Read about Thanksgiving Proclamations before
Abraham Lincoln including George Washington Proclamation and
proclamations by other Presidents.
Thanksgiving Proclamations Before Abraham Lincoln
It was in 1789, when the first National Presidential Thanksgiving
Proclamation was made by George Washington, the first President of the
United States of America. Thanksgiving was celebrated on last Thursday
of November that year. The President made the next Thanksgiving
proclamation six years later in 1795. In this proclamation, George
Washington, urged to 'all religious societies and denominations, and to
all persons whomsoever, within the United States to set apart and
observe Thursday, the 19th day of February next as a day of public
thanksgiving and prayer'.
Three years later, John Adams made a proclamation as 'a loud call to
repentance and reformation' and 'Wednesday, the 9th day of May next' was
to be 'observed throughout the United States as a day of solemn
humiliation, fasting, and prayer'. Next year, John Adams made a
Thanksgiving Proclamation, which stated that 'a plain dictate of duty
and a strong sentiment of nature that in circumstances of great urgency
and seasons of imminent danger earnest and particular supplications
should be made to Him who is able to defend or to destroy; as, moreover,
the most precious interests of the people of the United States are still
held in jeopardy by the hostile designs and insidious acts of a foreign
nation'.
It was about 15 years in 1814, when James Madison issued a Thanksgiving
Proclamation stating that the 'in the present time of public calamity
and war a day may be recommended to be observed by the people of the
United States as a day of public humiliation and fasting and of prayer
to Almighty God for the safety and welfare of these States' and
Thanksgiving was observed on 12th January, which was a Thursday. In
1815, Madison stated 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' in his
Thanksgiving proclamation.
