Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1920-11-19

government blessing to the people by constantly
being government of wse just and constitu-
tional laws, directly and faithfully executed and
Obeyed to protect and guide all sovereigns and
nations, especially such as have shown kindness
to US, and to bless them with good government
and peace and concord; to promote the knowledge
and practice Of true religion and virtue and the
increase of science among them and US, and gen.
orally to grant unto all mankind such a degree
of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be
best
"Given under my hand at the city of New
York the third day of October, in the year of our
Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty
nine.
GEORGE WASHINGTON"
There u.s. as stated, no statutory provision for
our Thanksgiving proclamatiOns nor for their
date In evidence of this President Andrew John
sons first Thanksgiving proclamation designated
the first Thursday in December, 1866. If we speak
of Thanksgiving day as a national institution it
dates back to the Revolution but if we have in
mind the annual harvest Thanksgiving day it be-
comes nationalized through the adoption of it by
the several states, and the first appointment was
by Abraham Lincoln November g. 1863. That
proclamation is in part, as follows:
"The year that is drawing to its close has been
filed with the blessings of fruitful fields and
healthful skies. . Needful diversions of health
and Of strength from the fields of peaceful indus
try to the national defense have not arrested the
plow the shuttle or the ship; the ak has enlarged
the borders of our settlements, and the Mines as
well of iron and of coal as of precious metals,
have yielded even more abundantly than hereto
FORE Population has steadily increased notwith-
standing the waste that has been made in camp,
the siege and the battlefield, and the country re-
joicing in the consciousness of augmented
strength and vigor, is permitted to expect contin-
uance of years with large increase of freedom
mo human counsel hath devised, hath
any mortal hand worked out these great things.
They are the gracious gift of the most high God,
who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins,
hath nevertheless remembered mercy.
sIt has seemed to me fit and proper that
they should be solemnly, fervently and gratefully
acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice,
by the whole American people. do therefore,
invite my fellow citizens in every part of the
United States, and also those who are at sea and
those who are sojourning in foreign lands to set
apart and observe the last Thursday in November
next as day of Thanksgiving and praise to our
beneficent Father who dwelieth in the heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up
the Inscriptions justly due to Him for such sngu-
lar deliverances and blessings they do also, with
humble penitence for national perverseness
and disobedence, commend to His tender care all
those who have become widows, orphans, mourn
ers or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in
which we are now unavoidably engaged and
fervently lmpl0re the 1nterpOsltlon OF the Almighty
hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to
restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the
Divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace,
harmony, tranquility and union.
- 'In testimony whereof 1 lave hereunto set my
hand and caused the seal of the United States to
be affixed.
'Done at the city of Washington, the third day
of October, A. D. 1868, and of the Independence
of the United States the eighty-eighth.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN"
SO it Abraham Lincoln who first named
the last Thursday in November in his procama-
ton of 1868 and thus fixed the date of the annual
celebration Of Thanksgiving