In 1863
in the midst of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln and his secretary of state William
H. Seward were talking in October.
Seward said, “They say, Mr. President, that we are stealing away the
rights of the States. So I have come
today to advise you that there is another State right I think we ought to
steal.”
Lincoln
looked at him and said, “Well Governor, what do you want to steal now?” Seward replied “The right to name
Thanksgiving day.”
Until
that point in time Thanksgiving had been celebrated at different times in
different states, but that day Seward presented Lincoln with a proclamation
that said invited all citizens of the United States to set aside the last
Thursday of the November to give thanks to “our beneficent father.” The proclamation also commended to God’s care “all those who have become widows,
orphans, mourners or sufferers” and called on Him “to heal the wounds of the
nation” and restore it to “peace, harmony, tranquility, and Union.”
(Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals pages 577-578)
And so
was born Thanksgiving day as Americans have come to know it ever since. So tonight, 150 years after the proclamation,
I sit in a house on the other side of
the world, where we have not had water for most of the day the last few days, where
we are cooking some of the world’s best tasting fries over charcoal fired
cooking pots, and where we listen to the rain beat down, and I am reminded that
all is a gift of “our beneficent father”.
So my
prayer is with each of you as Thanksgiving in America comes in a day or
two. May you know great blessing. May your day be filled with joy. May your
mourning be comforted. May you find
peace, harmony, and tranquility.
