Abraham Lincoln Created the First US Thanksgiving
The Pilgrims get too much credit!
President Abraham Lincoln issued his second Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1864 during the height of the American Civil War. Lincoln’s proclamation recognized the last Thursday of November as a day of thanksgiving and prayer.
The 1864 Proclamation
The 1864 Thanksgiving Proclamation followed an 1863 proclamation as a national day of gratitude. The 1864 proclamation reinforced the idea of Thanksgiving as a unifying national observance. It appealed to citizens to recognize their shared dependence on divine guidance and for the perseverance and future unity of the nation.
Days of prayer and thanksgiving were not uncommon in America’s early history. Still, it was Lincoln who pushed for a unifying annual event.
Officially, the Fourth Thursday in November
Lincoln’s actions in 1863 and 1864 formalized the practice of Thanksgiving. However, it wasn’t until 1941 that Congress, under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, officially set the fourth Thursday of November as Thanksgiving Day and a federal holiday.
Abraham Lincoln’s Impact on Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving’s emphasis on gratitude, community, and reflection remains central to its observance.
Today, few Americans understand the Civil War and its ever-present impacts on the United States. Most Americans will find Lincoln’s references to and dependencies on God somewhat surprising, given the secular nature of modern society and our leaders.
Thanksgiving continues to serve as a moment to celebrate blessings, foster unity, and acknowledge challenges.
PROCLAMATION OF THANKSGIVING
OCTOBER 20, 1864
By The President of the United States of America:
A PROCLAMATION.
It has pleased Almighty God to prolong our national life an other year, defending us with his guardian care against unfriendly designs from abroad, and vouchsafing to us in His mercy many and signal victories over the enemy, who is of our own household. It has also pleased our Heavenly Father to favor as well our citizens in their homes as our soldiers in their camps and our sailors on the rivers and seas with unusual health. He has largely augmented our free population by emancipation and by immigration, while he has opened to us new sources of wealth, and has crowned the labor of our working men in every department of industry with abundant rewards. Moreover, he has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of Freedom and Humanity, and to afford to us ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions.
Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do, hereby, appoint and set apart the last Thursday in November next as a day which I desire to be observed by all my fellow-citizens wherever they may then be as a day of thanksgiving and Praise to the Almighty God the beneficent Creator and Ruler of the Universe. And I do farther recommend to my fellow-citizens aforesaid that on that occasion they do reverently humble themselves in the dust, and from thence offer penitent and fervent prayers and supplications to the Great Disposer of events for a return of the inestimable blessings of Peace, Union, and Harmony throughout the land, which it has pleased him to assign as a dwelling place for ourselves and for our posterity throughout all generations.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the city of Washington this twentieth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
JD Solomon served in executive leadership roles at two Fortune 500 companies before starting JD Solomon, Inc., just before the pandemic. He is the author of Communicating Reliability, Risk & Resiliency to Decision Makers: How to Get Your Boss’s Boss to Understand and Facilitating with FINESSE: A Guide to Successful Business Solutions.
