georgephillip
Diamond Member
Almost a century later, Abraham Lincoln offered his Thanksgiving proclamations:Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.
Go: Washington
November 24, 2021
"President Lincoln set Thursday, August 6, 1863, for the national day of Thanksgiving.
"On that day, ministers across the country listed the signal victories of the U.S. Army and Navy in the past year and reassured their congregations that it was only a matter of time until the United States government put down the southern rebellion.
"Their predictions acknowledged the dead and reinforced the idea that their sacrifice had not been in vain.
"In October 1863, President Lincoln declared a second national day of Thanksgiving.
"In the past year, he declared, the nation had been blessed.
"In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, he wrote, Americans had maintained their laws and their institutions and had kept foreign countries from meddling with their nation.
"They had paid for the war as they went, refusing to permit the destruction to cripple the economy.
"Instead, as they funded the war, they had also advanced farming, industry, mining, and shipping. Immigrants had poured into the country to replace men lost on the battlefield, and the economy was booming.
"And Lincoln had recently promised that the government would end slavery once and for all."