Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving

Lincoln’s Proclamation of Thanksgiving November 22, 2016

Abraham Lincoln

Washington, DC

October 3, 1863

An excerpt from Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation.

I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens…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. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also…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 imposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.

I hope you enjoy Thanksgiving with your family and friends!  Have a blessed holiday!


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