One hundred fifty years ago (1863) in the midst of civil war, Abraham Lincoln signed the proclamation setting a national day of Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November. After a litany recounting national blessings, the proclamation says:
“I 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 of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
While there had been Thanksgiving holidays previously, this was the proclamation that began a national tradition. If, in the midst of the chaos of insurrection and a war to end slavery, Abraham Lincoln, with Secretary of State William Seward, found time to name a day for Thanksgiving for every citizen so might we, beyond turkey and football, set aside time for saying thanks. They asked everyone to pray for peace:
“And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition 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.”
Perhaps 150 years later we might again pray for the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility and union.
