.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER "a, 1915
A NATIONAL THANKSGIVING DAY

A NATIONAL THANKSGIVING DAY |
How many of our good Americans re-
member when Thanksgiving became a |
national holiday? 1t is worth while to |
remind the younger generation, at |
least, when and how this happened Ev-
ry schoolboy is familiar with the story
of the early settlers of bleak New
England, who, when unexpectedly de-
livered from the perils of starvation
in a savage wilderness, solemnly gave
thanks to Almighty God for this signal
interposition in their favor And how.
from age to age, from generation to
generation, this pious resolve bloomed
and ripened until Thanksgiving be-
came national and not sectional this,
too, is a matter of history so conspic-
uous that to recall all the successive
stages of the process would be super
fiuous
Still, the annual call to thankfulness
from all the people remained a matter
Of local, not national, concern. Up to
the breaking out of the great Civil
war, each state possibly with a very
few exceptfons1 through it's own Exec
utive made public proclamation of an
autumnal day for thanksgiving, prayer
and praise for the material blessings
of the year. True, during the presiden-
tial term of the illustrious Washington,
1.-the unexampIed prosperity of all
classes of our citizens and our enjoy
ment of peace and tranquility induced
that great and good man to issue his
proclamation appointing the 10th of
February, 1895, as a day for thanks
giving and prayer.
1t is also true that, of all Washing
ton : more immediate successors, only
James Madison was devout enough or
thoughtful enough to ask the people of
the United States to come together and
observe a day for national thanksgiv-
ing. The festival, so far as the nation
was concerned, lost its homogeneous
character.
1 remained for Abraham Lincoln or
blessed memory to revive a custom so
grateful to the hearts and so alluring
to the homes Of the American people
The cause of the imperilled federal
Union was at the lowest Iow-water
mark in the summer of 1868 The men
and women of the present generation
of Americans cannot know the bitter
ness of the dark days of that summer.
God grant that they may never know
such days! The turning point came in
July, when, III the midst Of a popular
depression most profound, the fall of
Vicksburg opened the Mississippi so
that the Father of Waters thereafter
flowed unvexed to the sea, and Lee IS
invasion of the North was frustrated
by the battle of Gettysburg. The
country famed with excitement, and al
| though the war still lasted longer than
| the most sanguine of those who agon-
| lied for peace could have expected, it
| was felt that the end of strife could
not be greatly delayed. President
| Lincoln issued an official bulletin adj
| dfeSSeu 10 the people OF the United
| States in which, after recounting the
events which appeared to be the har-
bingerG of the return of peace, he ex
| pressed his desire that - He whose will
] not ours, should evermore be done, be
everywhere remembered and reverenced
} with profoundest gratitude This was
on the Fourth of July, 1868, and on the
fifteenth day of that month the Presi
. dent issued his proclamation appoint
ing the 9th day of August as a day fo1
National Thanksgiving. He recited the
: reasons for the peoples augmented
\ confidence that the Union of the states
II would be maintained, their constitu.
II ton preserved, and their peace and
Il prosperity permanently restored.' And
Il in his recommendation for an observ
ance of the day appointed, he besoughi
u the people to invoke Divine wisdom