Happy Thanksgiving

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Thanksgiving Proclamations (Courtesy of the Rocky Mountain Family Council)

In November of 1621, the Pilgrims had what is considered to be the first Thanksgiving. On November 29th, 1623, three years after the Pilgrims' arrival and two years after the first Thanksgiving, William Bradford, who was Governor of the Plymouth Colony, made an official proclamation of a day of Thanksgiving:

To all ye Pilgrims:

In as much as the great Father has given us this year an abundant harvest of Indian corn, wheat peas, beans, squashes, and garden vegetable, and has made the forest to abound with game and the sea with fish and clams, and inasmuch as he has protected us ..., has spared us from pestilence and disease, has granted us freedom to worship God according to the dictates of our own conscience;

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house ..., on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three, and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

On October 21st, 1785, John Langdon, who was the Governor of New Hampshire, a signer of the U.S. Constitution as well as a U.S. Senator, made this official Proclamation for a General Thanksgiving to the State of New Hampshire:

The munificent Father of Mercies, and Sovereign Disposer of Events, having been graciously pleased to relieve the United States of America from the Calamities of a long and dangerous war.... preventing Famine from entering our Borders; -- eventually restored to us the blessings of Peace, on Terms advantageous and honourable.

...It therefore becomes our indispensable Duty, not only to acknowledge, in general with the rest of Mankind, our dependence on the supreme Ruler of the Universe, but as a people peculiarly favoured to testify our Gratitude to the Author of all our Mercies, in the most solemn and public manner.

I Do therefore, agree to a Vote of the General Court, appointing Thursday the 24th Day of November next, to be observed and kept as a Day of General Thanksgiving throughout this State ...

On November 8, 1783, John Hancock, the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and first member of the Continental Congress to sign the Declaration of Independence, issued A Proclamation for a Day of Thanksgiving to celebrate the victorious conclusion of the Revolutionary War:

Whereas... these United States are not only happily rescued from the Danger and Calamities to which they have been so long exposed but their Freedom, Sovereignty and Independence ultimately acknowledged.

And whereas... the Interposition of Divine Providence in our Favor hath been most abundantly and most graciously manifested and the Citizens of these United States have every Reason for Praise and Gratitude to the God of their salvation.

Impresses therefore with an exalted Sense of Blessings by which we are surrounded and of our entire Dependence on that Almighty Being from whose Goodness and Bounty they are derived; I do. .. appoint Thursday the eleventh Day of December next to be religiously observed as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer..

On September 25th, 1789, Congress unanimously approved a resolution asking the President to proclaim a National Day of Thanksgiving and on October 3, 1789, while in New York City, President George Washington shared his Thanksgiving Proclamation:

Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor...

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the twenty-sixth day of November next to be devoted by the people of these United States... that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations , and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions...to promote the knowledge and practice of the true religion and virtue...

On October 3, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a formal proclamation, passed by an Act of Congress initiating the first annual National Day of Thanksgiving.

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...

I do, therefore, invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States 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... [it is] announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord ... It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice, by the whole American people.

Let's all remember the words of these great men and thank God for His blessings.

Rocky Mountain Family Council
8704 Yates Drive, Suite 205
Westminster, CO 80031
(303) 292-1800

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