The National Thanksgiving Proclamation was the first presidential proclamation of Thanksgiving in the United States. At the request of Congress, President George Washington declared Thursday, November 26, 1789 as a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.[1] A National Proclamation of Thanksgiving had been issued by the Continental Congress in November of 1777.[2]
Setting aside time to give thanks for one's blessings, along with holding feasts to celebrate a harvest, are both practices that long predate the European settlement of North America. The first documented thanksgiving services in territory currently belonging to the United States were conducted by Spaniards[3] and the French[4] in the 16th century. Thanksgiving services were routine in what became the Commonwealth of Virginia as early as 1607,[5] with the first permanent settlement of Jamestown, Virginia holding a thanksgiving in 1610. In 1619, the Berkeley Hundred colony held a service on December 4, 1619, to celebrate "the day of our ship's arrival" and proclaimed the date would be "yearly and perpetually kept holy as a day of thanksgiving to the Almighty God."[6] The colony was wiped out shortly after, in March 1622, with some inhabitants being massacred, and the rest fleeing.[7]
The generally referenced 'First Thanksgiving' occurred on Plymouth Colony, shortly after the colonists first successful harvest in autumn of 1621. http://mayflowerhistory.com/letter-winslow-1621/ They celebrated for three straight days[8] with their Native American neighbors with whom they had signed a mutual protection treaty the Spring before. The National Museum of the American Indian reported that the Mayflower "Pilgrims did not introduce the concept of thanksgiving" when they arrived. The New England tribes already had autumn harvest feasts of thanksgiving. To the original people of this continent, each day is a day of thanksgiving to the Creator."[9] The Wampanoag tribe that met them when the Mayflower landed celebrated Cranberry Day every year as their thanksgiving.[10]
In 1723, British Massachusetts Bay Governor William Dummer proclaimed a day of thanksgiving on November 6.[11] The first proclamation on the way to becoming the United States was issued by John Hancock as President of the Continental Congress as a day of fasting on March 16, 1776.[12] The first national Thanksgiving was celebrated on December 18, 1777, and the Continental Congress issued National Thanksgiving Day proclamations each year between 1778 and 1784.[13]
In Congress, Elias Boudinot introduced a resolution to create a joint committee to "wait on the President of the United States, to request that he would recommend to the people a day of public prayer and thanksgiving,"
The resolution was opposed by Anti-Federalists, who opposed increased power of the central government. Chief among the opposition were Aedanus Burke, and Thomas Tudor Tucker. Burke was of the opinion that the holiday was too "European." He "did not like this mimicking of European customs, where they made a mere mockery of thanksgivings." Burke was referencing the fact that at thanksgivings, both sides of a war often sang Te Deum, a hymn of praise. He was objecting that both the winners and losers in a war gave thanksgiving. Tucker however, felt that the federal government did not have the power to propose a day of thanksgiving. He was of the opinion that "If a day of thanksgiving must take place, let it be done by the authority of the States." Tucker also worried about the separation of church and state, as in his opinion, proclaiming a day of thanksgiving was a religious matter.[14]
In the end, the resolution passed the House and the Senate, and a committee of Elias Boudinot, Roger Sherman, Peter Silvester, William Samuel Johnson, and Ralph Izard delivered the message to Washington on or before September 28, 1789. President Washington noted that "both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested [him] 'to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer.'" It was formally declared on November 26 to "be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be."[15] President George Washington made this proclamation on October 3, 1789 in New York City.[16] [17]
On the day of thanksgiving, Washington attended services at St. Paul's Chapel in New York City, and donated beer and food to imprisoned debtors in the city.[18]
George Washington proclaimed a second day of Thanksgiving in 1795, following the defeat of the Whiskey Rebellion. John Adams, James Madison also declared days of Thanksgiving. Several presidents opposed days of national thanksgiving, with Thomas Jefferson openly denouncing such a proclamation.[19] That was seen as ironic because Jefferson had proclaimed a day of Thanksgiving while he was the governor of Virginia. By 1855, 16 states celebrated Thanksgiving (14 on the fourth Thursday of November, and two on the third). President Lincoln's first proclaimed days in April, October and November. However, it was not until 1863 that Abraham Lincoln established the regular tradition of observing days of national thanksgiving.[20] [21] [22]