Year: 1860

This day--irst celebrated by the Pilgrim
Fathers OF New England, in acknowledgment
to the Divine Disposer of events Of the bless
ings vouehsafed to the struggling Colonies
aud the numerous deliyerances which they
experienced from the savage foe and from
famine and sickness and death had begun,
few years ago, to be observed beyond the
limits of the New England States; and the
proelanations of Governors announced that
the day would be consecrated by the usual
observances in States far South of Mason and
Dixon's line. From being the custom Of the
devout and Puritanical people of New Eng
land it was at one time fast growing into
national observance. Since the late irritations
arising from the election of a Republican
President, We have not had the opportunity
of knowing whether the day has been noticed
in the proclamations of the majority of the
Governors of the slave States or not At
any rate, the Governor Of ous own State of
California, land be is as good Governor as
the Governor of any State in the Union) has





serve this day as day of Thanksgiving for
the blessings of Divine Providence, shower
ed down upon us, during the past year. The
people generally are observing it, and we, of
the NATIONAL DEMOCRAT, intend to observ it
too. We are not above thanking our God
for the good be it great or little, that he has
done us. No doubt, he has conferred upon
each man and woman what was due, from
the individual exertious, energy and will
which were used What he has denied to
some in wealth and ease and luxury, he has
amply made up in the richer endowments of
mental power and possession, or in the en-
joyment of some peculiar favor known to
that one lot of life alone. To each he has
given his individual blessing. To the poor
man contentment and the sweet peace which
flows from the consciousness of duty dis
charged To the rich such pleasures as the
rich are capable of bringing around them
He has forgotten none, and those only are
unthankful who have abused the divine ma
lures with which they are endowed, and
have wandered from the paths of natural
truth.


This Thanksgiving Day is, in those States
where it is celebrated, one of the happiest Of
all the days of the year. All along the banks
of the Housatonic, by the romantic shores of
the Hudson, the margin of the Northern
Lakes, the shores of the Northern Atlantic,
and away back to the edges Of the Western
prairies, and, for ought we know, in the very
heart of the sunny land of the South, the So
cial board is being crowned with the dainties
of the season, and friends and relatives, from
far and near, are being gathered around it.
The church bells will ring with tone that
shall not seem sad or solemn but as CHEEKY
as the hearts of those that listen to its sum-
mons. Millions of hearts will bow at the
Altar of the Most High. Millions of tongues
will sing his praise, and even the lonesome
heart of the scofhng infdel will half believe
that there is divinity in the breast of man
and God in whose image he was created.


God bless the day in which men grow
thankful for their lives and the joys which
surround existence. God bless the time in
which we forget the cares and sorrows, i'm
agenary or real, which affiict us and re-
member only how deep is the gratitude
which we owe TO that Power which holds
the Universe in balance and metes out to
every living intelligence its due bound and
sphere.