Read 1815 Thanksgiving Proclamation, made by
James Madison, the national Presidential Thanksgiving Proclamation
in 1815.
1815 Thanksgiving Proclamation
A PROCLAMATION by the President of the United States of America:
The senate and House of Representatives of the United States have by a
joint resolution signified their desire that a day may be recommended to
be observed by the people of the United States with religious solemnity
as a day of thanksgiving and of devout acknowledgments to Almighty God
for His great goodness manifested in restoring to them the blessing of
peace.
No people ought to feel greater obligations to celebrate the goodness
of the Great Disposer of Events of the Destiny of Nations than the
people of the United States. His kind providence originally conducted
them to one of the best portions of the dwelling place allotted for the
great family of the human race. He protected and cherished them under
all the difficulties and trials to which they were exposed in their
early days. Under His fostering care their habits, their sentiments, and
their pursuits prepared them for a transition in due time to a state of
independence and self-government. In the arduous struggle by which it
was attained they were distinguished by multiplied tokens of His benign
interposition.
During the interval, which succeeded, He reared them into the strength
and endowed them with the resources, which have enabled them to assert
their national rights, and to enhance their national character in
another arduous conflict, which is now so happily terminated by a peace
and reconciliation with those who have been our enemies. And to the same
Divine Author of Every Good and Perfect Gift we are indebted for all
those privileges and advantages, religious as well as civil, which are
so richly enjoyed in this favored land.
It is for blessings such as these, and more especially for the
restoration of the blessing of peace, that I now recommend that the
second Thursday in April next be set apart as a day on which the people
of every religious denomination may in their solemn assembles unite
their hearts and their voices in a freewill offering to their Heavenly
Benefactor of their homage of thanksgiving and of their songs of praise.
Given at the city of Washington on the 4th day of March, A.D. 1815, and
of the Independence of the United States the thirty-ninth.
JAMES MADISON
