THE ORIGINS OF THANKSGIVING DAY :::

 Many don't know this & most presume it a celebration of how nice the Indians were to the Pilgrams.. Below is the presidential proclamation which set the precedent for America's national day of Thanksgiving. During his administration, President Lincoln issued many orders similar to this. For example, on November 28, 1861, he ordered government departments closed for a local day of thanksgiving.

 The proclamation set apart the last Thursday of November "as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise" according to an Oval Office proclamation issued October 3, 1863. I make a habit of reading it every year. If you've never read it,...you must. Its brief, just a few paragraphs long, and one of the most beautiful things you'll ever read.

 If I may be so bold - might I suggest YOU consider starting a new Thanksgiving tradition. Print out a copy of this and read it as a part of your family's T-day tradition. Its a great piece of literary work & American history to hand down to future generations.

http://holydays.tripod.com/linc.htm

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 Washington, D.C.

 October 3, 1863

 By the President of the United States of America.

 A Proclamation.

 The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

 No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

 I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, 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, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, 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 interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

 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 Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

 By the President: Abraham Lincoln

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 I read this every year, & every year ask myself the exact same question:

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 WHAT CHANCE WOULD THIS MAN, THE GREATEST PRESIDENT IN OUR HISTORY, HAVE OF BEING ELECTED TODAY

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